Staff members from the office of Daniel Doctoroff, the city’s deputy mayor for economic development, have met with most of the legislators representing the neighborhood over the last two months, pitching a plan for a 35-story tower that would consolidate United Nations offices now housed in widely scattered city-owned buildings. Because it involves taking parkland, the plan would require approval in the Legislature.This is referring to Robert Moses Park, in the East 40s by the FDR Drive.
At a Longstanding Playground, Yet Another Plan to End the Games
So, Dan, what exactly happened to that "more parks by 2030" plan?
Map from Gothamist
7 comments:
Dan Dr. Jerk-off has no real plans for more parks in 2030!
He's selling the people of NYC the usual "hand job"!
So lets have the people in the surrounding neighbhorhoods fight this. Losing a park and giving the land the the UN does not benefit the community.
Yet one more example that the government in NYC no longer serves the needs of its people.
Let us keep track of this and mark down the names of the local polticians who vote to take playground from kids and give them to an institution.
Warning to our fellow community preservationists in Mahanttan: it is already a common practice in Queens!
In order for the city to take the park they would need the State Legislature's approval. It's called Park Alienation and the legislature generally defers to the Assemblymember and State Senator who represent the area. State Sen Liz Krueger has been opposed to it but I am not sure what Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh will do. The last two Assemblymembers, Sanders and Friedman, both opposed the losing of the park. That area has the lowest concentration of parkland in the entire city and needs MORE parkland not less.
Never trust politicians or the State Legislature either! Keep a watchful eye and don't fall asleep.
Times change and so do politicians minds. One day they oppose....the next day they support!
One day the politician talks to you giving the impression they support you (but it's not really that firm publicly you understand, because, as they tell you, politics is the art of compromise but again not to worry), then when the flack hits, they are MIA (but that's ok a staff memmber tells you not to worry your concerns are not forgotton), then when the vote happens they vote against you and if you can track them down you get some glubblygook explanation assuring you that in their heart they really supported you all along.
Sheesh! I thought this project was dead and gone. It was supposed to enable the UN to modernize the Secretariat building, but they've started doing that floor-by-floor, transferring workers to space rented on a per-month basis elsewhere in midtown.
That said, the "park" -- paved entirely in asphalt and dominated by a fan plant for the Queens-Midtown Tunnel -- was a little-used community "asset," abandoned to the winds most of the time.
I'd be willing to exchange an apartment tower for a real park, not just a vacant lot where a few kids play desultory pick-up games.
I believe allowing the UN to take that space was a trade off so the UN would finally allow the construction of a greenway along the East River (they have previously denied the request for "security" reasons. I think the greenway would be a lot more useful than the current park space.
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