Talk Bronx New York

 Adrian Benepe

Greener Ways As Path For Bronx Under Mayor’s Plan

We are currently in the largest period of park expansion since Robert Moses and the WPA projects of the 1930s.

With a capital budget of $2.9 billion over the next 10 years, we are building innovative parks and facilities across the city on an unprecedented scale. From the concrete plants and brownfields that once lined the Bronx waterfront to the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, we are transforming the city with waterfront parks, kayak launches, bike trails, athletic fields, playgrounds and natural areas.

Thanks to the support of Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council, we will care for parks with a robust operating budget of almost $380 million, up from $180 million in 2000.

In the Bronx, new and renovated parks are transforming communities and improving the quality of life. Just in the last five years, more than $158 million has been invested in Bronx park improvements, including new waterfront parks, greenways and recreational facilities.

Over the next five years, Parks will invest more than $600 million to develop park projects in the Bronx, including completing long-unfinished Soundview Park and restoring the High Bridge to create the Bronx’s next great regional parks as part of Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC, a sweeping road map to the sustainable growth of New York City.

Some $220 million comes from the construction of the Croton Water Filtration Plant and is being spent on improvements to over 70 Bronx parks, with 13 complete, 19 in construction and 43 projects currently in design.

Ongoing projects include Seton Falls Park, Mount Hope Playground, Manida Ballfield, Clark Playground, Devoe Park and Aqueduct Lands Playground, and we expect to begin construction on all the remaining park projects before the fall of 2009.

Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post

This Article Was Submitted By a TalkBX Reader.

If You Would Like an Article Posted on TalkBX You Can Send The Article To

TalkBox AT TalkBX.Com or VIA Our Contact Page

Yankee Stadium Land Deal Feels Like Raw Deal To Bronx Community Activist

I know a few readers here have grown tired of my new stadium posts, but I have my reasons for following this story. I’m a firm believer in good government (as is evidenced by my other blog focusing on the MTA), and I don’t think the stadium financing and the land deals represent anything close to good government. So bear with me, and if you don’t like it, read about Huston Street.

The latest news comes in the form of land deal that Bronx activists say will turn former park land into commercial developments. That wasn’t supposed to be part of the original deal. Bill Sanderson has more from the Post:

A sneaky city land “giveaway” will turn over former Parks Department property to real-estate developers - and further infuriate activists in the park-starved South Bronx neighborhood near Yankee Stadium, The Post has learned.

When the city gave up plans for a parking garage on East 151st Street between River and Gerard avenues last fall, the property was set aside for “neighborhood-oriented mixed use, retail or parking,” according to documents…

Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post

Community Calls On City To Quickly Replace Parkland Taken By Yanks Stadium

November 15, 2007

As the Yankees move full speed ahead with construction of their new stadium, community leaders say they want the city to build parkland just as quickly to replace what was taken to make way for the ball field. NY1’s Dean Meminger has been following the stadium story and filed this report.

The Parks Department broke ground Thursday on some of the parkland that is supposed to replace Macombs Dam Park, which was destroyed to make way for the Yankees new stadium.

“Bit by bit we are keeping the promises of building the replacement parks,? said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. ?Also, this is well ahead of schedule compared to the original plans.”

Three million dollars will be spent to put in a synthetic field for baseball and soccer, along with a few other pieces of playground equipment. This new development is happening behind the West Bronx Recreation Center on Jessup Avenue.

But not everyone thinks this new park is actually a good replacement for the parkland taken by the Yankees.

“It is very far, and it is not centrally located like Macombs Dam was,” said City Councilwoman Helen Foster.

The Jessup Avenue parkland is about a mile a way from the old Macombs Dam track and field.

Park advocates say this new field is not really new. They say kids have played here for decades.

“We are obviously happy that this park is being redone, but this has been used for parkland for many years,? said Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates. ?It is disgraceful the city is trying to pass it over as replacement parkland.”

The Parks Commissioner says he is working hard to create as much parkland as possible to replace the 25 acres lost to the new stadium.

“We are going to building three baseball fields adjacent to Yankees Stadium and a soccer field adjacent to the stadium, a baseball field here and a baseball field at P.S. 29,? said Benepe. ?So, in fact, we are getting more fields than we originally had as a part of the project.”

However, residents will have to deal with fewer parks for now. Last week, the Yanks took over the softball field, basketball and paddleball courts on the side of the old stadium to make room for an underground parking garage. A new park will be built on top of it.

Community leaders say they hope the new parks are completed before the new stadium opens in the spring of 2009.

- Dean Meminger

Source: NY1 / Bronx

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post