The War on Frolf

 

 

QNS

Queens Community Board 5, which serves the neighborhoods of Ridgewood, Glendale, Middle Village, Maspeth, Fresh Pond and Liberty Park, held its monthly meeting and public hearing on Wednesday, Nov. 13.

The meeting addressed several pressing issues raised by residents, including ongoing concerns about Highland Park and Evergreen Park.

Both parks have become focal points of controversy, with residents voicing frustrations about specific activities impacting their quality of life.

During the public forum, Highland Park’s disc golf course took center stage, as multiple speakers criticized the activity for disrupting the park’s serene atmosphere. The course, introduced earlier this year, has reportedly caused tensions between disc golfers and other parkgoers.

 Steven Laxton, another local resident, echoed her concerns, highlighting conflicts arising from the proximity of the disc golf course to other park users. “Disc golfers treat the area like a dedicated golf course, and anyone in their way becomes an inconvenience. Park-goers just trying to enjoy nature are being harassed and told to move,” Laxton said.

 Jasmine Chino, a mother and teacher from the neighborhood, lamented the loss of a peaceful retreat. “Once the disc golf course came, it became uncomfortable to sit there. There’s these flying projectiles around you. Where do you sit? It’s very interfering. People have been asked to move, people have been hit. The community and Highland Park needs this green space,” she said.

MTA's FUBAR bus routes gets excoriated at community board hearing

 

Parks Dept opens up more accessible paths to the Ridgewood Reservoir

 

 NY1

What once provided water for Brooklyn, now delivers peace and quiet for New Yorkers, and a habitat for a variety of wildlife. 

It’s the Ridgewood Reservoir, which sits on the Brooklyn-Queens Border at Highland Park. The East Causeway of the reservoir, with its original fencing from 1858, is now open weekends thanks to the work of the Parks Department and not-for-profit environmental education group NYC H20. 

"We bring students and families and community groups out to natural places like the beautiful Ridgewood Reservoir to teach about nature, water ecology and the water system, and to give people an appreciation for it and why they should care about it,” said Matt Malina, the executive director and founder of NYC H2O. 

Fed by 13 reservoirs reaching out east through Queens and Nassau Counties, the reservoir was built in 1858 to provide the then city of Brooklyn with water. It provided water for 100 years, and was last used in the 1960s when it was drained. Two of the basins have become forests again, the middle basin a freshwater pond.

"It's home to ducks, dragon flies and other birds and there are also dozens of species of birds that come through on their spring and fall migrations,” said Malina, who also noted that if you look closely there are even Italian Wall Lizards that call the area home. 

Here's hoping that the initial 're-imagining" plans to build a waterslide and performance space got thrown in the garbage.

 

Noise annoys nuns, plans exodus from Brooklyn

  

The Tablet

A small community of Carmelite nuns living in a monastery on the Brooklyn-Queens border has cloistered themselves from the rest of the world, but not to escape it.

Rather, their mission is to quietly pray for the world, and the Church in particular, with special attention to the salvation of souls and the sanctification of priests. This work continues unfettered by the distractions of current events, pop culture, or the media.

As a result, the Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Joseph on Highland Boulevard in Brooklyn is permeated with serenity.

That is, except on the weekends when next-door Highland Park undergoes a conversion from popular greenspace to a nighttime magnet for teenagers and young adults who come to party. Criminal activity ensues — including drinking and fighting — and music blasted from dueling car speakers rattles the monastery’s windows.

High cement walls shield the sisters from hooliganism, but the noise disrupts their prayers. Consequently, the Carmelites plan to relocate to a 13-acre plot near Scranton, Pennsylvania, that has been gifted to them. Although the actual move might take years to complete, the nuns are already sad to leave their current neighborhood and the Diocese of Brooklyn.

“We’ve been here since 2004,” said Sister Maria, who speaks for the community, in a recent telephone interview. 

“And everyone in the neighborhood has been wonderful. And one thing is for sure — how we loved this diocese and the people,” she added. “But this [noise] problem has escalated over the past year. The police are also still trying as much as they can, but once they go, they come right back. It’s crazy.”

Since the nuns are cloistered, they only venture outside the monastery for essential tasks such as medical appointments, explained Jim Krug, who helps the sisters as a member of a lay group, the Carmelite Oblate Confraternity.

His regular job is teaching theology and religion at Kellenberg Memorial High School in Uniondale, New York.

Krug reiterated that the nuns have minimal contact with the outside world. Occasionally, he said, they receive guests — such as relatives or even Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio — in a special parlor with a metal grate separating them from the visitors.

Therefore, the sisters asked Krug to conduct a tour — inside and out — of the monastery. He pointed to graffiti and garbage on the sidewalk along Highland Boulevard, just outside the monastery’s walls. The discarded junk included an empty liquor bottle, fast-food wrappers, and a busted vaping pen.

The north wall of the monastery’s enclosure faces the park. Trails cut through the thick foliage and trees surrounding the walls. Numerous tissues clinging to the ground indicate people use the secluded spot as a public restroom.

But the exterior has also been the venue of another activity — Santería rituals including sacrifices of animals, usually chickens, Krug said. In addition, animal bones, makeshift altars, and statues have been left outside the walls, Krug said.

Skeeter spraying for southern Queens

From the Queens Courier:

On Tuesday, Sept. 16, there will be West Nile spraying in parts of Queens, including along the Brooklyn-Queens border, to help reduce the mosquito population and the risk of the disease.

The spraying will take place between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 6 a.m. the next morning. In case of bad weather, the application will be delayed until Wednesday, Sept. 17 during the same hours.

The following neighborhoods are being treated due to rising West Nile virus activity with high mosquito populations, according to the city’s Health Department:

Parts of City Line, Cypress Hills, Highland Park, Howard Beach, Lindenwood, Ozone Park, Spring Creek and Woodhaven (Bordered by Jamaica Avenue and to the north; Shepherd Avenue, Fulton Street Line and Fountain Avenue to the west; Jamaica Bay to the south; and Rockaway Rail-Line, Rockaway Boulevard and Woodhaven Boulevard to the east).

Wilding incident at Highland Park

From A Walk in the Park:

In what police describe as a "wilding" spree, authorities are asking for the public's help in tracking down a gang responsible for a series of vicious attacks which left two park patrons with gun-shot injuries and a third with a stab wound that required 40 stitches.

The bloody rampage happened in broad daylight on May 18, 5:45 p.m. when a group of men, believed to be in their late teens to early 20's roamed through Highland Park in East New York armed with sticks, canes, knives and at least one gun, police said.

Media reports initially said it was an altercation stemming from a basketball game. Investigators however believe the attacks were random and three separate incidents as the victims did not know each other.

A 18-year-old man reported being attacked by the gang and slashed four times in the left arm which required 40 stitches to close the wound. He told the police he didn't know why he was targeted.

A 17-year-old male was playing basketball when he was approached by a Hispanic man who asked, "are you Trinitarios?" (a violent New York-based street gang composed of Hispanics) The assailant then shot the teen one time in the left hip. The victim was treated at Jamaica hospital.

A 20-year-old man says he was walking in the park when he heard shots. He ran and he was struck one time in the right side of the chest by a bullet.

He was taken to Brookdale Hospital where he is expected to survive.

He told cops he never saw the shooter and doesn't know why he was targeted.

There are no cameras in the park.

And the NYPD is unaware of the correct spelling of Highland Park?

NYPD ramps up patrols of Highland Park

From the Queens Courier:

The 104th Precinct wants park-goers to take a hike out of Highland Park at curfew.

Starting later this year officers will make daily patrols through the park at 8:30 p.m. to tell people to leave by 9 p.m., when it closes.

Residents living near Highland Park, a green space with many trails and ball fields near the Brooklyn-Queens border in Ridgewood, have been complaining about people using the park through the late hours of the night.

The Precinct has heard complaints of drinking and loud music playing after hours in the park dating back to last year, and Captain Chris Manson said that the party has ended.

Officers will start making the rounds as soon as the weather is warmer. If someone is spotted after the curfew they will be issued a summons.

Ridgewood Reservoir gets $7M facelift

From the Daily News:

The city has completed the first round of improvements to Highland Park, including new pathways, better lighting and fencing.

The $7 million project was designed to make the greenspace — which straddles the Queens-Brooklyn border — safer and more accessible to the public.

But a more ambitious plan to use the area around the decommissioned Ridgewood Reservoir is still years away.

Trees down all over Highland Park!

From Save Ridgewood Reservoir's Facebook page:

These are photos of Highland Park which surrounds the reservoir. Fallen trees everywhere, weed clogged paths, broken lamps and trash everywhere. Why spend millions to destroy a habitat reclaimed by nature and used by birds on a natural migratory path when the parks department can't even maintain the park that exists? Spend that money on fixing up the existing Park!

Trees at Ridgewood Reservoir threatened by Parks practices

From Save Ridgewood Reservoir:

When the Brooklyn and Queens communities surrounding Highland Park were told that Phase 1 of the Ridgewood Reservoir project was going to proceed, they were happy, because new paths, handicapped access and better lighting were sorely needed. Everyone was assured that existing trees would not be harmed during construction, with oversight and protection provided so that they suffered minimal impact. However, that is not what is happening and this is just one more example of how the city agency tasked with being the stewards of our open spaces has failed us, either through apathy, ignorance or corruption.

The large 150-year old Planetrees that line Vermont Place at the edge of the Ridgewood Reservoir have had their wide spreading root systems compacted and then buried in 5-8 feet of fill and soils at the approval of the Parks Capital Project Administrator and the Capital Arborist. The Forest Park administrator is aware of this problem but "will not interfere with Capital".

Clearly unenforced is the department's Tree and Landscape Protection Plan. Below is an excerpt of the NYC Parks and Recreation: Parks Tree Preservation Protocols (Sept 2009) that present the rules and protocol by which construction operations shall occur when within proximity to and under the canopy of large public trees. Numerous large and impressive veteran parkland London Planetrees that line Vermont Place at the reservoir provide important ecological, environmental and social benefits to park users and the neighboring communities. The London Planetrees within a construction site are candidates for the extraordinary preservation (and protection) protocols needed and so outlined by this document.

(Click link above to see document.)

Why does the Parks Department hate trees so much?

Delays for Bloomberg legacy projects

From the NY Post:

Mayor Bloomberg’s legacy parks are coming — but they’re mired in hefty price tags and design problems.

The city has over-promised and under-delivered on $291 million in park projects that are being rushed to seal the mayor’s place in history, critics say.

The eight regional parks were announced with great fanfare in April 2007 as part of Hizzoner’s ambitious PlaNYC program.

Five years later, the push to get them completed — or at least under way — before the end of the mayor’s term in 2013 has led to downsized plans, engineering issues and delays.

“There was no planning, no realistic cost estimates. It was fantasy mixed with p.r.,” said Geoffrey Croft of NYC Parks Advocates.

Troubles emerged soon after the mayor’s goals were passed to Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and his strapped Parks Department. Benepe announced his resignation last week.

In its rush to build, the city skipped crucial steps like site reviews, park activists say.

At Highland Park, for example, the environmental assessment began months too late. And the city seemed unaware the soil under Calvert Vaux Park is a stew of Fort Lafayette munitions and dredge mud from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge’s construction.

Teen found dead at Ridgewood Reservoir

From 1010WINS:

Police in Brooklyn are investigating the death of a 16-year-old girl whose body was found Sunday inside the Ridgewood Reservoir in Highland Park.

The girl was unconscious and unresponsive when officers arrived at the scene around 5:30 p.m., police say. The teen was taken to Wyckoff Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Police believe the girl was drinking with friends before she died. It is not known if the alcohol played a role in the teen's death.

Police say there is no evidence of foul play.

What's so strange about this?

Man apprehended near cemetery with skull in bag: Police
By Rebecca Henely, Times Ledger

Police responded to a 911 call for an emotionally disturbed person near Cypress Hill cemetery Thursday and found him carrying a skull in a bag, said a spokesperson for the NYPD.

The spokesperson said that at 10:44 a.m. Thursday a Hispanic male, 37, called 911 saying he was planning to kill himself.

Officers from the 104th Precinct responded to the scene in Highland Park, adjacent to the intersection of Cypress Hills Street and the Jackie Robinson Parkway in Ridgewood. When they met the man, they found he was carrying a skull in a white bag, police said.

The skull appeared to be a number of years old and the case was not an open homicide, police said. The skull was being examined by the medical examiner’s office, police said Friday.

The man was removed to Elmhurst Hospital for examination, police said.

NYPD tells park users that illegal activity is ok

From Save Ridgewood Reservoir:

Today I had an experience at the Ridgewood Reservoir which made it very clear to me that the local precincts have no intention to address the ATV problem and, in fact, are complicit in the abuse and destruction of New York City Department of Parks & Recreation property.

I approached the two officers in the van and told them about the ATV riders in the park. They explained that it is "very difficult" for them to pursue the scofflaws "up there" with their van and that the ATV riders always take off. I wondered why they assumed that the ATV owner was in an upper portion of the Ridgewood Reservoir property. I explained that, in fact, they were in the lower park between Highland Boulevard and the National Cemetery. They seemed reluctant to do anything about it, but finally said they'd look into it. I followed them as they left the parking lot heading towards Highland Boulevard. At the intersection, instead of turning left, towards the ATV, they turned right, away from the location and out of the park. They never returned.

By 12:50pm the ATV group had moved their activities higher up into the park, to an area directly adjacent to the reservoir. I called 311. The operator took my information, then transferred me to a 911 operator. At 12:54pm the 911 operator assured me that an NYPD vehicle was being dispatched. By 1:20pm, the ATV party was still in progress and the police hadn't arrived. While waiting for the police I spoke with the only adult in the group, who appeared to be the father of the children and owner of the ATV. He didn't think what he was doing was illegal. I asked if the police ever stopped them from riding in the park. I was shocked by what I was told. They had been told by the police that it was alright for them to ride in that area and to just avoid riding on the running paths and walkways! They also said that all the local ATV riders were given the same information, which would explain the sudden upsurge of ATV usage in the park. I left Ridgewood Reservoir and Highland Park at around 2:30pm. Nobody from the local precinct ever responded to the 911 operator's call.

Parks tries tweeding via Henry Stern

From the Queens Chronicle:

The current New York Civic director believes that underlying racial and economic divisions are fueling controversy and limiting compromise as middle-class Queens residents fight efforts to replace the reservoir with ballfields — a plan favored by community groups representing the notorious East New York section of Brooklyn.

“Highland Park is a border park between a very poor neighborhood and a very rich one,” Stern said. “A lot of it is territorial: ‘This belongs to the uphill people, and the uphill people should decide how it’s used — not the downhill people.’

He later added, “They’re organizing to keep them down at the bottom of the hill.”

Stern believes East New York’s reputation as the city’s crime capital is mobilizing otherwise indifferent Queens residents behind preservationists in an effort to maintain a natural buffer with the Brooklyn neighborhood.

“This controversy is magnified by the racial aspect,” he said. “I’m not saying that’s the motive of the opponents — but why would they want a bunch of kids going in the park, lying down in front of them and hanging around the neighborhood after that?”

Let's remind Henry that:

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall is black.
Rep. Edolphus Towns is black.
Comptroller William Thompson is black.
Rep. Nydia Velazquez is Hispanic.
All are in favor of nature over ballfields.
Community Boards 5 of Brooklyn and Queens both unanimously voted in favor of preservation.

Highland Park, Brooklyn is not a "very poor neighborhood." Homes there can be quite expensive.
Ridgewood, Queens is not a "very rich neighborhood" (and certainly not a very white neighborhood either).

Henry Stern lost his marbles years ago and this just confirms it. Why the Queens Chronicle would not only do the bidding of the Parks Department but leave unchallenged someone who obviously doesn't know what the hell he is talking about is beyond me.

Massive tweeding FAIL by the Bloomberg Administration yet again. Keep doing it and Queens Crap will just keep exposing it.

Photo from Newsday.

Parks caught lying about Highland Park again

From the Daily News:

In 2007, the agency issued 410 hours of permits for Highland Park's existing ballfields. That jumped to 753 hours last year, but included a two-week carnival that accounted for 195 hours.

Parks spokeswoman Patricia Bertuccio said the permit lists don't account for countless pickup games and practices on those fields that don't require prior approval from the agency.

The Parks Department's website displays this:



So, they are going to tear down a ready-made nature preserve to build ballfields for practices that are not supposed to be held on ballfields because there are too many people who want to play games on them, yet there was a documented lack of people playing games on the fields for the past few years. In Adrian's world, this makes sense.

Reservoir dog and pony show continues

From the Forum West:

According to the combined results of the two listening sessions, residents favor construction of a boardwalk as their top choice for all three basins. The only options among the top three priorities for any of the basins that involve development was at basin three, where a nature center was the second choice, followed by recreational opportunities.

However, some audience members took exception with the paper surveys, questioning where they were distributed and why they weren’t handed out to all meeting participants or sent to local community boards. Also, some questioned why the results of a 2007 survey on Ridgewood Reservoir were not taken into consideration. Of the 253 paper survey respondents, 11% ranked baseball or softball fields as the highest priority in terms of the new facilities they would like built at the reservoir site.

When asked why the 2007 survey was dismissed, Quinn said there were concerns that it was flawed or not thorough enough. “We spent a lot more time on this survey,” he said. Still, many in the room felt the prior results should also be taken into account. “To me, its mind boggling that you threw it out,” said Lou Widerka.

Ozone Park resident David Quintana also questioned the validity of the paper surveys, and accused Parks of using them to get the results they favored. “These surveys have no transparency at all,” he said.

Vincent Arcuri, chairman of Community Board 5, said that the city needs to “bite the bullet” and look at the conditions at the existing fields. “We have not paid proper attention to Highland Park in recent years,” he said. “You ask anyone what’s needed at Highland Park and they’ll tell you the same thing – those fields are garbage.” Instead of building fields in the reservoir basins, Arcuri said Parks has to “be realistic” and address the existing fields.

Ridgewood Reservoir a victim of tweeding

From the Forum West:

The first phase of the project recently began and includes new lighting, steps, benches and perimeter fences to improve safety and accessibility at the reservoir. Mark K. Morrison Associations of Manhattan was awarded the $7.7 million contract for that work, and is also in the process of creating three proposals for the future of the property’s three basins.

That $7.7 million has already been allocated and is not included in the $19.8 million remaining for Ridgewood Reservoir, according to Steve Fiedler, who is chairman of Community Board 5’s Parks Committee and opposes development of ballfields.

[Parks] noted that ballfields have been requested by community groups such as the East Brooklyn Congregations.

However, a study by the group Highland Park-Ridgewood Reservoir Alliance, which is pushing for the three basins to be preserved, showed that permits were issued for the existing ballfields for just a fraction of the available time during the past two years.

Fiedler questioned the motives of the East Brooklyn Congregations and doubts their claims that they cannot secure time at Highland Park’s existing fields. “His organization is pushing for fields at the top of basin three on eight acres, for what reason God only knows,” he said. “I hate to say that someone is lying for political gains, but the proof is in the pudding,” he added regarding the field usage.

From the Daily News:

East Brooklyn Congregations, an umbrella group of more than 30 Brooklyn churches and community groups, wants 8 acres of the 50-acre reservoir to be developed into two regulation-sized fields - one for soccer and football, the other for baseball.

"Everybody that we have talked to has said, 'If you want to give us anything in that reservoir, give us fields for active recreation," said Bishop David Benke, head of the Lutheran Church in the eastern region of the state.

Hmm...that's a very different attitude coming from the Reverend than 2 years ago... From the Times Newsweekly, July 5, 2007:

Recreation and education at the reservoir were the central themes of a renovation plan developed by a team consisting of Bishop David Benke, pastor of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church of Cypress Hills, Roy Sawyer, community liaison for Assemblyman Towns and Sam and Ana Franqui of the Highlanders East New York United Front.

According to Bishop Benke, the team was focused on recreating Ridgewood Reservoir as an educational and passive recreation center for residents in Brooklyn and Queens. One main component of the plan, as he described to participants, would be the formation of an environmental center at the easternmost basin ideal for students who can venture to the park on field trips to study wildlife and plant growth in the chamber.

While reserving the middle basin as a man-made lake with fish, the bishop explained, the westernmost basin would be created into a botanical garden with greenhouses and a picnic area for students and parkgoers to gather. Benke also suggested that a new observation deck could be built in the southern section of the chamber to allow visitors to see sections of Brooklyn, Manhattan and Jamaica Bay from one of the highest points on Long Island.

So what the heck changed in the course of a few months? Here it is in one sentence:

When the city sells you lots o'land for $1 (upon which you construct vast quantities of Brooklyn Crap) and then they call in a favor, you do what they ask, otherwise, you might get cut off...

The real story goes like this: Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski and Highland Park Administrator Debbie Kuha called Bishop Benke to the Overlook, gave him a debriefing and a presentation on a disc which contained the now-infamous "Secret Slide" and then told him to bring it back to his congregation and present it to them. (The preservation-minded had to settle for a leaked copy.) Then he was asked to follow up on this by showing up with kids in tow to demand sports fields at the city council oversight hearing held about the reservoir issue. Parks is notorious for orchestrating these dog-and-pony shows of false support for their unpopular initiatives in public forums. EBC has been at every public meeting since. This group has never even applied for a field permit at Highland Park.

When you bring up things like this, the argument then becomes that there are no "regulation-sized" fields at Highland (which seems to come as a surprise to the teams that do use them and say that they are). So if that is the case, then take the unused ballfields that are there currently and turn them into regulation-sized fields. Problem solved. Oh...hold on, Parks will tell you that the fields are used for many hours of pickup ball play and team practices which don't require permits. Which they might be able to get away with if there were actually people observed using the fields during "prime time" for ball play. Too bad there aren't.

After they run out of excuses, Parks then states that the money is only to be used inside the basins, even though their own press release states that the money is to be used to fix the infrastructure in Highland Park in order to make it a "destination park." So the fields must be built inside and the ones on the outside must remain in their present condition. Do you better understand this ridiculous waste of taxpayer money?

The "affordable housing" tweeders love the bishop and despite separation of church and state, they took it upon themselves to pass a resolution to support him after the leadership of his church sanctioned him. Now he is being used by Council Member Erik Martin Dilan to push for construction inside the basins.

Someone has been promised gigantic construction contracts out of this and the tweeders never anticipated that the opposition would be so overwhelming to what they want to do here. So they manufactured their own resistance movement.

As many have commented here, it's time to BRING IN THE FEDS!

More to come.

Upcoming Ridgewood Reservoir events

From Save Ridgewood Reservoir:

Join us this Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 7:00pm for a slide presentation of the wildlife of the Ridgewood Reservoir. Nature photographer, Steve Nanz, will share his photographs of the birds, insects and other animal life that he has observed at the reservoir.

The meeting is free and opened to the public. Refreshments will be served.

The show will be followed by our regular monthly meeting.

Highland Park/Ridgewood Reservoir Alliance
Ridgewood Democratic Club
6070 Putnam Street

And a tour this Saturday:

On Saturday, June 13th, Charles Monaco and Rob Jett will lead a walk through Ridgewood and Highland Park. The walk will highlight both the rich American history and natural history of this area. Meet at the "J" train station on the corner of Cleveland Street and Fulton Street at 11am.

Charles, an area historian, will focus on the area's importance during the Battle for Brooklyn, its settlement, the creation of the neighborhood of Highland Park and the building of the Ridgewood Reservoir. Rob will point out the plants, insects and birds while describing the area's unique location along the Harbor Hill terminal moraine. The walk will last for approximately 2 hours and gradually work its way through some historic sites in Ridgewood, up to Highland Park, then around the Ridgewood Reservoir. Wear comfortable shoes.

Bloomberg's grandiose parks plan on hold

From the NY Post:

Only two years ago, Mayor Bloomberg was hailed as a city green space champion after announcing a $386 million plan with fancy renderings to redo eight downtrodden parks through his sweeping PlaNYC initiative.

But with the city in fiscal crisis, the mayor's new spending plan cuts funding in half for five of them.

Projects to revive Manhattan's Fort Washington Park, Dreier-Offerman Park in Brooklyn, Soundview Park in the Bronx and Highland and Rockaway parks in Queens have been gutted from a combined $206 million in 2007 to $102.9 million, city documents show.

At Dreier-Offerman near Coney Island, a $40 million plan to reclaim the park from the homeless and junkies by adding new athletic fields and restoring wetlands was cut to $19 million.

Fort Washington Park in Washington Heights saw a similar $40 million project slashed to $21.5 million while a $50 million plan to restore Ridgewood Reservoir and bring new athletic fields to Highland Park fell to $19.8 million.

A Parks official speaking on condition of anonymity said it's more likely some seasonal workers would be laid off, adding anticipated budget gaps could also be resolved by delaying or cutting spending on other park projects.

The official also said the city has a "bad" habit of commissioning renderings for park projects "it knows it'll never be able to fully fund" just to grab a quick headline "and boost the mayor's popularity."

Well, cutting the Ridgewood Reservoir destruction budget is not so bad because the ballfields aren't being used anyway.