Sunday, November 26, 2017

The privatization of Frank Golden Park?


From the Queens Chronicle:

Frank Golden Park is the main home of the Queens youth athletic club, which has been using it since 2009. The group has around 600 members, with approximately 300 children.

Recently, work on a $1.6 million new field — completely using private funds raised by the athletic association — was finished there. According to Shannon Gaels Chairman Robert McDonagh, the fence that now surrounds the newly finished field is only closed temporarily to protect the new grass. Although the fence will be open during the day, it’s planned to be closed permanently at night when the park is closed.

Now, the Parks Department is seeking Community Board 7’s approval for the design of a second Gaelic football field to be operated by the club right next to the newly completed one in the park. That field, which McDonagh expects to take around 18 months to finish, is paid for by $4.53 million from the City Council and Borough President Melinda Katz.

The agreement allows Shannon Gaels to operate and maintain the section of the green space between March 1 and Oct. 31 of each year. It was written in 2014 and covers a 15-year-period, after which the Parks Department can renew it for five-year terms.

According to the document, the club is required to allow an average of 10 hours on the park’s fields each weekend for it to be used by “other groups,” which are also entitled to one full weekday evening per week. And the deal mandates that school athletic programs be guaranteed a minimum of one late afternoon session per week. Other groups must get a permit to use the space.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Melinda Katz is a political whore.

Anonymous said...

Putting a neglected underused park space to productoive good use sounds like a good idea to me.

Anonymous said...

Public parks are generally crime scenes. Maybe privatization gets us safer parks instead of mugging fields.

Anonymous said...

>Public parks are generally crime scenes.

WTF are you talking about?

Anonymous said...

Alienation of Park space is usually unacceptable to DPR. What gives?

Anonymous said...

As a CP resident, I'm much happier seeing the park used by kids involved in the GAA than the hordes of illegals BBQing and playing soccer. At least the portion used by the GAA will be maintained.

Anonymous said...

The article fails to mention that - literally - no other group has asked to use the space. Great example of a solution in need of a problem.

Move on....