urbanoutdoors: urban outdoors
- Subject: [cg] urbanoutdoors: urban outdoors
- From: u*@treebranch.com (urbanoutdoors)
- Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2002 16:59:20 -0500
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urbanoutdoors
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From: dave.lutz@treebranch.com
U r b a n O u t d o o r s
No. 79 - Feb 4, 2002
URBAN OUTDOORS is the monthly newsletter of Neighborhood Open Space
Coalition and Friends of Gateway. It reports on citywide public space
issues and the work of hundreds of local civic groups that take an
interest in the spaces. To add someone to URBAN OUTDOORS list: visit
the subscription area of www.treebranch.com. To be removed from the
list reply with: “unsubscribe” in the subject header
"Urban Outdoors is the best city parks newsletter in the U.S. I'm
constantly amazed how your small staff can stay on top of the complex
web of politics, geography, ecology and financial intrigue in the
most complicated city in the country * and make the reading
compelling and entertaining to boot! "
Peter Harnik
Author, Inside City Parks
MAYOR BLOOMBERG APPOINTS A PARKS COMMISSIONER
"Adrian (Benepe) is completely devoted to parks and has worked his
way up the ranks, excelling at each opportunity by finding creative
solutions and being a team player.” Mayor Bloomberg said last week.
“Now he takes the reins of this vital agency in a difficult moment in
our City's history. Our parks and recreation facilities have improved
remarkably over the last years, and Adrian will have the task of
building upon what's been accomplished." Mr. Benepe has been the
Manhattan Borough Commissioner for the Parks Department since 1996.
He is the former Vice President for Issues and Public Affairs at the
Municipal Art Society, and the Director of the Annual Fund and Major
Gifts for the New York Botanical Garden. Benepe's first government
job was in the inaugural class of the Urban Park Rangers, thirty
years ago. NOSC is very much looking forward to working with him.
STATE OF THE CITY INCLUDES PARKS, GREENWAYS AND WATERFRONT
The following remarks are excerpted from Mayor Bloomberg's first
State of the City Speech:
“We must bring new life to the waterfront, from the North Shore of
Staten Island to the underused waterfront of Brooklyn's Gowanus
Canal. Now is the time for Albany to pass realistic brownfield
legislation that will allow old waterfront sites to be converted into
housing, parks and other developments. We must also develop a
strategy to make sure that Governor's Island is returned to our City
with new educational activities that are economically feasible and
environmentally sound. And today, I want to announce that we will
complete a multi-use recreational path around the entire edge of
Manhattan. The success of the Hudson River Park demonstrates the need
to make our entire waterfront accessible to walkers and cyclists.
I am especially pleased to support the planned renovation of
Randall's Island, which will include an entertainment center along
with new and improved athletic facilities. The planned improvements
at Randall's Island will create 350 summer jobs for youth and help
attract additional commercial life to the three surrounding boroughs.
New York City will also compete aggressively for the 2012 Olympics.
The Olympics provide a unique opportunity to reinforce New York's
role as the premier world city, to build new athletic facilities in
all five boroughs, and to link our dynamic immigrant neighborhoods to
the world community of nations.”
“STARQUEST!”
At his last “State of the Parks” address Henry Stern noted that Coney
Island's three avenues, Neptune, Mermaid and Surf all referred to the
sea, but the streets also referred to their geographic position.
“Neptune is north. Mermaid is middle. And Surf is south.” Memory
experts point to the value of linking abstract information with
visual images, and Henry Stern has used this device by naming parks,
triangles, parts of parks and even renaming people. “Cough Triangle”
is easier to remember than “the triangle in the shadow of the Gowanus
Expressway on Hamilton Avenue.” The personal “park names” that have
become his trademark may have also started as a memory tool, but
quickly became a way of tying people together in a special “club” of
parks employees, volunteers, and civic leaders. The ceremonies that
accompanied the “park name” conferred a special kind of citizenship
upon the people that have given something of themselves to Parks.
Mr. Stern's long tenure and his driving ambition to leave a better
parks system behind will insure his place in the City's history. We
thank Henry Stern for a far larger, cleaner, greener, newer, and more
aggressively managed park system. He was a champion of bringing in
ambitious young people and working them hard. He believed in the
importance of good agency communications; thus he printed a daily
newsletter. He quickly adapted new technologies when he thought he
could wrest productivity improvements from them. His employees were
tied to management with cell phones instead of walkie-talkies.
Mr. Stern was well known as a master of public relations. When an
angry restaurant owner called in the media to complain of fines
received for locking bicycles to trees, he publicly defended the
trees and then quietly killed the fines on the theory that the
publicity value of the “civics lesson” was more valuable than the few
dollars so collected. It was a trick that he turned to over and over
in order to convince New Yorkers to respect their public spaces. He
was not above taking on the role of the clown, (think Shakespeare) if
he thought it would get attention and help the parks.
STERN THE PRIVATIZER
Mr. Stern was an advocate for Parks privatization, but he often
walked such a line of good taste in these endeavors that we rarely
were able to pick a good fight with him. He used private contractors
in the parks when he felt that they could provide a productivity
measure for his own employees or when he felt that special skills
were better purchased than employed. Although some of the new
pay-for-use arrangements can close parks to the public for weeks at a
time, most are temporary, seasonal, or represent a negligible
fraction of the parks space and can often be said to serve the park
in some way. Some arrangements with sports promoters for parks space
are closing parks to casual use. The privatization of parks will most
likely continue to be an issue in a new cash-starved administration.
When we started Urban Outdoors at the beginning of Mr. Stern's
current stint as Parks Commissioner, we were depressed about
conditions in the parks. They had deteriorated to the point of
abandonment. Eight years later, the parks are in far better shape. We
thank Henry Stern for his years of caring, building, promoting, and
managing New York City's great parks system. We wish him luck in his
new role, as he has stated his intent to stay in public service.
NEW $ FOR BROOKLYN GREENWAY
Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez has announced the acquisition of over
$1 million dollars in Federal transportation funds to study ways to
provide access to the planned Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBP). Greenway
planning, on both sides and through the park are included in the
scope of the work to be stewarded by the BBP Local Development Corp.
This potential greenway segment would hug the edge of the working
waterfront, north and south of the park and connect to Red Hook,
bringing visitors to the landmark Civil War era warehouses, Red Hook
Park and the Gowanus Canal.
But if some local City engineers have their way the trail will
quickly be degraded to an on-street painted-stripe before it reaches
the historic shipping basins of Red Hook. The engineers are
attempting to widen local roads through the Columbia Street district
as part of a water pipe project at the same time that the City is
proposing “traffic calming” by narrowing street entrances in adjacent
neighborhoods. They claim that widening streets will make them
“safer” although they are presently statistically among the safest in
the city. What is needed is a broader appreciation of the quality of
life issues involved in making streetscape changes to accommodate
community greening.
The Port Authority, by charter, a bi-state transportation agency, is
showing signs of more creative thinking. They have already
contributed much of the land that will become Brooklyn Bridge Park,
and they have shown flexibility on greenway issues in the Columbia
Street area. Their idea for a “green port”, being widely discussed
among “city civics” could include a trail alongside a newly
revitalized Sunset Park container port. If so, it would be possible
to have an almost continuous trail from the Manhattan Bridge to
Gowanus Canal to the existing bike path on Shore Parkway.
WHY BUILD GREENWAYS?
At first, the NYC Department of City Planning's greenways system
(www.planning.nyc.gov) seemed a daring idea. The goal was to squeeze
a series of landscaped bicycle/ pedestrian trails into the existing
fabric of the most densely populated city in the United States, using
the urban fringes like the green space along highways, partially
abandoned rail routes, and the edges of the city's waterfront. The
agencies and non-profit groups that proposed and planned the effort,
including the Neighborhood Open Space Coalition, had no idea if the
trails would be successful, and had little idea of where the funding
would come from. Now, with federal funding in place, and with every
piece of new greenway bringing out a host of new users, the need for
such facilities is no longer questioned.
The greenways, whether in NYC or in Ohio, increase the physical
activity levels of nearby residents, and with obesity reaching crisis
levels in the United States, the small investment in prevention will
save billions in money spent to treat heart conditions, asthma,
diabetes and cancers that are caused in part by lack of physical
activity. The greenways also reduce road congestion and improve air
quality. Those people that choose to bike or walk to work or even
drive less in their leisure hours are opening space on our crowded
roadways. The green along the greenways are changing greenhouse
gasses back to oxygen at a surprising rate. (www.coloradotrees.org
<http://www.coloradotrees.org> -- original research posted is from
Brooklyn, NY) The greenways also stimulate local tourism and economic
activity. Greenways provide access to the waterfront, and link
parkland, communities, and natural areas.
NEXT STEPS
The City's greenways system, if fully constructed, could put a trail
within 15 minutes of every NYC resident. It could also include an
urban link in a Maine to Florida East Coast Greenway. All New Yorkers
should take a look at the crowded Hudson River trail to immediately
understand the health and quality of life implications of building
the system.
New Yorkers need to let elected officials know that this is
important, and can be funded largely with federal funds… and our
elected officials need to get involved. Mayor Bloomberg's office
should coordinate DOT compliance with the City's Greenways Plan and
see that the results include landscaped trails both inside and
outside the City's parks. Mayor Giuliani, to his credit has supported
the trails, but has not been involved in the nitty-gritty of insuring
that the work is done. Council Members and State Legislators must
find match money for Federal greenways projects and fund some trails
entirely with local funds. Our Congressional delegation must get
together to fund a pool of greenway projects all over the city.
GOIN FISHIN'
"Shall I go to heaven or a-fishing?" pondered naturalist author Henry
David Thoreau (1817-1862) in his great book, “Walden” (1854).
Anglers casting lines into the Hudson River needn't choose for
Battery Park City is a fishing paradise. Anglers - experienced and
non who are at least 18 years old and like working with people,
especially children - are invited to attend a free six-session Master
Angler Training Course. Each session offers basic fishing skills
and instruction on marine biology, ecology of the Hudson River
estuary, and environmental concerns. Training starts in April.
Applications must be in by March. In return for the training, master
anglers must commit to volunteering at BPCPC's popular Go Fish catch
and release fishing events, held on Saturdays in May, June,
September, October and November. Info: 212.267.9700, Ext. 361
A NOSC SNAFU:
As the last (January) issue of Urban Outdoors was being sent our “HAL
9000” computer decided to have a temper tantrum. If you tried to
write to us after the issue went out, we probably did not get your
message. HAL was angry at the volume of work, and decided not to talk
to us. He says it is operator error. Please send your notes again and
hopefully we will be able to respond.
A RECORD WALK
110 walkers came out “for the health of it” in January as Paul
Graziano led us along the Astoria waterfront with him. When we began
our Take a Walk, New York! partnership with the NYC Department of
Health, winter walks were not considered a good bet; walks of over 5
miles were out of the question. But we wanted to keep our group
healthy and together through the winter. Easy access to
transportation makes it possible for people who can't go the distance
to enjoy part of each walk. We will continue to do two walks each
month until the spring.
The walks have become roving parties. The shared experience of
walking together provides a social lubricant that helps people get to
know one another. We invite all our readers to Take a Walk, New York!
with us. Find the schedule at www.walkny.org. or below:
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Join NOSC and help keep it coming. Your $35 membership to
Neighborhood Open Space Coalition helps protect NYC's quality of life.
IT'S NEW, ITS FUN, and NOSC and FoG really needs you to do it. Our
web site now has a membership button that lets you join without
snail-mail. Go to www.treebranch.net <http://www.treebranch.net>,
learn about all the great things that we do and click on that NEW
contribution/ membership button for an easier way to join.
Neighborhood Open Space Coalition/ Friends of Gateway
356 Seventh Avenue
New York, NY 10001
212-352-9330
www.treebranch.net <http://www.treebranch.net> * www.walkny.org
<http://www.walkny.org>
--- urbanoutdoors
URBAN OUTDOORS is the monthly newsletter of Neighborhood Open Space
Coalition and Friends of Gateway. It reports on citywide public space
issues and the work of hundreds of local civic groups that take an
interest in the spaces. To add someone to URBAN OUTDOORS list: visit
the subscription area of www.treebranch.com. To be removed from the
list reply to nosc@treebranch.com with: unsubscribe urban outdoors"
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