Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Today's pols are reincarnations of Manes


From a letter to the editor of the Queens Tribune:

In 1895, Frederick Law Olmstead - the genius who created Central and Prospect Parks in this city and other famous parks elsewhere - said: “The survival of our park system requires the exclusion from management of real estate dealers and politicians and that the first duty of our park trustees is to hand down from one generation to the next the treasure of scenery which the city placed in their care.” The huge increase in our urban population and the technological congestion in modern cities makes it clear Mr. Olmstead’s admonition over 100 years ago is even more pertinent today. But when it comes to Flushing Meadows Corona Park, it not only falls on deaf ears, but upon a large group of donkeys who masquerade as public officials, oblivious to the fact that even during the great depression of the 1930s, public parkland was considered sacred and inviolate, not for sale or barter.

Since the administration of the late former Queens Boro President Donald Manes through and up to our current Bloomberg administration, FMCP has been up for grabs by all sorts of fat cat real estate and special interests aided and complicit with so called politicians who have not the vaguest understanding of what urban parks are all about and that once parkland a non renewable resource is given away, it is lost forever.

Residents of Queens and indeed of this city have every right to be concerned and to protest the malfeasance being inflicted on FMCP.(Residents Protest Park Plans- Queens Tribune-Sept. 20-26). It will be recalled Manes, who disgraced the office of Boro President facing criminal charges, wanted to cut down over one hundred trees and build a Grand Prix race track around Meadow Lake, endorsed at the time by our current Queens Boro President Helen Marshall, then a public official, as well as others and wanted to turn the park into a Meadowlands sportsplex to be named after himself. Since then the USTA was given a significant piece of the park upon its promise not to seek more parkland. That promise was as worthless as a dead tennis ball; it sought and was given more land and currently seeks more as well as the right to increase the size of its stadiums, an environmental blight. Bloomberg’s ill-advised Willets Point plan will take some parkland and cause an egregious impact on the park. On the horizon is the prospect of a private for profit soccer stadium without hearing any expressions of opposition from any public official. It should also be noted the Mets stadium when initially constructed, was on parkland. The billboards on its current stadium for which it derives substantial income, is an environmental horror.

Donald Manes’ dream of a sportsplex in lieu of a park may well come to pass, in which case it should be named after him since the demise of the park would be criminal and compliment his abysmal term in office. While the die has been cast, but since not yet solidified, can anything be done to prevent this from happening? The answer is “Yes.” The people of this city and in particular of Queens, must take Frederick Law Olmstead’s admonition seriously. Flushing Meadows Corona Park must be removed from the city’s jurisdiction and turned over to a professionally trained park administrator supported with tax dollars and with the specific obligation to exclude all politicians, real estate and special interests from any say in management of the park.

Residents of Queens wake up if you want to save Flushing Meadows Corona Park for yourself and generations to come, and insist any person seeking public office must support the above or not receive your vote.

Benjamin M. Haber,
Flushing

14 comments:

Jerry Rotondi said...

Are they just reincarnations of Donald?

Hell--many of those Manes lifers
are still around walking the halls of government.

Shall I name a few?

Anonymous said...

BTW:
There was no real need to build City (shitty) Field.

Robert Moses himself noted that Shea Stadium was built to be expanded in the future and properly engineered to also accept a dome, making it weather proof.

He stated all of that on camera...for a feature segment being aired on NYC's (UHF) TV station

I believe it was entitled
"Countdown to the World's Fair" (1964).

But of course...
new construction provides jobs and kickbacks.

With union votes and $$$$$ in their pockets, the shady pols can run rampant all over our borough!

Anonymous said...

If they're not in government, they are lobbyists
for developers, like Donald Manes' second in command Claire Shulman.

Anonymous said...

What about the Shaffrin family?
Wasn't Phyllis one of Manes' "girls"?

Didn't she also "work" for Brian Mc Laughlin?

Anonymous said...

Let's see...
Sam Samuels...Manes' press spokesman
has long been replaced by Dan Andrews.

Alex Rosa and Irving Poy are civil service regulars
that have maintained their positions under Manes' accomplice "granny" Shulman.

Now they work for Helen Marshal
and the soon to be our next new beep.

Nice jobs if you can get them ...eh?

Alex & Irving really run borough hall.
Hellen just pops up for photo ops.

Marshal's personal photographer gets paid very big bucks just to follow her around and try to make her look alert and presentable.

Do you really
want to know why Queens is always in the toilet?

It's ALL OF YOU dumb voters!

Anonymous said...

Pshaw...
then there are those hand-me-down community board "leaders" like "follow the buck" Chuck Apelian.

When is Gene Kelty going to retire?

At $120,000+ a year,
what does Marilyn Bitterman do with all of that money she saves by living in Mitchell Gardens?

Anonymous said...

WE DON'T NEED BOROUGH PRESIDENTS.
ONLY THE REAL ESTATE DEVELOPERS DO!

Who else can act as their facilitators
who are paid for by us taxpayers?

Anonymous said...

They're his f----g heirs!

Anonymous said...

How else could they make a living?
If it weren't for their political jobs, they would all be in jail for committing other crimes.

Anonymous said...

one wonders how many of the old Queens dem. machine are now state and federal judges (for life),social engineering our daily lives ?

for some reason the M.S.M. never states who appointed them initially. why?

Anonymous said...

Rest in peace, Donald Manes,
or enjoy your witness protection program.

Manes WAS NOT a suicide!
We won't get into the details and thus
stray off the subject.

Now he can watch his buddies finishing the job
he started from wherever he's residing these days.

The Donald Manes School of Scoundrels has produced a creme de la creme
graduating class of crooked pols!

Anonymous said...

according to Columnist Jimmy Breslin ,Manes' eulogy was given on Queens Blvd, by a disgraced politician presently serving five years in prison. the prisoner is presently receiving about $105 /year pension( three) checks for scamming the TAXPAYERS and free H.C.. D.I.N.O. from NY will vote for him when he is freed ,again,and again,again.

Anonymous said...

correction:the pension amount is $105,000. per yr.

Anonymous said...

Alan Hevesi delivered Manes' eulogy.