Sunday, April 21, 2013

Want a nice park? Raise a lot of money!

From the NY Post:

Central Park is about to get even more green.

Six months after hedge-fund billionaire John Paulson pledged $100 million to the Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit that oversees the lush 843-acre park is due to get $90 million from the city under a new 10-year management contract.

That’s a huge increase over the current pact, which expires on June 30 and provides $39.2 million over eight years.

Parks officials defended the higher spending as necessary to keep the heavily used park in peak condition.

“Clearly, the city thinks they’re doing a great job, which they are, for the most part,” said Geoffrey Croft of New York City Park Advocates, who has never shied away from pointing out parks shortcomings.

But Croft questioned how other parks in the 29,000-acre system will get by without wealthy benefactors or large city subsidies.

“There is an enormous difference [in] what this park gets and what others parks get,” he said.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Estelle Cooper stole $$$$$ that was supposed to benefit FMCP! Then she beat her jail sentence by "going west".

Then you've got our "sterling" pols, who want to give FMCP away to private developers.

It seems that the only way to win in Queens, is to leave the borough, for better places like Brooklyn or Manhattan (if you can afford it).

Queens is a quagmire of corruption that voters are responsible for creating.

Anonymous said...

FYI:
I believe that after Times Square...Central Park is the 2nd most visited site by tourists in New York.

That's why it continues to get mega-money.

As a donor...why would I waste 5 dollars on Flushing Meadows Corona Park...a remote location in the middle of a ghetto that few visit?

It ain't a park! It's an old ash dump and left over fair grounds site.

Forest Hills Park is a real park, and that's on the fringes of Queens.

Queens Crapper said...

Few visit FMCP? What planet are you from?

It's packed year round. Or are tourists the only people who count?

Anonymous said...

I hail from Planet Queens!

"Crappie"...
NYC officials see Central Park as a cash cow for the city. And those ultra wealthy 5th Avenue and CPW residents, see it as their front yard.

Central Park tourists bring money to the "golden isle", and Bloomberg's attitude is that Queens can go f--k itself.

Thousands of Latinos, lazing about on the lawn of FMCP, are invisible to Der Mayor.

Being a Queens resident (groan) I'm pissed...but that's the way it goes.

That's got to change!
Eventually it will, if enough voters come out of their closets and make some noise!

I've made mine!

Anonymous said...

My wife worked for a short spell for the Central Park Conservancy.

She confirmed to me that it is, indeed, one of the most visited sites in NYC.

They keep it neat for the residents and the tourists.

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