Broken Promises: The City’s Replacement Park Scheme for the New Yankee Stadium Project
In June 2005, without a single public hearing and over the course of just eight days, City and State elected officials alienated 25.3 acres of historic South Bronx parkland to allow the New York Yankees to build a new stadium. As part of this action, the Bloomberg and Pataki administrations and the Yankees organization repeatedly promised the community that not only would the parks be replaced but even more parkland would be provided in return.
However, a close examination reveals that just 21.78 of the 25.3 acres are actually being replaced, resulting in a net loss of nearly 4 acres. Whenever this deficiently has been exposed, the City’s Department of Parks and Recreation has constantly altered the numbers to create a false impression. Of the replacement park acreage the city now claims, 58% (12.5 acres) already existed as either mapped parkland or, in one case, as a school yard.
Also lost is the long promised dedicated funding desperately needed to maintain the replacement parks. And that’s only the beginning of the broken promises.
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Issues and Concerns on the Proposed Parkland Conversion for the Yankee Stadium Project as it applies to the Federal land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 and the National Environmental Policy Act
Prepared by Lukas Herbert, AICP
Member of Community Board 4, Bronx and the
Friends of John Mullaly and Macombs Dam Parks
and
Geoffrey Croft, President
NYC Park Advocates
and
Jeffrey S. Baker, Esq.
Young, Sommer, Ward, Ritzenberg, Baker & Moore, LLC
Attorneys for Save our Parks
Revised August 14, 2006