Sunday, March 29, 2015

Astoria community garden proposed

From Brownstoner Queens:

A group of Astoria residents are hoping to transform some unused land right next to the Elmjack Little League Field — which is located near the Riker’s Island Bridge — into a community growing space. According to the land use organization 596 Acres, the Elmjack Little League has had a license to use this city-owned space since the 1960s. The group of residents plan to send a letter proposing the community space to the League’s board.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well there goes the Steinway Mansion's allocation of $5 million for this year.

Anonymous said...

Too bad y'all didn't request that the Steinway Mansion be moved to this location where it would actually be accessible and of use to the community. It's location is its demise.

Anonymous said...

Make sure it is city land that can be leased, not private land that one day may be sold.

Remember the recent story of a community garden in Elmhurst.

Anonymous said...

It's location is its demise.

Tell that to the 1000s of people that come from all over the world for the Steinway factory tour.

The myth of the mansion location is started by the same half dozen people that shot down the elevated extension to LaGuardia Airport which should - and will be built.

Anonymous said...

The only community growing space that will be permitted is a growing tower of brick and mortar. This is "underutilized" space, ripe for development. We are small. They are big. Big money crushes no money....or as I once received in a Cinese fortune cookie...."With money, a dragon. Without money, a worm". That's about the size of it. Money talks and bullshit walks.

Anonymous said...

That area is mobbed up with a lot of boys in the construction trades who make lots of donations to other boys in the government trades.

Millions were spent on soccer fields and the like.

The land is becoming too valuable for this to continue and sooner or later they will get an offer they can't refuese: sell out or get bought out.

ron s said...

I grew up in the neighborhood and played in those grounds when I was a kid. The community garden folks need to know that 1) the ground is all Port Authority landfill 2) the water next to it used to be raw sewage, and now is probably highly polluted with both sewage and oil/chemicals from LaGuardia.
Maybe they should skip the vegetable garden........

Anonymous said...

do you mean that the land is a brownfield? a lot of brownfields are hidden in back pages of stuff. hard to locate.

Anonymous said...

hell ron, they are raising a generation of kids right on the waterfront next to sewage plants and toxic brown fields.

Community gardens are all the rage. Just like bikes. With one, you can eat the lead that builds up in the parts of plants we eat. And the other encourages people to suck in deeply fumes in the middle of traffic.

Not very healthy, but it keeps the carbon foot print in check that opens the door for more development.

The negative crap will not show up for another 30 or 40 years.

Anonymous said...

This landfill myth is ridiculous. Rock and soil from construction projects does not = trash landfill. Toxic waters? Have you done any samples? Has the government? Prove it.

Port Authority should give up it's rights to all of that land they are sitting on. Let the little league fields own their portion and let the community decide the rest.

As for steinway mansion, greedy developers will rape that lot soon, just like they did to St. Saviours church in maspeth. Developers own NYC and politicians just do their dirty work trying to upsize everything (looking at you DeBozo)

ron s said...

"This landfill myth is ridiculous. Rock and soil from construction projects does not = trash landfill. Toxic waters? Have you done any samples? Has the government? Prove it"
In response to this quick and dumb response:
1) I said it was landfill, which it is. I did not say trash. Construction landfill may or may not be toxic. It often contains asbestos illegally placed there because it is too expensive to legally remove. You can go online and find that the fill is from the PA.
2) The site was an outflow for raw sewage and still is an overflow for storm drainage(=polluted runoff). Waters near an airport are polluted with oil, de-icing chemicals and other runoff. I do not have to test the water myself.
Would you take the water near LaGuardia, boil it to kill off microorganisms and then drink it? I doubt it.
My post informs people that there is a good possibility that the soil there and plants growing there may be polluted. This is not a court of law-just common sense. When they grow some crops there, please, eat my share too.