Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Rufus King Park gets controversial turf

The new field at Rufus King Park in Jamaica features controversial "crumb rubber" made of tiny bits of shredded tires, which acts as artificial dirt, or infill, between synthetic blades of grass. An average soccer field uses 27,000 recycled tires.

"It's obviously completely against [Mayor] Bloomberg's phony greening of New York," said Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates. "They're taking away grass. It's absurd. Grass produces oxygen - it cleans the air."

Astoria's St. Michael's Park - under renovation since September - was also slated for recycled tire turf. But in April, the Parks Department changed course and ordered infill made of virgin rubber for the 120,000-square-foot field, Queens News has learned.


Concerns grow over phony turf as Rufus King Park opens new field

The new turf costs 38% more, adding nearly $500,000 dollars to the price tag of the field, scheduled to open in September.

At last week's ribbon-cutting in Jamaica, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said the upgrade in Astoria wasn't prompted by health concerns.

The city began installing synthetic turf 10 years ago. Queens now has 29 faux fields.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why should Commissar Death and Taxes, or his lackeys Benepe and Lewandowski care about the lethal dangers of this turf?

They get their cut (though a little had to be shared with Dept of Health to pay for their falsified report).

And, anyway, the burns on the dark skin of these children won't be so visible. And, further, their parents are using or selling crack so don't care about the health or safety of their kids.

Finally, Commissar D&T and lackeys believe that Black people are far too stupid to be aware of the lethal dangers of the turf. Those not all drugged up can't read anyway, and are totally unaware of how dangerous parks are for children - courtesy of Commissar and his lazy lackeys.

Blacks also never complained when Benepe and Lewandowski violated the civil rights of Parks' female minority employees. With the blessings of the Commissar.

Anonymous said...

The problem with grass is that it doesn't stay grass if there is activity on it. You wind up with a field of dirt.

Anonymous said...

"The problem with grass is that it doesn't stay grass if there is activity on it. You wind up with a field of dirt."

That's Benepe justifying the kickbacks and his disgraceful abuse of children.

For a lot less money than is spent on lethal turf, there are grass seeds that will grow grass tough enough to run horses all day.

But, there's no manufacturer's kickback to the purchaser (because it's so inexpensive, and - believe it or not - natural. That's one of the reasons it's called "natural" grass.).

On the other hand, the lethal turf? Manufacturers kickback all the way.

Eh? Benepe?

Anonymous said...

"The problem with grass is that it doesn't stay grass if there is activity on it. You wind up with a field of dirt"

and turf doesn't stay turf if it isn't maintained. That's why I come home from playing softball with my shoes full of f@cking rubber pellets!. Next time it happens, I'm mailing the pellets to benope.

Anonymous said...

for the record, that section of king park was and is so heavily used in every weather condition that it was a dust bowl until the turf was put down. dust bowl is not an exaggeration or justification.

incidentally, a great number of the users of that field are far older than the kids in the photo.