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Petitioning New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
Protect Parkland at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park
Flushing Meadows-Corona Park (FMCP) is threatened by corporate interests who want this valuable public asset for their own private gain at the expense of the largely working class, immigrant population of Queens. Currently private interests are lobbying city and state officials for rent-free public parkland.
The three proposed plans include:
– A 1.4 million square foot MALL on parkland – would be largest in NYC
– 2 new stadiums and concert venues on parkland
– Several parking garages and new roads inside the park
– 13,000 additional parking spaces in the park and in its surroundings
Most alarming, these three proposals are concurrent, yet there has been no public acknowledgment by the city or any of the applicants of the potential cumulative impacts of these multi-billion dollar demolition and construction projects.
FMCP is the largest park in Queens. Its users are overwhelmingly working class, immigrants and people of color. The park has been poorly funded for years–with budgets far below Central Park or Prospect Park. Currently neither the USTA nor the Wilpon Family (owner of NY Mets) pay any money for the specific upkeep or improvement of Flushing Meadows Corona Park–despite making hundreds of millions in revenue on public land.
About the Three Main Proposals:
– The NY Mets owners, Wilpon Family, proposes to use dozens of acres of parkland land west of CitiField to build the largest shopping mall in New York City–1.4 million square feet. The Wilpons do not intend to pay for the land nor would it replace the parkland. The city is attempting to circumvent the ULURP process by claiming that this project was approved as part of the Willets Point rezoning in 2008. The Fairness Coalition of Queens rejects this attempt to minimize public input.
– The United States Tennis Association seeks to construct two new tennis stadiums, the alienation of additional parkland, and building two parking garages while drastically hampering access to the park by moving a road. The USTA does not intend to pay for the land nor would it replace the parkland.
– An undisclosed owner for a potential Major League Soccer franchise hopes to build a 25,000 seat stadium and concert venue, and parking lot in the heart of the park requiring alienation of 13+ acres of parkland, the dislocation of tens of thousands of parks users especially local soccer players, and substantially increasing automobile and truck traffic within the park and surrounding neighborhoods.