From the Daily News:The city has abandoned its own long-delayed plan to fix the crumbling bluestones in front of Borough Hall — and is dumping the blame on the very politicians who have complained about the bone-breaking mess.
In April, the Parks Department announced it wanted to spend up to $9.5 million to replace the disintegrating tiles on Brooklyn's most visible plaza.
But five months later, the Bloomberg administration has not set aside a single dime for the project — nor has any Brooklyn pol.
Advocates for parks — and untwisted ankles — are fuming.
"It's outrageous that the Parks Department continues to put the city at risk instead of fixing what has been a problem for many, many years," said Geoffrey Croft, president of New York City Park Advocates, a watchdog group.
The bluestone coverage in the plaza is thin and fragile — yet for years, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz let people drive and park on the plaza, a move banned by his predecessor.
The result is pocked pavement and petrified pedestrians.
11 comments:
$9 million? WTF.
Why does it take a song and a dance to get funding from the pols then when it arrives (usually granted to the 'right' organization after the original group requesting it falls away) they go ape-shit building the Tween Courthouse ... for Tweed.
It is instructive for any Queens resident to go to Queens Borough Hall, then go to Brooklyn Borough Hall.
Compare them.
Instructive and painful.
9.5 million to change bluestone. Please, someone tell us how many sq. ft. we are talking about here.
Me? Care about sustainable Brooklyn?
Fuhgeddaboutit!
Now if you excuse me, I'm off with my wife on a junket...
$9.5 million. That's a hell of a lot of bluestone. What is it, like an acre or so. I'd say call in an independent auditor to look at the numbers but that would probably cost $10 million.
When I was a kid, we used to play bottle-cap skully on the side-walk bluestone pavers. Great surfacing to write the chalk marks on.
I just walked through there not 20 minutes ago, there were broken pieces of the stone right in the path. It's a mess, and a heavily traveled one at that.'
Well 9.5 million is the price for a contractor to do it ladies and gentlemen. Thats what everyone wants, the work contracted out. If city workers did the work I'm sure it would cost a lot less.
$9.5 mil! What? Your dainty feet can only touch bluestone? How about plain old concrete? And get an auditor/estimator for God's sake. How come the great community boards are not up in arms? Protectors of civic virtue!
Three words:
FUCKED UP SYSTEM
Corruption.
$100K to do the job, $8.9 million for kickbacks and payoffs.
Suckers.
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