Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Flushing Meadows park building is falling apart

Photo: Geoffrey Croft
From the Daily News:

Squirrels and sandbags are here to stay.

Or so it seems at the run-down Olmsted Center in Queens’ Flushing Meadows Corona Park, which is $1.6 million over budget and delayed with no end in sight, the Daily News has learned.

For years, workers have complained about the conditions inside the center, which dates to the 1964 World’s Fair.

The grievances include squirrels crawling into the building’s dilapidated walls and routine flooding from the ground during minor rainstorms.

Department workers are forced to place sandbags at entrances to prevent water from pouring inside.

In 2008, the Bloomberg administration set aside $25 million to revamp the low-lying building, which houses approximately 500 architects, engineers and other support staff.

But the project stalled and the department’s capital base remained a leaky mess.


Ah, Flushing Meadows. What a dump.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

What do those 500 staff do all day ? It's a walk in the park for most of them.

Anonymous said...

This was meant to be a temporary structure for the fair. Naturally it was kept going for decades more than intended. I'd say the taxpayers got their money's worth.

Anonymous said...

Once aswamp,always a swamp.

Anonymous said...

If they don't like the water and the squirrels move the F out and get a job in the private sector!

500 people? In that small building? Sounds like a scam to rip off the taxpayer!

Anonymous said...

500 arcathects and engineers can't figure out how to stop flooding?
I'll bet Trump could fix it in 1 day.

Anonymous said...

ONE OF THE MOST HISTORIC PARKS IN THE CITY WHICH HOSTED 2 WORLDS FAIR IS NOT A PIECE OF SHIITE. GO FIGURE!!

Jerry Rofondi said...

Olmsted center. What an insult to a master landscape designer and artist.

(sarc) said...

Anonymous said...

What do those 500 staff do all day ?

Sit there and collect a check from YOU the taxpayer.

Can you say "waste fraud and abuse"???

Anonymous said...

When they start making the "rotten timbers" claim the end is near. The USTA likely wants that property

Anonymous said...

The most interesting part of the story is the mention of "500 staff". What do these people do, and why are we paying for them?

JQ LLC said...

That staff should try living in NYCHA every day or perhaps an apartment next to one getting gutted with illegal construction owned by a predator developer slumlord.

babies.

Anonymous said...

Let's call it what it is Flushing Merdows..as in shit!