Today's Park Quote from Mayor Bloomberg and One from the Past

Part of a smaller metering and regulating station in an industrial park not a recreational park

Parkland is “not the only thing people need,” Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday as he defended plans to build a soccer stadium in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. “It’s not irreplaceable.” I get a real kick out of Boss Bloomberg's statements on parks. But this quote from the NY post gets even better. “In fact, there’s an old airport, Flushing Airport, which is going to be turned into a park. So the total parkland would be the same,” added the mayor. “On balance there’s an enormous amount of new park land,” he said. “But it’s not the only thing people need. A lot of people want a stadium to enjoy soccer.” This is a 2013 quote. I don't know what the ratio is of people who want to enjoy soccer is versus the people who use parks is, but I think what the mayor actually means is there is some money to be made by some people by building a stadium.

Back in 2011 --“Here in New York, we feel such a strong sense of pride for our parks, I want to thank Secretary Salazar and the rest of the Obama administration for their ongoing support of the city’s parks and other national jewels within the five boroughs,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “As part of the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative, we look forward to working with the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service to enhance the largely undiscovered beauty of the Gateway National Recreation Area.” http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/Salazar-Bloomberg-Launch-Great-Urban-Park-Vision-for-New-York-City.cfm

One of my favorite parts of that DOI press release is this whopper: "The National Park Service will undertake urban design plans for Floyd Bennett Field on Jamaica Bay that is surrounded by the most dense and diverse population in any national park area. NPS will also work to revitalize the community gardens at Floyd Bennett Field as a tool to increase urban residents’ access to fresh vegetables, and to the outdoor gardening experience." And by that I think what was really meant was that they were getting ready to push a bill through Congress to build a pipeline through the park and place a metering and regulating facility in Floyd Bennett Field next to a community garden that seems pretty vital all on its own.

Meanwhile over at the Rockawave they have taken to giving Gateway a new nickname, Gateway National Disgrace Area, which I like, but they seem to think that the city is actually going to be an improvement over NPS, which I think might mean that they are dreaming.  The park is for sale.

Maybe they better get started with postcards from park users

I read a curious article a week or so ago about a threat to some national parks. It was curious to me because it began with the line "Teddy Roosevelt must be rolling over in his grave" and the line seemed familiar to me as I think an archer at Floyd Bennett Field wrote something pretty similar on one of Joe's postcard campaign letters against HR2606. The article is curious to me for a few reasons. One of them being a report mentioned written apparently by the National Parks Conservation Association, who was just gung-ho about HR2606, but maybe that's because the chair of that organization is a certain wealthy mayor's business partner totally in favor of the Rockaway Pipeline Project through Gateway National Recreation Area, specifically the pipe through Jacob Riis Beach and the Floyd Bennett Field metering and regulating facility. Who knows? It's a possibility right?  The report by the NPCA reminded of another report acredited to the National Park Service that I also wrote a post about last August. It's an interesting little circle. Now all I have to do is hear that the writer of the deSmog article lives in Brooklyn and I will just fall right over from all of this interestingness happening at once.

On second thought. Maybe the NPCA should save money on stamps as I think it takes too long for people in power to read postcards?

To requote a line I got from Ken Burns documentary on the National Parks page again:
"In his speech, Roosevelt reminded people of the essential democratic principle embodied by the parks; they were created "for the benefit and enjoyment of the people." These words were later carved into the arch's mantle as a reminder of why the park was there – and for whom.

The parks are for the people? Who knew. I've read a ridiculous amount of material in the FERC files on the Rockaway Project and very rarely do I read about people.

Guy's Salad Bar

 and the tulip I crushed below weeding. I'd never had so many weeds in my community garden plot before or started the season so late. I usually mulch with straw over the winter. But I also have never seen so manylady bugs in my garden in early spring before while weeding, so maybe it's a fair tradeoff after all. Maybe it means my garden was meant to be just a litte bit more on the fallow side this year and that's ok.

(Guy's salad bar though I believe could rival Trader Joe's. I kid you not ever.  My neighbors rock the garden. Now is that a pretty cold frame you could line up with a plate at or what? It's April.)

A Plant and What's Still Wild in the News

Bloodroot bloom at Floyd Bennett Field Garden wildlife habitat (not wild, but transplanted)

It's nice to know that when the National Park Service isn't making dubious deals to lease out their land and historic structures to natural gas companies, they spend some time focused on what actually is their business, celebrating some of what is still wild even here in New York City. (Last year's picture, late March.) Because plants are of the wild too, though they do not roar.

Metering Regulating Station Floyd Bennett Field: Today's Quote

  

                  Protect Your Parks Postcard Letterwriting campaign run by Joe against HR2606

 

 

"No action that is the subject of an ongoing NEPA analysis or that would

limit the choice of alternatives undergoing NEPA scrutiny should be taken

until the NEPA process is complete (1506.1). This includes design work,

funding pieces of a project, choosing building contractors, and so forth."

Today's quote brought to you by Director's Order 12 Handbook

 

 

That is an interesting quote to consider in regards to the proposal to place an acre natural gas facility in historic hangars in Floyd Bennett Field. Because in that case, historic hangars in Floyd Bennett Field went from not being even on an alternative list to the preferred choice for the facility, testified in support of on HR2606 by the National Park Service in Congress before all public notice, commenting and before even public scoping for environmental review that came as part of the FERC process on the project.

 

So let's see now if the National Park Service's decision to place this facility in those hangars which seems to have come in September 2010 requiring no public input or environmental review effects the NEPA process and placement of that facility in the Rockaway Lateral Project or not. We are still waiting on a draft EIS on that as part of the FERC process for the natural gas pipeline project through Gateway National Recreation Area, but the National Park Service didn't require one for their testimony on that bill. Neither did Congress.

 

 



Metering and Regulating Station site and alternatives circa 2009 about 3 years before the first public meetings were held on the project in April 2012. HR2606 passed in the House in February of 2012 and was testified in support of by the National Park Service in March of 2012. But who am I to say that maybe those public meetings came just a wee late in the process, whether the FERC process or the one that brings us laws?