I think we know the answer

Great piece over at City Limits.

That which benefits the NYC general fund doesn't necessarily benefit Queens neighborhoods.

Missing the US Open in Forest Hills

Nice essay in the NY Times about the Forest Hills and the US Open:

This is just a theory from an old Queens boy: Deep in the mosh pit of the current United States Open, there is the gentle living Ghost of Tennis Past — another time, another place, only a few miles away in the borough of Queens.

At the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, paying customers inhale psychological oxygen — like air pumped into shopping malls — evoking the green, green grass of the West Side Tennis Club, where this great and very-New-York event was nurtured.

Fans breathe deeply and transport themselves to that green and pleasant land of good manners and pitty-pat applause for a lovely swooping backhand return.

Still waiting on the USTA's Flushing Meadows money

From DNA Info:

The newly-renovated USTA center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park is set to open later this month, but so far none of the $10.05 million promised in a 2013 deal with the community has been paid out, DNAinfo has learned.

The money was brokered as part of a community benefits agreement in 2013, before the city council approved the expansion of the tennis facilities inside the public park.

The USTA agreed to pay $5.05 million to fund programming and upkeep at the park through a new alliance for Flushing Meadows-Corona Park and $5 million to the Parks Department for the relocation of a road — but the conservancy, which was suggested by local community boards and Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras, hasn't been formed yet, officials said.

Interestingly, about the time this news broke, I received this:

Hi Crappie, Sunday I went to the festival in Flushing Meadow Park and was disgusted with the condition of our largest and most used park in Queens.The main viewing area along the lake where all the corporate tents were set up was just horrible.The Park Dept. did nothing to beautify the area,there was litter and debris in the water that was there for a long time and could have been easily removed before the event.I stayed for the whole event and not once did I see a Park worker picking up trash along the water's edge.

I also took a bike ride around the lake and went all the way to the Promanade by Flushing Bay and the roads are horrible,lots of pot holes and uneven pavement not conducive to good biking and down right dangerous. There are no signs marking bike paths and no signs warning cars to share the road.Some of the roads in the park are just service roads to the Grand Central especially around Citi Field and the Tennis Stadium and cars are moving fast and furious.

With all the big events that are held in the park and all the multi billion dollar stadiums and their mega rich teams you would think we would have a park that would be up there with Central or a Prospect Park. Instead we have a park where we have a crumbling NYS Pavillion the city wanted to knock down.We also had the Gertrude Earle Aquacade that was from the 1939 World's Fair and had seating for 10,000 people and was demolished and replaced with a Gertrude Earle Café that I have never seen open yet.

Maybe a mega mall in the park might be just what is needed to make this a world class park. Only kidding.

Forest Hills Stadium experimenting with sound blankets

From DNA Info:

Organizers of a summer outdoor concert series at Forest Hills Stadium said they are experimenting with ways to reduce noise from future performances after receiving complaints from community members.

They have been testing sound blankets, typically used at airports and construction sites, on the fence surrounding the stadium, said Jon McMillan, one of the organizers. They were also considering placing them at the top of the venue.

McMillan said that the group is trying to figure out whether covering large portions the fence with sound blankets is feasible and how to include entrances to the stadium into their sound mitigation plan.

Noise from Forest Hills stadium exceeds permissible levels

From the NY Times:

Before the music came back, most people in the brick townhouses and apartment buildings of Forest Hills didn’t give much thought to the crumbling, steel-and-concrete Romanesque stadium abandoned by the United States Open 37 years ago.

Its $120,000-a-year taxes, waist-high weeds and colony of feral cats were headaches for its owners, the West Side Tennis Club.

But rock shows have returned to the Forest Hills Stadium, with window-rattling sounds that pierce the neighborhood’s calm. Some people have simply left home at performance time. Others hunker down and console weary toddlers, put off homework or S.A.T. preparation, and reschedule family affairs.

The city’s Department of Environmental Protection has recorded sound in excess of permissible levels, and issued a notice of violation this week to the concert producers for the Replacements’ too-loud finale on Friday, which closed a show in which the opening bands had repeatedly been warned to turn it down.

The future of the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium

From the Times Ledger:

The Forest Hills Stadium’s revival as a concert venue has gotten rave and raw reviews alike from the surrounding community.

The West Side Tennis Club, which owns the stadium at 1 Tennis Place, invited neighbors to share feedback on last summer’s Mumford & Sons concert with the company hired to put on shows, Madison House Presents, as it finalizes this summer’s lineup.

Madison House Presents has booked Zac Brown Band, an Atlanta-based folk group, for June 21 and Modest Mouse and Brand New, two indie bands, for Aug. 9. The concert promoters aim to plan up to four more shows this summer.

Close to 70 people packed into Our Lady of Mercy Church Monday to share their thoughts. Complaints ran the gamut, from a “pop-up shop” hawking gear on front lawns to throngs of concert-goers clogging the path to subway stations.

But others spoke passionately about the need to preserve a structure built in 1923 to host the US Open and went on to welcome music giants such as Bob Dylan and Barbra Streisand. The city considered landmarking the structure, but decided restoring it would be too expensive.

Mike Luba, of Madison House Presents, said selling roughly 16,000 general admission tickets for the Mumford & Sons concert proved too many. Going forward, he said Madison House Presents would limit admission to roughly 13,000 for seated concerts and 14,000 for standing concerts. An assigned seating system will be used to discourage attendees from arriving early in pursuit of good spots.

Luba said neighbors would be given access to advanced ticket sales and deals.

He noted that a permanent stage would be arriving within weeks. Reinstalled seats, wider aisles and new handrails are also in the works.

“It was a good learning experience for us all,” Luba said of the Mumford & Sons concert. “It’s a little tricky getting a 100-year-old stadium back up and running.”

So it wasn't landmarked because LPC decided that restoring it was too expensive, but it's being restored now, so why not landmark it?

My favorite line of the piece, from Karen Koslowitz: “Mumford & Sons, this isn’t really my kind of music. I like Jay-Z. And my grandson just e-mailed me today that July 11 they’re going to be at the Giants’ stadium, so Jay-Z’s not coming here.”

Arthur Ashe stadium to get a roof

From CBS New York:

After years of U.S. Open weather woes, the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens is ready to serve up some major changes.

As CBS 2’s Tony Aiello reported Wednesday, engineers have finally figured out how to mount a retractable roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium – the main venue for the U.S. Open. It is considered an overhead smash against Mother Nature.

For the last five years, rain has pushed the U.S. Open final from Sunday to Monday.

“The players are very upset about the finals’ being postponed to Monday. They have Davis Cup the next week — that’s interfered there. The fans are unhappy,” said Dan Kaplan of SportsBusinessDaily.com.

The obvious solution is to design and build a retractable roof over center court, but as recently as last summer the United States Tennis Association said putting a roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium was an engineering impossibility and couldn’t be done.

The USTA said the stadium was built on swampland and could sink under the weight of a roof. But Kaplan said the organization has figured out a fix.

“What they’re planning to do is rip out a lot of the very heavy seating in the upper decks,” he said. “That will reduce the weight.

Since they can put a roof on it, why not make it permanent so that the community doesn't have to deal with the noise from re-routed planes?

Phony park group stands on phony platform

Parks Platform 2013 - White Paper

Note #7:

"Parkland alienation should not occur unless no other land is available to serve an essential public need."

Of course! That's why this partner of the NYC Parks Dept and self-proclaimed "park advocacy" group, New Yorkers for Parks, not only gave their blessing to parkland alienation for a non-essential private need: a walkway at the USTA National Tennis Center, but they also brokered the deal that allows the USTA to dictate where their paltry annual donations to the park will be spent, and also will be looking the other way while cars are parked on grassy parkland that the USTA doesn't lease during their annual tournament, which amounts to a secondary alienation.

And #8:

"State and local laws regulating parkland alienation should be strengthened to require earlier and broader notification of alienation actions, and to mandate acre-for-acre replacement of lost parkland."

Another no brainer! Which is why Holly Leicht, Executive Director of New Yorkers for Parks, squealed with delight to the newspapers when the USTA pulled some phony baloney and "swapped" tennis courts it was leasing for land that it wants (and will still get to use the land it "gave up").

It's so easy to see through this group's hypocritical bullshit, yet the media takes them seriously. Well their free ride ends here.

These people are not park advocates and do not speak for us. They are nothing more than shills for the City of New York.

Concerts coming to Forest Hills Tennis Stadium

From the NY Times:

After decades of languishing in obscurity and disrepair, one of the most famous sports and concert sites in New York will again reverberate with the sound of live music.

The Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Queens, which opened in 1923 and has played host to Jimmy Connors and John Lennon, sits next to an expanse of grass and clay tennis courts at the West Side Tennis Club, the stadium’s owner. Club officials and a promoter have an agreement to hold 19 concerts over the next three years.

The stadium is still in shoddy condition, and after an accelerated renovation to make it ready, one concert is planned there this summer — an Aug. 28 show by Mumford & Sons — followed by six in each of the next three summers.

This summer’s concert will serve as something of a pilot, to convince residents of Forest Hills Gardens, the exclusive neighborhood of elegant Tudor homes around the stadium, that the concerts will not be a nuisance, said the club’s president, Roland Meier. Concerts have not been welcomed in the neighborhood in the past.

Mr. Meier said he hoped the concerts — which will begin as the club celebrates its 100th anniversary in Queens, and the stadium turns 90 — would finance the refurbishing of the stadium and lead to the return of tennis and other top events.

Electeds tell USTA that their support can be bought

Crowley-Moya-Ferreras letter to USTA by

Summary:

"Build it union, publicize some free clinics and drop a bundle into the coffers of the Flushing Meadow-Corona Park Conservancy and we'll let you do whatever the hell you want.  Just make it look like we got something out of you so the stupid voters keep returning us to office.

Yours truly,

The Three Tweeding Stooges."

They want to build WHAT in Flushing Meadows?

Check this out from A Walk in the Park:

Queens Community Board 7's Parks Committee convened forty-eight hours after a lively full-board meeting where more than a dozen members of the public came out to testify in opposition to the USTA's controversial $ 500 million dollar plan to expand again into Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

The Parks Committee expected the Parks Department and the USTA to come back with concrete financial numbers to be spent on "park improvements," in exchange for being allowed to build on almost an acre of parkland.

That did not happen.

Instead, officials spent a good portion of the night avoiding questions and answering in half-truths.

Board members brought up a host of issues - the loss of parkland, destruction of trees, increased traffic and pollution, high prices of playing at the National Tennis Center, and the city's lack of commitment to take care of the park among others. Despite repeated requests from the board the USTA has still refused to put its expansion presentation on-line for all to see.

Parks and USTA officials said they have already lined up State Assembly Member Jeffrion L. Aubry and State Senator Jose Peralta to introduce the alienation bill, which does not require park replacement. They did not identify the City Council member who will sponsor a Home Rule message that is also required.

"And yes, the Parks Department really need to do a better job of paying attention to the largest green space in the largest borough instead of spending so much damn attention to Central Park and Prospect Park," said Parks Chair Kim Ohanian closing the meeting. "And we are sick and tired of getting short changed. You guys treat us like crap and we're tired of it. Ok?" she continued.

"You spend very little money on this park. You have neglected it, you have treated it like garbage and it's not right.

You don't spend enough money to take care of it. You don't have enough help, and don't spend enough money and you don't treat it right.

There's no reason why the Fountain of the Planets looks the way that it does. You've neglected it, you've neglected a lot of that park and shame on you."

"Please be prepared have answers to the questions that were presented to you tonight."

We ask questions we deserve answers. We don't get them they don't get theirs."

The meeting was adjourned until the first week in March.

(When CB7 will vote yes anyway...)

From The Fairness Coalition:

2) Power Plant in the Park?
The plan calls for building a dirty diesel fuel power plant inside the park. Hidden inside the most recent DEIS report, the USTA seeks to build an 8 Megawatt, 20 foot high diesel-fueled power plant. Surrounding communities already suffer from air quality and asthma rates at epidemic levels. This power plant will emit a massive amount of air pollution into the park and surrounding communities. (page 11-17 DEIS Jan 2013)

So Hevesi, Koslowitz, Peralta and Aubry think a power plant inside Flushing Meadows is a great idea? How much payoff did these morons get from the USTA?

Public says no to parkland grab

From DNA Info:

Activists and residents called a proposed $500 million U.S. Tennis Association expansion in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park a “land grab” during a meeting Monday night in an attempt to sway the community board's parks committee, which is considering the issue later this week.

“They already have a huge chunk of land and now they want more,” John Kelly, a retired Flushing resident, said at Monday's meeting. “Do you think they would try to commercially develop Central Park or Prospect Park? I think not."

Another Queens resident, Ben Haber, accused the USTA of not being a good neighbor.

"There is no justification for the USTA's request other than they want to make more money, the bulk of which goes into the pockets of the professional players and its commitments throughout the United States — not Queens," he said. “Your obligation is to protect the park not just for the current residents of Queens, but for generations as yet unborn.”

A statement from state Sen. Tony Avella, who strongly opposes the USTA expansion, was also read at the meeting.

“In my opinion, this is perhaps the biggest land grab of parkland not only in Queens, but also in the entire city,” the statement read. “Parkland is sacred. The three projects will result in elimination of crucial parkland from our borough’s most prominent park, which provides open space and recreational benefits to thousands of borough residents."

Edwin Westley from Community Board 3, which includes Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst and North Corona, said he believed more than 400 mature trees would be chopped down - citing an environmental study - and that the project would significantly increase transportation problems in the area.

“I would urge you to vote 'no',” he told CB7 members. “I know my Community Board is going to vote 'no' on this proposition.”

Being caught totally off guard, the USTA and City made sure to pack the CB9 meeting the following night with union members and tennis players. When you were 13 years old, did you even know what a community board was?

They'll take it, because they can

Back at Flushing Meadows again, the 2013 hotbed of activity.

Now we're taking a look at the USTA.

Here's what's there now, courtesy of Save FMCP:


and here's their proposal:

They want to build not one, but two stadiums - demolish and replace the one on the upper right and add one on the bottom left, killing a boatload of trees in the process. All because they claim that they can't be competitive with other countries. There haven't been any advances in the sport that require new facilities. I don't see how this makes them more competitive or why their alleged predicament should be a problem that Queens residents need to help them solve.

The US Open isn't going anywhere. This is just an attempt to get more free land at taxpayer expense.

And shame on you, Andy Hevesi.

56 acres and 400+ trees will be lost to FMCP projects

Information concerning three large projects proposed by private business interests, that threaten more than 50 acres of Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, New York City.

Hope you folks like tennis (and have money to burn)

From Crains:

Community leaders say the USTA should have to replace the 0.68-acre strip that will become part of the complex, which hosts the U.S. Open every summer. Instead, the city plans to ask for a still- undetermined financial commitment from the tennis organization to refurbish parkland nearby. Money is one thing the USTA seems to have in abundance: Its CEO received total compensation of $1.4 million in 2010, and 12 employees were paid more than $400,000, according to a Crain's review of its latest available financial filings.

But the Bloomberg administration has decided the USTA will not have to replace the parkland because the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is open to the public 11 months a year and serves the community.

"In the case of USTA, we decided improvements in the park will provide a greater benefit than scrounging for a small parcel someplace else," said Joshua Laird, the Parks Department's assistant commissioner for planning and parklands. "We like the USTA; we like having the tennis center in Queens. The Open itself is important to the city."

With Major League Soccer eyeing the same Queens park for a 25,000-seat stadium, the community is fiercely defending every inch of remaining recreational space.

"The general sentiment of the families we work with that live near the park is that the USTA is not at all accessible," said Joseph McKellar, executive director of the Queens Congregations United for Action. The courts, for which the USTA charges $40 to $66 an hour, are too expensive for many in the neighborhood, he said. "The sentiment is, 'Wow, they already don't do much for folks in the community, and now they want to take even more of the public space.' "

From what I understand, "Parking Lot B" in the upper right hand corner of the above map is where they want to build their new stadium.

What it all boils down to

From an Op-Ed in the Daily News:

Bloomberg-preferred developer the Related Companies in partnership with Sterling Equities, the real estate firm controlled by the owner of the Mets, have plans to build a 1.4 million-square-foot mall and parking garage. The majority of the land for the $3 billion Willets Point project would be taken from parkland adjacent to Citi Field currently used for parking. The administration is attempting to get away with not alienating the land as is required under state law in order to use parkland for non-park purposes.

The city is desperately trying to rely on a 1961 bill that never replaced parkland used for Shea Stadium.

If the 40-plus acres being proposed for mall use are no longer needed for parking then it should revert back to its original recreational use. Our elected officials should be pushing for that instead of giving away our public spaces to the highest bidder.

Major League Soccer is pushing to build a 35,000-seat professional soccer stadium on up to 13 acres. The $300 million plan calls for filling in the former Pool of Industry from the 1964 World’s Fair.

Proponents of the project have sought to characterize the site as decrepit and “under-utilized.” One of the more absurd MLS claims is that it’s a water body and that only 1 acre of grass would be used.

According to that philosophy, our water features, which make up fully one-third of all city parkland, are okay to develop. Besides providing pleasant views, the fountain area is used for jogging, as well as for wildlife.

Unlike the Willets Point deal the city is requiring MLS to replace park land. But these replacement park facilities would not provide the same usefulness, location or value.

As part of a $500 million expansion, the U.S. Tennis Association plans to build a 15,000-seat stadium and an 8,000-seat stadium, as well as two parking garages adding 500 spaces.

The city Economic Development Corp. is also irresponsibly attempting to push this massive project through without conducting a full environmental review of all three projects, needed to assess the cumulative impact.

If our officials were truly interested in creating jobs, start by taking care of the park. For decades people have fought for the city to care for this vital resource.
Elected officials should be supporting the hiring of desperately needed permanent workers to maintain, program and secure the park. They have continuously allocated a fraction of the park funds needed and instead have been increasing making deals that commercially exploit them.

USTA opposed to soccer stadium

From the NY Times:

...the United States Tennis Association could prove the most intriguing and deep-pocketed opponent of the soccer stadium. Many local residents look with suspicion on the U.S.T.A., as it, too, plans to take another small bite out of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. It wants to build a new tennis facility and parking garages. (Officials note in their defense that more than half of the fans at the United States Open tournament arrive by mass transit.)

This said, the tennis association often is a reasonable neighbor. When it cut a deal with the Dinkins administration to build a new facility in the early 1990s, it agreed to build dozens of tennis courts and let residents use them most weeks of the year.

The tennis association also pays about $2.5 million a year to the city, although Bloomberg budget officials set aside no specific portion of that tithe for Flushing Meadows.

Tennis officials view a soccer stadium with concern. Unlike Citi Field and the National Tennis Center, a soccer stadium in the middle of the park would sit a substantial distance from subways and trains. And it most likely would require more roads and parking, crossing close to the tennis center.

And soccer officials have spoken of using the stadium for concerts, all of which would make it a cacophonous neighbor for the tennis complex.

“It raises a lot of concerns for us,” said Gordon Smith, executive director of the association. “We ought to be considered in a very different light, because we raise almost none of those complications.”

Tennis Stadium to be sold?

From the Queens Tribune:

Club leaders are seriously considering a deal to sell off land at the historic West Side Tennis Club for $17 million, leaving the decaying Forest Hills Tennis Stadium alone.

The potential sale of the land, which includes several of the club's five clay courts, could lead to the development of new apartments, a source close to the deal told the Queens Tribune. Five clay courts lie on the club's property and the deal may not include a sale of all five. The developer, who WSTC General Manager Mauro Piccininni declined to identify, would be able to build low-rise attached houses and small multifamily apartment houses, which City zoning permits.

Two Forest Hills-based developers have been mentioned as potential buyers, though WSTC would not confirm the names of the companies.

Any deal agreed upon by the developer and WSTC's Stadium Committee would be subject to two thirds approval by voting-eligible members. The Forest Hills Gardens Corporation would have to rubberstamp the deal as well.

USTA plans to gobble up more parkland

From the Daily News:

Not every aspect of the U.S. Tennis Association’s proposed expansion in Queens is an ace right down the middle in the court of public opinion.

Advocates are yelling “fault” at the proposal to build two parking garages in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, saying they have no place in the greenspace.

The garages are included in the $500 million expansion plan for the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center announced last month.

The two garages — two and three stories — to be built on the footprint of current surface-level parking, would add 500 spaces.

But several community board members and parks advocates panned the proposal.

“Queens is getting to be a parking lot. It’s wrong,” Eugene Kelty, chairman of Community Board 7, said during Wednesday’s hearing. “We’re not building parking garages. I can’t see my board voting that way.”

The park falls under the jurisdiction of Community Boards 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8.

Future of West Side Tennis Club