Juniper Valley Park’s three new bocce courts opened on Wednesday with a ribbon cutting ceremony and talk of meatballs and spaghetti. But for the players, most of whom are older Italians, the new courts don’t meet their standards.
Queens Borough President Melinda Katz said that the new courts, which replaced two older ones, were “Grade-A.” But many of the players present during the ceremony weren’t such generous graders.
“It looks nice. They spent a lot of money on this,” John Pistone, 62, said. “So I give them an A for effort but for efficiency, I give them an F.”
Pistone and his fellow bocce players complained that the new $850,000 courts weren’t leveled correctly and that the design of the overhead shades didn’t prevent rain from soaking the courts. The bulk of the money came from Katz’s office and Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley allocated another $50,000.
15 comments:
The big story is how did $850,000 bocce courts not come with a retractable dome?
Once again, the city is capital budget happy from the library to the parks.
Great photo ops and press for the gullible.
Poor execution and no maintenance makes the entire effort a waste of money for us, someone's politically connected cousin Guido in the ce-ment trade very, very happy.
Capital budgets is honest graft budgets.
Weren't these same bocce courts renovated just 10 years ago? At $700k dollars? Look it up.
What about $1.27 million dollars to upgrade Murray Playground (http://www.timesledger.com/stories/2014/28/murrayplayground_tl_2014_07_11_q.html), a small playground/park in Long Island City that has had work done for years on it and it never was in pretty good condition to begin with compared to other playgrounds in Queens.
Seriously? $850,000 ON A BOCCE COURT??? I live 8 minutes away from this debacle, and I can tell you that A)There is NO WAY this project could possibly cost this much money, B)There are many other areas of that park that could have used that funding for repairs, and C) there are NO Bocce courts in East New York, Bushwick, or any of the other crime-ridden neighborhoods in the 5 boros. Maybe if the inner-city youths had a Bocce court, we would have less of the ever-so-popular "wilding sprees" we see in the lower-income areas...
http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2014/07/wilding-incident-at-highland-park.html
It's just like Bowne Parkn where they wasted about $500K on the new court. A contractor informed that the job could have been done for $30,000!
Who stole the rest of the money - could we please have a Federal investigation?
BTW - the Bowne Park courts are empty - everyone moved to other courts during the renovation and never came back!
Should have spent the money on a dog park - something that all ages and ethnicities could enjoy - not just the vulgar, low-class gombahs!
I am not surprised that it cost 850K. Last year, a bathroom was built in Kissena Corridor park at a cost of $1 million.
Unleveled court ?
Has anyone seen the basketball court in Bowne Park ? Its at a fucking 40° - 45° angle.
They guy they talked to is 62 -one of the young-uns.
A decade from now the only people there will that is some sort of kids wading pool.
That basketball court is that way in order to accommodate height - challenged people. Equality and Diversity for all!
$850,000. For a game that is nothing more than an oversized version of Marbles for old Italian guys! The mob is alive and well in Middle Village!
The mob doesn't exist anymore - they were overrun in a hostile takeover by our city politicians.
They spent 500k on 2 very small gates for willow lake trail. Since they renamed the trail right after, I'm sure they're going to want another $1M to replace the name on the gates.
HOW ON GODS GREEN EARTH ARE BOCCE COURTS $800k DOLLARS!!!!!!! This is BULLSHIT!. I BUILT A 3000 sq foot house for $500k, and that's with electric, Plumbing, HVAC, and A HELL of lot more concrete that's in this park. they did the same thing at BOWNE PARK. COMPLETE BULLSHIT!!!!!!
There's a bocce court in the Astoria Park down by the East River between the 2 bridges. Right next to where the summer concerts are held. I have never, ever, seen anyone playing bocce there. Have you?
Joey said...
HOW ON GODS GREEN EARTH ARE BOCCE COURTS $800k DOLLARS!!!!!!!
Hey Joey "Forget about it" :-)
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