Last weekend, volunteers had been corralled to spruce up Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. On Monday morning, at the lakeside near the Van Wyck Expressway, where grills are stationed, aluminum-foil tins of lettuce and pork were strewed on the lawn, along with bottles, cartons, a discarded table and at least one used diaper. The tactics of the parks department did not seem to be working, and there were no maintenance people in sight.
As with so many kinds of conversations in New York, discussions of parks inevitably lead to complicated questions about race and class. Brooklyn Bridge and Prospect Parks, with their independent funding streams and peripheries of high-priced real estate, are largely spotless on a Monday morning.
It's ok, Julissa Ferreras made a big deal with the USTA and I'm sure FMCP will be spotless any day now...
22 comments:
Parks Dept workers are LAZY and always goofing off!
I blame people just being slobs and the parks dept. not putting enough trash cans by the grill areas.
of course the brooklyn parks are on the ball with the tidiness.since those areas are populated by celebrities and the gentrification generation.
FMCP and the adjoining arboretum area of the Queens Botanical Garden, which tends to.catch the overspill from the park, have been in this sott of shspe consistently each summer since at least the early 90's.Deja bu all over agsin is how I'd havr to describe mycfeelings on this, attributable to. Some very real anf unfortunately sad experiences with those conditions.
I was there last week. The area near the tennis stadium was being beautifully landscaped - the rest of it looked incredibly shitty. Money talks!
The people that use that park are total fucking slobs especially in the ball fields - those areas are the worst!!!
People should be forced to clean up after their games, picnics, barbecues or be banned from the park! There were even dirty diapers on the benches!!!!!!!
It was totally depressing.
Hard to believe that that's where we went to see the World's Fair - such bright, optimistic memories of such a neglected, forlorn, sad place.
We need more, better paid Parks employees that feel pride in their work. The current crew seems so defeated by the system. Everyone we speak to is really nice but they're overwhelmed by the masses of disgusting, arrogant, low-class people with no respect for our parks.
Almost all the $money spent by Parks Dept. is on the north side of the LIE, where the USTA has the stadiums. The south of the LIE side gets almost nothing, and is constantly flooded. Just go around the lake and see how decrepit it is.
Robert Moses had a great idea in turning the WF site into a park, but even that great man could not foresee the hordes of illegal and legal third world immigrants that would invade Corona and Flushing like bedbugs in a Manhattan hotel.
Charge a substantial fee for the use of a soccer field or a picnic table. With the requirement that the user cleans up when leaving. When the contracted parties leave, the official Parks Department Garbage Inspector examines the leased premises for residual dreck and then either refunds the fee, partializes it or refuses it entirely. BTW I'll apply for PDGI.
Or eliminate entirely garbage cans and have one dump site (with recycling containers) at the park's entrance-exit. That's what's done in state parks I visit.
Tons of money for capital project$ nothing for operational support.
Just like the library.
No surprise, in agency after agency in Queens this is how things are done.
Why?
Its just more of that gorgeous mosaic showing its true colors
Flushing Meadow Park is little more than a money pit for capital projects - the Theater, the Museum, the Tennis, now the World's Fair.
Maintenance is dirty and does not make for good photo ops as you show your importance by throwing around large sums of money.
I think the park can be cleaned up if we go after the Mets, Tennis Stadium, Queens Theater, Queens Musuem, and Queens Botanical Gardens should contribute to the clean up.
These institutions have millions of public support, and are patronized by the political, cultural, and business elite of the borough.
There's been work done around meadow lake anon. North of the LIE the park isn't great. I'm not sure it's any better than south of it.
George user fees for picnic tables would be a bad idea, and entirely unenforceable. The park has some areas with no garbage cans. Add some more, make the area look nicer, and hire some people to keep the park clean and people will litter less. It looks like a dump, so people treat it like one.
Or instead of hiring more city employees, shift some DSNY employees to parks. Other cities have just one person driving the garbage trucks. NYC can get down to that, at least on some routes, with new trucks and a few other changes. But union rules require two employees or more, time for that to change.
A lot of cops just cruise around in their cars, and don't ticket even the most dangerous, reckless or aggressive drivers regardless of the safety risk or impact on quality of life. Have them get off their ass and walk around in the parks. Put up cameras for traffic enforcement if needed instead. The cops can walk up to some picnics when it looks like people are leaving, and tell them to clean up. If they refuse, write a ticket.
As for getting the Wilpons to clean up the park, start with having them build a nice walkway/bikeway connecting the marina, an almost hidden part of the park, to the boardwalk between the railyard and bus depot. Their mall can have stores opening up next to it, they can have street vendors, whatever. Just don't let them keep the park divided.
We always hear of teens not being able to find summer jobs. We also hear about the city council throwing a couple million to this and that community group.
How about the council members in Queens getting the city to hire some teens to do clean up in the park?
It's a win-win situation; kids get jobs and the park is kept clean.
The only bad part is some self serving dim-witted council members will garner positive publicity from this.
But since it is so common sensical it'll never happen and we won't have to see the council dimbos in photo ops with the kid workers.
I remember the days when Central Park's Harlem Meer, Turtle Pond, and Ramble were a disgusting, trash-strewn crapfest. Then the Central Park Conservancy, backed by private and corporate money, came along and basically rescued the park from the Parks Dept's incompetence.
FMCP needs a conservancy. It would be appropriate if the Mets and the Tennis Center would fund it. Until then, FMCP will remain a cesspool - vulnerable to being given away by the politicians to their developer friends.
I suppose you missed the point of the post. FMCP now has 2 conservancies, one of which is funded by the USTA. And it still looks like shit. So tell me again why we sold parkland to them?
How much is the USTA, the Wilpons or any of the other private groups currently giving to the the park on annual basis crappy?
According to the agreement, the USTA will provide $5 million over a six-year period to be used by the city Parks Department for capital costs to complete park improvement projects. The USTA will also provide annual support to a new park conservancy organization, to be known as the Alliance, for maintenance, cleaning and/or improvement of the park. Towards this goal, the USTA will provide $350,000 per year for three years, after which it will provide annual funding of $200,000 for 20 additional years.
The Mets pay $52M/yr to rent Citifield from Parks.
Thanks crappy. Doesn't that $52 million go to the city general budget?
Yes, why is that when they are getting all of Willets Point for a dollar, plus the right to build a mall in the parking lot? Why was there no insistence that their money go to the b.s. Conservancy that Julissa set up?
How about the Estelle Cooper conservancy, did they close that up or is it still in existence?
The mets pay 52 million a year?
http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/records-mets-income-drops-at-citi-field-1.3576095
The Mets pay $1 million annually to lease the stadium.
http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2011/07/stadium-deals-screwed-taxpayers-big.html
Thanks for the correction. I misread this article.
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