Bill deBacle

 

Impunity City

Current mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio might be suffering under a massive hangover after the abrupt ending of the final and biggest concert of his NYC Homecoming Week, which he and the New York City Economic Development Corporation planned nearly 3 months in advance, as remnants of Hurricane Henri hovered over Central Park and delivered some lightning bolts to force the concert promoters to kill the show after only 2 hours and in the middle of sappy songwriter Barry Manilow’s set. 

Nothing couldn’t have been more apt of The Blaz’s incompetence and megalomania than when he went onstage and tried to salvage the festival by yelling at the crowd not to depart and promised the show would resume while shielded by a saran wrap slicker, only to have it kiboshed 8 minutes later. But it’s not like this wasn’t just spur of the moment desperation from the Mayor, because this idiot actually had held a press briefing with the NYC Emergency Mgmt. Commissioner to warn about Hurricane Henri’s arrival. At the exact time when the concert began at 5 P.M.

 So The Blaz and the Emergency Dept. Commissioner John Scriviani knew the severity of the tropical storm, warned citizens to take precautions and to avoid any plans that would jeopardize their safety and they still allowed the show to go on. These two boobs knew the storm would be unpredictable and both acted like that Henri was just going to remain in Long Island until the next day. Ludicrously unscientific claims the Blaz made earlier in tweets 4 hours before he declared a state of emergency right when the We Love NYC concert first act was performing on stage (and about 6 hours after the current governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency!).

Delta Blazlooza

  

NY Daily News

Hizzoner is in the mood for a party — COVID-19 be damned.

Mayor de Blasio announced Thursday that the city will host five large-scale concerts next month and urged people from near and far to flock to the Big Apple for the “unforgettable” events — even though New York is in the midst of a troubling uptick in coronavirus cases due to the delta variant.

The five free concerts, one in each borough, will take place during the week starting Aug. 16, culminating in a previously announced Aug. 21 gig on the Great Lawn in Central Park, because “we got to celebrate our recovery,” de Blasio said at City Hall.

“I am issuing a FOMO alert,” he said, using the “Fear of Missing Out” acronym popular with younger generations. “Unless you want to spend the rest of your life saying, ‘oh my god I missed it,’ you should get to New York City in the month of August, where amazing things will be happening.”

The Aug. 21 performance will feature Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon and Jennifer Hudson, among others. Acts for the other four shows are forthcoming, as well as ticket details, but these are the basics:

• Aug. 16: Orchard Beach, the Bronx
• Aug. 17: Richmond County Bank Park, Staten Island
• Aug. 19: Brooklyn Army Terminal, Brooklyn
• Aug. 20: Forest Hills Stadium, Queens

The party-hungry mayor compared the bashes to the legendary Woodstock festival of 1969.

“I’ve talked to people who missed Woodstock. My own oldest brother could’ve gone to Woodstock,” he said. “Don’t let that FOMO thing happen to you. This is going to be amazing.”

But underpinning the plans for the party week of the century is New York’s steady rise in coronavirus infections.

The city’s test positivity rate — which provides a glimpse of COVID’s pervasiveness — cracked 2% for the first time in over two months Thursday, with 644 new infections and 98 new hospitalizations reported by the Health Department.

For context, the city last year operated under the assumption that the pandemic was under control only when daily reported infections did not exceed 550.

Still, de Blasio has rejected calls from a growing chorus of public health experts and lawmakers to reinstate indoor mask mandates and slow down other relaxations of pandemic restrictions.

Instead, the mayor has argued the focus should be squarely on jacking up vaccination rates — a sentiment he reiterated when asked by the Daily News during Thursday’s briefing if he’s sending a dangerous message by calling for a pilgrimage to the city for next month’s “homecoming week” concerts.

“If they think the solution is for everyone to go home and not participate in recovery and allow ourselves to slip backwards into the world we were in — yeah, if that’s an option people want, I want to see that they have their head examined,” he said. “I mean this is crazy, get vaccinated ... We’re not going to cower.”

Blaz Aid

 

 

NY Post

This bridge over troubled waters ends — with a concert in Central Park.

City Hall is teaming up with legendary producer Clive Davis to put on a massive music festival on Central Park’s Great Lawn to celebrate the Big Apple’s summertime revival following the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We decided to do something classic, iconic, a massive concert in Central Park” said Mayor Bill de Blasio during his Monday morning press briefing. “It will celebrate the summer of New York City, the comeback, and it will emphatically make the point there is no stopping New York.”

The festival could be as much as a week long and is set for sometime in August, although there are no set dates or acts yet — though Hizzoner promised a line-up full of big-name New York talent recruited by the Brooklyn-born Davis.

“I turned to Clive, I said, I need the biggest, most extraordinary all-star lineup you can put together, heavy on New York artists. He said, I’m on it,” de Blasio added. “Get ready for an unforgettable week, a once in a lifetime concert and a moment that really says New York City’s back.” 

 The Blaz announced this after spending 40 minutes saying nothing about how to stop the daily gun violence. I bet more people would rather be able to go outside without the fear of a stray bullet hitting them than to see a lame ass concert festival featuring a record executive's artist portfolio.

Coronavirus field hospital tents in Central Park is run by a discriminatory religious organization

Gothamist

On Tuesday morning, a makeshift tent hospital in Central Park will begin treating overflow patients from Mount Sinai, as the spread of COVID-19 begins to overwhelm local hospitals. Announcing the 68-bed respiratory unit this weekend, Mayor Bill de Blasio praised the relief organization, Samaritan's Purse, responsible for funding and erecting the facility.

The mayor did not mention that the group is led by Franklin Graham, a notorious anti-LGBTQ and Islamophobic preacher with a track record of using humanitarian missions to proselytize an evangelical agenda.

Graham, the son of prominent minister Billy Graham, has specifically sought to recruit Christian medical staff to the Central Park facility. According to the group's website, all volunteers, including health care workers, should read and adhere to a statement of faith, in which marriage is defined as "exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female" and the unrighteous are sentenced to "everlasting punishment in hell."

If you are a Christian doctor, nurse, paramedic, or other medical professional interested in serving COVID-19 patients in our @SamaritansPurse Emergency Field Hospital in NYC, please visit https://t.co/EEw1jNtrrk. pic.twitter.com/5i7EeKxLDi

— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) March 29, 2020

Asked whether the Mayor's Office considers this problematic, a City Hall spokesperson said the field hospital will operate as a Mount Sinai facility, and must adhere to the hospital's policy against discrimination. The spokesperson did not say whether the city was concerned that volunteers on the project are expected to agree with the group's anti-gay faith statement.

"Our record on human rights is clear; and we are confident that the joint effort by Mt. Sinai and Samaritan’s Purse will save New Yorkers' lives while adhering to the values we hold dear by providing care to anyone who needs it, regardless of background," said Jane Meyer, the City Hall spokesperson.


What human rights record is that, Jane? Telling people they have to right to go mingle in bars and go to events as a nascent virus was spreading across the five boroughs?

A COVID-19 field hospital grows in Central Park

Gothamist

Volunteer workers could be seen in Central Park on Sunday erecting tents for an emergency field hospital to treat COVID-19 patients, providing another grim visual reminder of the severity of the coronavirus crisis in NYC. The tents are being assembled in the East Meadow by international Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse, to serve overflow from Mount Sinai hospital.

The Central Park field hospital will consist of 68 beds specially equipped with respiratory care, powered by generators. The first patients are expected to come from Mount Sinai Brooklyn and Mount Sinai Queens, according to a press release on Samaritan's Purse's website.

This looks like the opening credits scene from M*A*S*H*

 

De Blasio horse deal is a no-go

From DNA Info:

The City Council won't be voting Friday on the carriage horse deal after the union representing the industry backed out, according to the mayor.

The deal that would've cut the number of horse carriages in the city and confined their services to Central Park has been scrapped after the Teamsters announced Thursday they could no longer support the bill.

"With the legislation now finalized, our members are not confident that it provides a viable future for their industry. We cannot support the horse carriage bill currently before the City Council," said George Miranda, president of Teamsters Joint Council 16.

The Council had sufficient votes to pass the legislation, but without support from both sides of the agreement, the vote cannot happen, according to the Mayor's Office.

Deal done for horse carriages

From NY1:

The Mayor's office and the Teamsters Union announced a tentative deal late Sunday that would reduce the number of horses and permanently move the carriages to Central Park.

Under the agreement, the number of licensed horses would drop from about 180 to 110 by December 1.

That number will eventually be reduced to 95 by the time a new stable is built in Central Park.

That stable is expected to be complete by October 2018, and will have room for 75 horses and 68 carriages.

Once the stable is finished, all travel and operations will be confined to Central Park.

There are still a number of issues to be ironed out, including how to compensate carriage drivers who will lose their jobs under the deal.

Horses may be moved to Central Park

From the Daily News:

The city is close to a deal with the horse carriage industry that would permanently move their stables inside Central Park — and could have a City Council hearing on the proposal as early as Friday, multiple sources told the Daily News.

Reps for Mayor de Blasio have been in meetings over the past few days with the Teamsters, the union that reps the drivers, according to the sources.

The city has agreed to pay to build new stables in Central Park as part of the plan to move the horses — who currently live in stables in Hell’s Kitchen — off the city streets.

The Teamsters also want the city to give buyouts to the drivers who will lose their job because of the move to Central Park, which won’t be able to accommodate the current number of 220 horses, the sources said.

The city has not agreed to buyouts, according to the sources.

The new bill calls for licensing 68 carriages and 75 horses to operate in Central Park. Those carriages will be in place by October 2018, sources said.

How convenient that this will free up valuable real estate on the west side!

Newer buildings casting longer shadows

From the Daily News:

A new generation of mega-tall skyscrapers being built along 57th St. for foreign billionaires will cast a long shadow over New York’s premier greenspace, a new report shows.

"It’s troubling that the sky's the limit when it comes to one of our most precious public spaces," said Vin Cipolla, president of the Municipal Art Society, which conducted the report to highlight the need for oversight of development around parks.

"We need to protect these spaces," Cipolla added.

The shadow report reveals the worst-case scenario — every Dec. 21, the winter solstice, the sunless zone will extend 20 blocks into Central Park and reach the Lake and Ramble.

Every Sept. 21 at 4 p.m., shadows would stretch a dozen blocks — as far as Sheep Meadow and the Naumburg Band Shell near the 72nd St. transverse.

The skyscrapers in question are rising “as of right,” meaning the public has no say over their size. Developers are able to build so high because they bought air rights from neighboring buildings — and technological advances now allow for the construction of super thin mega-towers on small footprints traditionally suited for 40 story buildings.

Flushing Meadows still #2 in violent crime

From the Wall Street Journal:

Serious felonies rose in New York City's largest parks during the spring months this year, increasing 44% for April 1 to June 30 compared with the same period in 2012, according to a New York Police Department report.

There were 128 felonies in the city's 31 biggest parks from April 1 to June 30, compared with 89 in the same period last year, according to an NYPD Compstat report.

The increase comes on the heels of a park-crime spike of 7% in 2012, compared with 2011—the biggest year-over-year jump in half a decade, NYPD statistics show.

The report didn't include historical data for crime in parks. Crime in Central Park has reached historical lows in recent years, according to NYPD data for the park's precinct. Major crimes fell nearly 73% from 1990 to 2012 in Central Park, according to the NYPD, and robberies went down more than 90%, from 152 in 1990 to 15 in 2012.

Central Park saw the most serious felonies in the spring with 37 reported crimes—including a rape, two robberies and five felony assaults.

Flushing Meadows Park in Queens had the second-highest number of serious crimes with 27, including two reported robberies and two felony assaults, according to the report.

In 2012, there were 354 major felonies in the city's largest 31 parks, up from 331 in 2011.

Flushing Meadows is 2nd most dangerous park in City

From Eyewitness News:

Crime statistics over the last four years from the NYPD and compiled by the Park Advocates revealed the five parks with the highest number of incidents:

Central Park had 649 serious crimes, including 13 rapes and 415 grand larcenies.

Flushing Meadows had 387 serious crimes including five rapes and 40 robberies.

Prospect Park had 192 serious crimes including two murders and 92 robberies.

Riverside Park had 194 serious crimes including five rapes and 95 robberies.

And, Crotona Park had 102 serious crimes including 14 assaults and three rapes.

Liu rejects Central Park Conservancy contract as unfair to rest of City

From A Walk in the Park:

June 19, 2013

Honorable Michael R. Bloomberg
Mayor
City Hall
New York, NY 10007

Dear Mayor Bloomberg:

My office has returned the ten-year, $90 million Central Park Conservancy contract submitted by the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation and is currently reviewing an additional $60 million capital contract with the Conservancy.

I write to ask you to reflect on the wide disparities that exist among parks in the five boroughs. For example, St. Nicholas Park, located just a few blocks north of Central Park in Harlem, recently received a score of 77 out of a possible 100 points from New Yorkers for Parks because of trip hazards, litter, and out-of-service drinking fountains.

The Parks Department can and should amend both Conservancy contracts so that they help provide more equity among parks. These modifications should also take into account the exceptionally strong financial condition of the Conservancy.

We recommend that the following changes be made:

· Eliminate or reduce the Conservancy’s revenue-sharing agreement. Currently 50 percent of the estimated approximately $12 million Central Park net concession and special event revenue is distributed to the Conservancy. In contrast, very few if any other City parks have such a beneficial arrangement.

· Reallocate capital funds toward higher-needs parks. If we are serious about equitably distributing scarce resources, we need to reallocate a portion of the City’s capital contributions for Central Park to parks with higher needs that are over-reliant on discretionary funds.

· Increase financial transparency. The Conservancy’s 2011-2012 tax filings show revenues of $47 million. Other public sources indicate that the Conservancy has a workforce of approximately 300 employees, ranging from seasonal grounds technicians paid $18,228 to the President and CEO, who received total compensation of $456,319. Like the Parks Department and every other City agency, the Conservancy should publish spending and payroll data on Checkbook NYC, the City’s financial transparency website. Mandatory federal tax filings do not provide adequate transparency.

· Encourage expanded support of area parks. The Conservancy should work with the Parks Department to identify struggling parks throughout the five boroughs that would benefit from the Conservancy’s operational and development expertise. Such a collaboration could help mitigate some of the widespread concerns that public-private partnerships favor only a handful of elite parks.

According to its most recent tax return, the Conservancy has more than $215 million in assets. This staggering number does not take into account the recently announced $100 million private donation.

The City should ensure that parks across the five boroughs—and not just Central Park—are being funded adequately and equitably. When the City is unable to provide funding for basic maintenance and much-needed capital projects, one must question whether it is appropriate to provide our wealthiest park with $150 million of new resources.

Let’s work together to maintain Central Park and provide equity among all of our parks.

Sincerely,


John C. Liu

Public-private partnerships hurt the general public

From the NY Times:

The Central Park Conservancy manages $220 million in assets, and has four officials who make more money than the city parks commissioner, Veronica M. White. At a High Line fund-raiser, a host held aloft a million-dollar check and asked for a match. Another $1 million check was written on the spot.

At the other end of this spectrum, the cracked path around the Shore Park-Verrazano Narrows offers an exercise in horizontal mountain biking. At Flushing Meadows-Corona Park children play in dry wading pools and lake paths are unnavigable without machetes.

Prospect Park occupies a middle ground. It has overseen a stunningly beautiful reconstruction of its lake side. It also rents out its Audubon Center on weekends to the wedding-bar mitzvah-birthday crowd.

Our lame duck mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, has started to turn off his charitable money shower. His foundation informed the Prospect Park Alliance that it intended to end its quarter-million dollar annual contribution. (Ms. Lloyd declined to discuss this.)

Those who defend privatization are candid. Ask about inequity and they talk of commodities; the emerald brilliance of Central Park draws tourists. The High Line is a brooch in the luxury transformation of Chelsea.

As for Flushing Meadows? When told that partisans hoped to transform a homely asphalt-ringed fountain into a grass-edged lake, John Alschuler Jr., co-chairman of the Friends of the High Line, offered an exasperated sigh. In his day job, he lobbies to place a U.F.O.-size professional soccer stadium in the midst of that Queens park.

Cities, he said, no longer pay for parks properly. Such exuberant hopes will not be realized in my life, he said, or that of my child. Find a corporate sponsor, he suggested.

So condescension passes as realism.

Holly Leicht of New Yorkers for Parks is a vigorous parks advocate, and would demand transparency and accountability from conservancies. But she would not upset the conservancy lords until the Parks Department is properly financed and revamped.

This feels backward. Former Police Commissioner Bill Bratton transformed a hidebound Police Department in months; why demand less of the Parks Department?

Want a nice park? Raise a lot of money!

From the NY Post:

Central Park is about to get even more green.

Six months after hedge-fund billionaire John Paulson pledged $100 million to the Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit that oversees the lush 843-acre park is due to get $90 million from the city under a new 10-year management contract.

That’s a huge increase over the current pact, which expires on June 30 and provides $39.2 million over eight years.

Parks officials defended the higher spending as necessary to keep the heavily used park in peak condition.

“Clearly, the city thinks they’re doing a great job, which they are, for the most part,” said Geoffrey Croft of New York City Park Advocates, who has never shied away from pointing out parks shortcomings.

But Croft questioned how other parks in the 29,000-acre system will get by without wealthy benefactors or large city subsidies.

“There is an enormous difference [in] what this park gets and what others parks get,” he said.

Letter to New Yorkers for Parks

NY4 Parks:

You are either making comments about issues you know nothing about, or are being paid to sell out OUR communities. You are hurting OUR communities.

Why are you promoting policies that allow all these businesses to destroy Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in exchange for funding it? If this is a such a great idea why not advocate the same for Central Park?

Be interesting to see how fast your funding dries up.

Again I ask, who is funding your group?

As a member of the affected community, and not an outsider. I strongly suggest you cease and desist your intrusion.

Alfredo Centola
President
Malba Gardens Civic
Member of Coalition to Save Flushing Meadows Corona Park

Plutocrats united

From the NY Times:

As two Bloomberg News reporters pointed out last week, both Chicago and Los Angeles spend a considerable amount more than New York does on its parks, as a percentage of overall budget.

But when officials in New York’s more distant parks plead for a little bit more, city officials suggest selling off naming rights and letting corporations slap names on basketball and dog runs. (IMG Worldwide, a sports marketing company, is overseeing the sale of these naming rights, for a handsome fee.)

Or, in the case of the Bronx and Queens, working-class neighborhoods can consent to letting officials plop a parking lot or a soccer stadium in the middle of their heavily used parks.

Got a problem with that, bub?

City officials and their quasi-public hangers-on are rather clear on the rules of this game: You smile at every crumb that falls off the plutocratic table, and only a rube shares his proceeds.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was clear that he would not allow a dime of Mr. Paulson’s gift to slip away to pay for, say, the restoration of grass on the hardscrabble and scabbed grass fields of Marine Park or Flushing Meadows, or the rutted and broken bike paths along the Atlantic in Brooklyn.

The mayor being the mayor, he made clear he found this idea just plain silly.

Geoffrey Croft of Park Advocates charts such inequities with a grim accountant’s eye for detail. “They say that Paulson’s gift puts the onus on the city to provide money for the other parks,” Mr. Croft noted. “But there’s no sign of that — it’s ridiculous, really.”

But perhaps it is the rest of us who are not yet hip to the game. As The New Yorker pointed out recently, the nation’s plutocrats are much taken of late with the notion that their charitable giving should count as privatized taxation.

The notion has a primitive charm. I would imagine a duke in the time of Richard III figured he could settle up by providing a regiment in a pinch and that would be that.

As Mayor Bloomberg pointed out last week, that lovely gem that is Central Park has become a new sort of model for other parks and open spaces, around the city and around the world.

He might be right, and that’s not terribly comforting.

And according to some of the commenters here, you Queens folk are fine with it. No wonder you get the shit end of the stick all the time.

A question of fairness

From Bloomberg:

New York devoted about $338 million, less than 0.5 percent of its $68.5 billion operating budget this year, to its 29,000- acre park system, down from $380 million. The city budget supports about 15 percent of Central Park’s $45 million annual operating costs, according to the conservancy website.

By comparison, the Chicago Park District, a semi-autonomous authority funded through dedicated property taxes, revenue from facilities such as Soldier Field and private donations, intends to spend $407 million on its 7,800-acre system, plus more than $80 million in capital improvements, said Jessica Maxey- Faulkner, a spokeswoman. Los Angeles spends $189.5 million of its $7.2 billion budget on parks.

In fiscal 2013, the city has earmarked $28.8 million for parks in Manhattan, almost double the amount in the Bronx, which has more than twice as much park acreage. The city budgeted $25.3 million for parks in Queens, $23.4 million for Brooklyn and $10.2 million for Staten Island. Staffing in city parks has declined 25 percent since 2009, to 5,744 employees.

Flushing Meadows Corona Park, a 1,255-acre expanse in Queens that was the site of the World’s Fair in 1939 and 1964, is marred by barren fields where grass once grew and shuttered recreation facilities “where the city could easily spend $100 million,” [NYC Park Advocates President Geoffrey] Croft said.

Ferry Point Park in the Bronx “now functions as a public toilet,” Croft said, after officials reduced staff, abandoned ball fields and closed public restrooms. “Without any security or supervision, men set up roulette tables for open-air gambling,” he said.

[John] Paulson’s gift “is a good thing not just for Central Park but for parks generally because it highlights how important parks are to people,” said Holly Leicht, executive director of New Yorkers for Parks, an advocacy organization.

“It also puts the onus on the city to make sure there’s enough money in the maintenance budget to properly maintain the 1,700 other parks that can’t draw this level of private funding,” Leicht said.

The best solution to the problem of funding all the parks would be the creation of a citywide conservancy-like institution to attract private and public funding, said Melissa Mark- Viverito, a Democrat who heads the City Council’s Parks and Recreation committee and whose Manhattan district of East Harlem includes a portion of Central Park.

“The challenge is to prevent our parks from becoming a two-tiered system where some have conservancies and some don’t,” said Mark-Viverito.

“We can’t have the city walking away from its obligation and responsibility for upkeep and maintenance,” she said. “That’s not the message we should be sending.”

Tweeding on the Park?

From A Walk in the Park:

The city has finally announced the compensation it will receive from the controversial new Tavern On the Green and not surprisingly it is far less than what it was previously offered, NYC Park Advocates has learned.

The fees to be paid to the city begin at just $1,000,000 a year and rise to $3,273,000 for the final year totaling $ 38.7 million over the twenty year agreement.

By comparison, Jennifer Leroy whose family had operated the iconic eatery since 1974 - agreed to pay the city $86 million in fees over a 20-year lease according to financial documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Law. Mayor Bloomberg rejected that proposal two years ago and instead awarded the license to Dean Poll who offered $57.3 million. Mr. Poll, who runs the nearby Boathouse Cafe - was unable to open the restaurant.

In addition to losing tens of million of dollars in lost revenue the City is also spending $ 10 million dollars in capital improvements fixing up the building for the new concessionaire who will then build out the space. The dramatic renovation has completely gutted the property.

The Bloomberg administration awarded the twenty-year Central Park bar and restaurant concession to the Philadelphia-based Emerald Green Group, where Jim Caiola, a brother-in-law of ex-deputy mayor - and current Bloomberg LP. employee Kevin Sheekey - is a partner. Mr. Sheekey is also the older brother of former Parks Department spokeswoman Megan Sheekey who was appointed by Bloomberg as the president of the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City.

I think an investigation is in order.

Queens native gives $100M to fix up Central Park

From Bloomberg:

Billionaire John Paulson and the Paulson Family Foundation are donating $100 million to the Central Park Conservancy, the largest parks donation ever.

Paulson, 56, is founder of Paulson & Co., a New York-based hedge fund that manages $21 billion across 10 funds. Paulson was worth $11.8 billion yesterday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. His contribution will help renovate and maintain park facilities and pay for recreation programs, said Doug Blonsky, president of the conservancy, which is responsible for its maintenance and operations. Half will bolster the park’s endowment, which now stands at $144 million, Blonsky said.

Paulson was raised in the middle-class Beechhurst section of Bayside, in New York’s Queens borough. As a child, his parents took him through the park in a stroller, he said. He was valedictorian at New York University and attended Harvard Business School.

After working in risk arbitrage at Bear Stearns Cos., Odyssey Partners and Gruss Partners, Paulson founded Paulson & Co. in 1994, with $2 million from friends and family.

Why is it that people from Queens who do well for themselves never give back to Queens? Does Central Park really look like it needs $100M? No.
Does Flushing Meadows look like it needs $100M? Yes.

From A Walk in the Park:

Private organizations help raise money for some of the city’s other parks but their budgets are tiny compared with the Central Park Conservancy.

Some advocates of city parks have complained that other parks are neglected in comparison to Central Park, one of the city’s best-known destinations.

“It’s wonderful for Central Park, but there are thousands of other park properties in New York City that desperately need funding,” said Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates. “This gift is a reminder of the enormous disparities that exist between the haves and the have-nots.”

Pedestrians getting hit in pedestrian lanes

From the Daily News:

A speeding bicyclist slammed into a woman on the Queensboro Bridge — knocking her out cold and fracturing her skull, the Daily News has learned.

Lingbo Shen, 52, said she was walking toward her Queens home in a pedestrian lane of the span when the cyclist crashed into her about 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

“Somebody hit me from the back,” she told The News. “I fell. I was unconscious for nearly four hours.”

Shen — a research analyst at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan — awoke just before midnight and found herself in the emergency room at New York Hospital.

She was being treated for a cracked skull, broken collar bone and three fractured ribs. A hematoma was causing her to bleed from her ears.

The crash comes a week after a Daily News investigation on speeding and inattentive bicyclists in Central Park. It took reporters just 35 minutes to find 16 bikers riding over the 25-mph speed limit.

On Monday, a blind man walking in a pedestrian lane was struck by leadfooted cyclist Omar Shakir, 30, just above E. 90th St. in the park.

Richard Bernstein, 38 — who is in the city training for his eighth marathon — went to Mount Sinai Medical Center with a fractured pelvis and hip. He also lost some teeth.

Bikes are vehicles. They should not be allowed to mix with pedestrians. Period. Expect more of these types of accidents when the City's bike share program starts in March.

(And thank you, Daily News, for leaving Ed Koch out of this.)