Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Yankee Stadium deal resulted in contaminated parks
From CBS 2:
It has been nine years since the city swapped parkland for parking lots so the Yankees could build a new stadium, and a CBS2 investigation that started a year ago has uncovered a big problem with that deal.
As CBS2’s Jessica Schneider reported, the new parks are contaminated.
Kids play in the shadow of Yankee Stadium, at the Yankee Pocket Parks — just a few blocks away on River Avenue. Most of their parents have no idea the property is contaminated.
“The first thing that goes through my mind — I’m never going into this park again,” said area father Cesar Trinidad.
Trinidad’s 6-year-old daughter, Kayce, has been coming to the park for most of her life. She was shocked.
“They should close it,” Trinidad said.
The city gave the Yankees more than 20 acres of prime parkland on which to build the team’s $1.3 billion new home. As part of the deal, the city built eight new parks and redeveloped several city-owned parking lots to make up for the lost parkland.
The city built a playground for children and a skate park on the new parkland sites. But the problem is that under both lots are abandoned, leaking gas tanks that caused the contamination.
7 comments:
Part of Citi Field is built over a former junkyard/ auto salvage yard. You don't think years of gasoline,anti- freeze, moor oil etc leeching into the ground that it isnt toxic? And the land across the street is no different........
Charge Bloomberg - isn't he responsible?
All this so the formerly bronx bombers can have that combination shopping mall kiddie park, which now to me was clearly built to inflate the home run stats of Steingrabber's moronic trade of Alex Rodriguez. Add this to the cost of that barren parking garage they run. With all that money thrown at them they didn't have the decency to rid the area of those tanks. You wanna bet they were more diligent when they were digging and building where that lousy stadium is now.
And yet another civic failure of the fun size mayor and his unquestioning minions of his 2 and illegal last terms. Unfortunately, the obfuscation of the hazards there will continue as that parks commissioner in the report proves his blatant lack of credibility. It should make every parent shudder if the parks in their area are toxic.
I don't see how any yankee fan can support them this year,especially those with kids. Also the fact this is the shittiest roster since the early 70's and they won't even break .500. And the presence of that serial bullshit artist Asterik Alex Rodriguez.
No mention of tons of garbage everywhere on sidewalks & streets even in the downtown area, poor conditions of streets, waste facilities and homeless shelters galore that were dumped into the community, illegal truck driving on residential streets, illegal curb cuts, illegal apartments, illegal signage by many businesses on Jamaica Ave, tons of vacant lots and houses, the Jamaica Center Station and E train which has become the new local homeless shelter and while crime is not as bad as people think, it is still an issue especially with black on black crime, especially by the gangs.
At let's add: lack of enforcement of laws by city agencies, the lazy, useless and crooked elected politicians that these same people put into office over and over again and do not hold accountable. The lack of any type of leadership in the Jamaica community. The resident's "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" attitude. How much this community is truly under-served, which has a not to due with the local elected leaders.
Do I need to go on. Until this community is ready to come clean and face the harsh realities with both outside and inside forces, it will be the same shit over and over.
None of this shit is new, it just has not be dealt with at all and everyone is at fault.
The Office of Environmental Remediation should be disbanded and reformed... They are little more than (yet another) pro-development Bloomberg legacy.
Under former mayor Dinkins, the City gave the USTA a nice chunk of Flushing Meadows Corona Park land, and Dinkins "negotiated" the lease under which if airplanes fly over the stadium during the USTA tennis games, the City must pay $ penalties to the USTA.
Having kids around brownfields? Don't seem to bother the hipster parents in LIC.
They like the views.
Post a Comment