Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Helen wants Reservoir kept natural

Let me first begin by saying that I oppose the Department of Parks and Recreation’s plans to convert the historic landmark into ballfields. Rather, I am a strong advocate to preserve the unique and important ecosystems that have developed in Ridgewood Reservoir. Ridgewood Reservoir and Highland Park total approximately 142.5 acres of woodlands, lakes, wetlands, and picnic areas and is located on the Brooklyn/Queens Border within Highland Park. The Ridgewood Reservoir is an important area for resident, migratory and nesting birds and can serve as a place for environmental study, bird watching or simply just a place to enjoy the wonderful fruits that mother nature has to offer. In addition, the existing topography of Highland Park is not only permissible to scenic and serene walks, but if reconfigured and properly maintained, this area could serve for the site of many different sporting events, and help discount the need to build additional sports facilities. Unfortunately, Ridgewood Reservoir holds the distinction of being one of the eight “Underdeveloped Destination Parks” to be completed under Mayor Bloomberg’s Plan. To that end, I support and recommend the following:

(1) Creation of an ecology research center and museum which would be available to students in the surrounding areas

(2) Preserving all historic natural areas and ensuring that they receive the same treatment as historical landmarks

(3) Installation of security lighting, new fencing, rehabilitation of walkways and railing, and the creation of a security system to protect the reservoir from unauthorized entry; and

(4) Establishment of an ongoing maintenance program for existing sports facilities located on Jamaica Avenue in Lower Highland Park as well as the four baseball fields located in Upper Highland Park.

Full testimony here: Queens Borough President Testimony

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dont you guys hate Helen Marshall?
(except when she does your bidding, right?) hypocrites!

Truman Harris said...

There should be no such thing as love and hate when it comes to politics. We criticize Helen when she does something we don't like, and we praise her when she does what we want. After all, she was elected to do OUR will, or did you forget that?

Anonymous said...

You "criticize" her. Well that's one way of putting it. Another way is that you have allowed racial slurs against her to be posted without any retort against those making the racist remarks.

She was not elected to do YOUR will, she was elected to serve ALL the people and not just those whose opinions are in line with yours.

Truman Harris said...

I am not the moderater of this blog. In fact, comments aren't moderated at all anymore. So why don't you write a glowing review of Helen, and rebut whatever racist comments were made about her? And when I said she was elected to do OUR will, I was talking about taxpayers of Queens, and not developers.

Anonymous said...

I can't help but notice that instead of giving Helen kudos for doing something that the vast majority of Queens residents actually want, this anonymous commenter made it a point to attack the blog owner and commenters who had not written anything about Marshall until he did. What a dumb waste of his/her time.

Anonymous said...

Actually, when the racist comments were made, I did submit a comment calling the them ignorant and rebutting them, but Queens Crapper refused to post it. (This was when comments were not automatically posted.) When I referenced "you" earlier, I was referring to truman saying "We criticize Helen . . ." I did not mean it to refer to truman individually.

Helen Marshall was racially slandered on this blog a short time ago because of her stance on Willets Point. Most Queens residents want that area cleaned up, so she is serving the community and not pandering to YOUR will.

Queens Crapper said...

1) So if your comment was censored, what's stopping you from going back and posting it now?

2) If Queens residents are like residents of the rest of the country, then 90% of them disagree with taking private land from one owner and turning it over to another.

Anonymous said...

"Most Queens residents want that area cleaned up"

And that would be done if the City maintained the streets and installed sanitary sewers. The owners have remediated a good part of the contamination themselves and the area would revitalize on its own. It's a much fairer and less expensive solution and most Queens residents would agree with this rather than with the Stavisky plan.

Anonymous said...

Kudos to Helen Marshall!

Anonymous said...

Sanchez get back on your own blog, and please keep an eye on your wife, she likes 'em young.