Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Time to investigate FMCP shenanigans

From the Queens Chronicle:

Re “Pol: FMCP belongs to public, not politics,” July 7, multiple editions:

Parks are the lifeblood of congested urban societies. While Flushing Meadows Corona Park is the second-most used park in New York City, mostly by the underprivileged, it is also the most abused, pockmarked with all sorts of structures alien to legitimate public park use, that would never be permitted in Central Park or indeed in any other municipal park. Terrace on the Park; the Mets’ stadium and its parking lot; the USTA and its newly added, ugly dome; a previous attempt to construct a Grand Prix race track around Meadow Lake; an attempt to construct a soccer stadium; and a current attempt to build a huge mega shopping mall on the Citi Field parking lot, which is parkland.

The culprits responsible for the above are former mayors, possibly current Mayor De Blasio, former borough presidents and most of all the vast majority of City Council members, all of whom have operated as if their constituents are the real estate moguls and not the little people. An example is the attempt for a 1.4 million-square-foot shopping mall on the Citi Field parking lot, which included a raid on the city treasury and for all practical purposes the demise of the 2008 approved Willets Point redevelopment plan. The Council and its prime mover, Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, negotiated and supported a plan that gave the developers property acquired by the city, for tens of millions of dollars, for $1; plus subsidies and tax abatements. To nail the coffin shut, the developers were given the right to walk away from any obligation to construct affordable housing by forfeiting $35 million, an amount that to them is akin to the tip one gives the youngster who delivers groceries. Walk away they will.

At long last there is a breath of fresh air in City Councilman Rory Lancman, who has sued the city and the Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park, which he claims was formed to funnel money from for-profit entities in exchange for the use of park resources.

The time is long overdue for a full investigation into how and why FMCP has become the dumping ground for all sorts of illegitimate public park use. I am sure the public supports and thanks Lancman to let right be done.

Benjamin M. Haber
Flushing

15 comments:

(sarc) said...

Yes!

The Mayor will appoint a "special" investigator.

I am sure he can find someone to whom he owes a favor.

I imagine that after more than a yearlong shuffling of papers from one side of the desk to the other, and more than one half million dollars in administrative fees, a summary report of useless drivel will show "no problem".

The report will show all is as clean and pure as the wind driven snow.

Imagine that.

Thereafter the political class will use the report as evidence of their good intentions, and along with their "partners" will be able to do whatever absurd project you can imagine, and beyond!

Nothing to see here, just keep moving along...

kapimap said...

Let the games begin!
Long overdue, lots have changed, pretty soon all we will have left is a simple playground.

JQ LLC said...

I read this a few days ago. I call this the queens manifesto. I don't know who this guy Benjamin is, but I hope he knows some honest folks in the D.A.s office.

Preet, write up indictments post-haste!

Anonymous said...

He's not suing to protect the people he represents. He is suing because he was cut out of the deals.

Anonymous said...

THANKS TO THE QUEENS CHRONICLE FOR FOLLOWING THIS STORY. THEY ARE 1000 % RIGHT IN THAT THE BLAME BELONGS TO MANY NOT JUST ONE INDIVIDUAL POLITICIAN. I MUST SAY THOUGH THAT JULISSA-FERRERAS COPELAND DOESN'T REALLY CARE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THIS PARK OR CORONA. SHAME ON HER AND HER FELLOW CRONIES FOR BETRAYING OUR TRUST AND NOT MAKING THE PARK CLEANER AND SAFER,

Anonymous said...

The city council is a confederacy of political whores who'd sell their mother and children for a five cent campaign donation.

And the sad thing is it is a training ground for those who aspire to higher office.

ron s said...

Don't forget using FMCP as a giant parking lot for the Open.

Anonymous said...

If the po po ever cleaned up the Park, who would use it? It has been a hive of criminal activity for 50 years.

Anonymous said...

Bring on Preet!

Anonymous said...

Whatever became of the investigation of Estelle Cooper and her family members who were ripping off park money? When she died did the investigation die too? Was the money ever recovered?

kapimap said...

The USTA is the biggest abuser of parkland in FMCP.

why couldnt they build 1 big parking facility on roosevelt ave, in front of the railyards?

Why are they building another stadium?

Does anyone realize these stadiums are not used 11 months out of the year!

With all these tennis facilities, Queens should tops in the world with tennis players, not!

Its time to expose the truth.

Anonymous said...

Send in Immigration Control and round up all the illegal South Americans, Mexicans, Pakistani Al Queada sympathizers and Chinese. Do not allow Sharia Law in the park, burkas or veils over faces. Send them all back to their countries of origin. That will clean the park up nicely.

Anonymous said...

>If the po po ever cleaned up the Park, who would use it? It has been a hive of criminal activity for 50 years.

Commenters here keep saying that, yet in 3 decades of frequenting the park, including late at night, the worst crime I've seen was illegal use of fireworks.

Anonymous said...

Uh...Estelle Cooper is dead, and so is your request for her investigation.

Anonymous said...

Not so fast, Anonymous! The Queens Chronicle is just as corrupt as the many 'selective' and 'occasional' politicians they handpick to investigate. In THEIR double-blinded eyes, they never met a Queens pol whom they didn't like.

Many years ago, I called out the Chronicle's beloved Michael Miller, Joseph Addabbo, Jr. and Eric Ulrich to be investigated for many complaints that all three ignored from me and other fed up and disgusted constituents.

When I complained about the Chronicle's failure to expose the corruption (whom all three politicans willfully ignored), I got a telephone threat from their crooked-thug/Editor-in-Chief, Peter C. Mastrosimone (the 'C' must stand for criminal), when he brazenly said that he would "...come to my house and f**king take care of me." The story was never investigated, and worse, their former incompetent reporter, Anna Gustaffson (with whom I met only weeks earlier, and she proceeded to take down my story, and then she told me that it would be published in next week's edition), chose to lie instead (repeatedly, and with the editor's blessing and condonation!), shortly after the story never appeared, and why no action was ever taken, before she left that arrogant, unreliable rag in disgrace. I had to file a police report against Mastrosimone, which I still have in my possession as evidence! So much for honest, ethical leadership and journalistic integrity!

In the end, that irrelevant, dishonest, politician-friendly rag stinks so badly that I wouldn't even rap fish in it, much less read whatever corrupt-and-slanted stories still appear between the endless, paid advertisements. What a waste--and an even bigger disgrace!