Parks

First it was a "low-down, muddy, tidal place." Some Native Americans called it "Aquehonga Manacknong, or 'haunted woods.'" In the 1600s, it was settled by "French Huguenots, Walloons, and freed slaves." Henry David Thoreau used to dig for arrowheads there. Brickmakers dug for clay there. John Muir explored there. And then New York dumped trash there.

Robert Sullivan gives Fresh Kills, the 2,315-acre dump that is to become Fresh Kills Park, and the landscape architect undertaking that transformation, a stirring treatment in this week's New York magazine.

That lansdcape architect, James Corner, and his firm Field Operations, which also designed the new High Line, are taking an unusual approach to park design.  read more »

ALBANY—As people from all manner of ideological and interest-group affiliation lobby not to have their funding slashed under a darkening fiscal cloud, parks advocates are arguing for $100 million to improve and bulk up parks infrastructure around the state.  read more »

Tickets for Oscar and Pulitzer winner Bob Dylan's Prospect Park concert tonight are going for upward of $565 each, according to Gowanus Lounge. Meanwhile, tomorrow's print Observer will have a story about a real estate deal that connects to Mr. Dylan.

Coincidence? 

The city’s playgrounds, courts and ballfields received poor marks in a report released today by the nonprofit New Yorkers for Parks, “Spotlight on Recreation: A Report Card on Parks Project.”

Between June and August of 2007, the group inspected 49 randomly selected parks in the five boroughs, three times each, and found fields strewn with broken glass and litter, and many public spaces that were locked or closed to the public with no explanation.

Though the group found that graffiti is generally removed quickly, maintenance repair work was unfinished, done with mismatched materials, or generally sloppy at many of the sites.  read more »

It was Friday afternoon, and William Kelley didn't look dressed for getting down and dirty.

The guy was, frankly, styling, in his blue Ralph Lauren polo, plaid pants and black-framed glasses. The only clue that he’d be spending the next two hours on hands and knees, measuring tree pits and jotting down every dangerous crack, hole, puddle, and spot of graffiti along Union Square East was the enormous metal tape-measure strapped weapon-like to his belt.

Mr. Kelley, director of economic development for the Union Square BID, and his partner Victoria Draper, a Howard University-bound graduate of Washington Irving High School, began their two-hour survey at Galaxy Global Eatery – the vegetarian-friendly diner at the corner of 15th Street and Irving Place that has glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling and hawks galaxy-emblazoned rolling paper at the front desk.  read more »

The Manhattan Supreme Court delayed a hearing scheduled for tomorrow to determine whether an environmental impact statement is required for the city to go forward with a controversial deal to finance the construction of new playing fields on Randalls Island by charging 20 private schools nearly $45 million for exclusive after-school rights to two-thirds of recreational space on the island.

The hearing threatens to halt construction of the new playing fields on the 12.5-acre island, which has continued despite a February court ruling that voided the “pay-to-play” plan for not going through the public review process. Though critics opposed the city’s request for a 30-day extension so it "could explore its options," the court agreed to put off the hearing on an environmental impact statement for the plan until March 5, said Geoffrey Croft, the president of community watchdog NYC Park Advocates.  read more »

A recent report from the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) revealed that Gateway National Recreation Area in Queens and its surrounding environs are in rough shape. Highly polluted water in and around the park, minimal visitor services and the "widespread loss of native species" are just a few of the problems plaguing the park, according to the report.  read more »