Adrian Benepe
Thompson, Marshall Push to Keep Queens Reservoir Wild
The campaign to preserve the wildness of Ridgewood Reservoir in Queens--to stop the city from building athletic fields and a public park--continued today at a hearing before the City Council's Committee on Parks and Recreation.
The committee heard testimony from Adrian Benepe, commissioner of the Department of Parks and Recreation, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, and a written statement from Bill Thompson, who has led the charge against developing the area around the reservoir, which was abandoned in 1989.
The proposal to develop the area into a park has been met by opposition from local community groups, who fear that development would endanger the wildlife (including, apparently, eight rare species of migratory birds). read more »
Jeers Drown Out Cheers at Coney Island Beach Party
"How about making some noise for opening the beach?" Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said from the podium, as brightly dressed protesters standing behind a police line chanted, "Thor no more! Thor no more!"
So began another politically charged season at Coney Island under appropriately gloomy skies on Thursday morning. read more »
Somehow, Park Development Becomes Blood Sport
Expanding parks is not supposed to be this difficult.
“This is the worst situation I’ve ever encountered in terms of [dealings with] the community,” said Carol Greitzer, a former councilwoman from the West Village who helped start a group called 250+ Friends of New York Parks. It opposes many of the Bloomberg administration’s park plans. “They come up with a plan. Maybe—maybe—if you’re lucky, you can tweak it slightly, but that’s about all you can do.” read more »
Arborcide?
It happens in New York City, and it's a crime: the deliberate killing of trees.
Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, according to the Sunday New York Times, encourages anyone who knows about an arborcide to call... 311, sure, but probably 911, too. read more »
A Swaggering Bloomberg, Schwarzenegger's 'Soul Mate,' Sells Big 2030 Plan
Heavy on Pomp and Swagger, Bloomberg Announces 25-Year Plan for the City; Schwarzenegger Declares Mayor His 'Soul Mate'
Pamela Lippe was excited. On Sunday afternoon, the green consultant and executive director of Earth Day New York for 17 years was sitting in one of the hundreds of white and blue chairs lining the American Museum of Natural History's Millstein Hall of Ocean Life, anxious to hear Mayor Michael Bloomberg's speech revealing PlaNYC, the city's 127 new initiatives that are supposed to make New York City "greener" and "greater" by 2030. read more »
Parks Commish: "I'd Be Lined Up and Shot"
Some 95 percent of the weekday after-school permits are controlled by private schools; public schools get just two or three fields a week, according to Sabina Ellentuck, director of Randall's Island Kids & Community.
Why? Because of a Parks Department "tradition" of grandfathering each permit holder from one season to the next, and the private schools were the ones who first migrated to the island years ago.
So, how about ending that tradition and giving priority to public schools to use the present fields there?
"I would suffer the fate of the Czar and his family if I were to get rid of the grandfather clause," Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe told The Real Estate after he came under fiery cross-examination by City Council members who didn't like the way a renovation plan gave precedence to private schools. "I would be lined up in a room and shot."
"Probably the City Council would come after me. The grandfathering creates a reliable way for leagues to know they are going to have fields on which to play each year: all the Little Leagues, all the Catholic schools, all the public schools, all the adult leagues, all the corporate leagues."
- Matthew SchuermanArch Enemies Reverse Washington Square Plan
