NYC Parks Department Motto: Stick to the plans, no matter how irrational or unwelcome they are.

AstroLand Park, Coney Island

The NYC Parks Department never ceases to amaze. Operates as a pure business model. Promotes privatization ventures without fail. Destroys thousands of mature city trees to put forth splashy expensive redesigns of parks. Pitches “MillionTreesNYC” “initiative” with little planning given as to how to care for and maintain the trees. Lets parks fall into disrepair so communities are desperate for change. Redesigns parks that don’t need redesign. Corporate giveaways of parks in areas where they are most needed (see: Yankees. The Bronx.) and the city pays for the new parks. Reduction in public space. No concern for community mandates or input. Manipulates Community Boards, NY City Council, and other city agencies by lack of transparency and purposefully withholding information and misstating plans.

If Mayor Bloomberg did not view city Parks as corporatizing entities that are exploited for their real estate value to property owners, businesses and tourism, and was looking for someone to care for and cherish our Parkland, NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe would be out of a job and working for, say, Chase Manhattan, Madison Square Garden, or, perhaps, Bloomberg LP.

If there isn’t enough confirmation that the Parks Department digs in its heels and won’t abandon its plans no matter what damming evidence is in front of the Commissioner … than take the recent articles about artificial turf, that synthetic substance made from recycled tires that has been placed in 94 parks and ballfields across NYC’s five boroughs thus far.

Today’s Metro NY follows up a story in Saturday’s New York Daily News investigating the high temperatures the artificial turf reaches when a child, adult or animal walks or plays on it.

In Saturday’s (7/5) NY Daily News, Jeff Wilkins and Elizabeth Hays report: “Artificial turf installed in city fields can heat up to a blistering 162 degrees even on a mild summer day, a Daily News investigation has found.” This is twice as high as the temperature of natural grass.

The writers encountered 9 year old Yannick Pena at Macombs Dam Park in the Bronx after he walked on the artificial turf there. He said, “My feet are burning! I had to dump cold water on my shoes just to walk around.”

What would Commissioner Benepe say to that? Commissioner Benepe is, after all, a big advocate of synthetic turf.

Well, Liam Kavanagh, first deputy Parks Commissioner, told the News: “The temperatures can get very high during the heat of the day. But people are smart. They are not going to use a place that is uncomfortable to play on.”

Other than the heat, there are other problems: “Earlier this year, The News reported concerns that the millions of tiny crumbs contain heavy metals like lead and cadmium, as well as volatile organic compounds and other chemicals.”

Deputy Commissioner Kavanagh said the city would begin using a “carpet-style turf” and “plans to stop using the crumb-rubber infill because of excessive heat.”

However, in testing a field at Macombs Dam Park that has the “new turf,” The Daily News found that it also registered “as high as 160 degrees.”

In today’s Metro NY, Patrick Arden reports new signs are now appearing in the NYC parks and ballfields that contain artificial turf. The signs state: “This field can get hot on warm, sunny days. If you experience symptoms of heat-related illness, such as dizziness, weakness, headache, vomiting, or muscle cramps, move to a shaded area. Drink water, rest, and seek medical attention if you do not feel better.”

Metro’s investigation backed up the Daily News report, “One day last month, the artificial turf at Brooklyn’s Cadman Plaza was 165.5 degrees, while a nearby plot of grass measured just 83 degrees. Waves of heat rose from the field.”

Will the Parks Department follow the logical route and abandon their turf dream of installing these substances in 68 more locations? All evidence points to the contrary.

NYC Parks Commissioner Benepe responds to NY Times’ Op-Ed on Ridgewood Reservoir

You really have to read between the lines when New York City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe speaks about plans he wishes to implement in our city parks.

Last week, the New York Times printed Commissioner Benepe’s letter in response to the excellent Op-Ed that Robert Kennedy Jr. and NYC Comptroller William Thompson Jr. wrote defending the natural beauty of Ridgewood Reservoir which lies on the Queens-Brooklyn border.

Ridgewood Reservoir, at one time the source of the water supply for the City of Brooklyn, had been abandoned. Natural vegetation arose in the spot and it has become a wildlife habitat. It abuts Highland Park and the two are considered aligned. Commissioner Benepe wishes to destroy the natural habitat that has come to life there, tear down and pave over a large swath, and replace it with landscaped areas and artificial turf fields.

Printed below is Commissioner Benepe’s letter and some points in response. Note: Commissioner Benepe’s method is typically not to respond to the main criticisms but to reiterate his selling points. Save Ridgewood Reservoir had some good counterpoints to his letter also which I’ve interspersed below.

• To the Editor:

• One of the key goals of PlaNYC, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s far-reaching plan to fight global warming and create a more livable city, is to ensure that every New Yorker lives within a 10-minute walk of a park or open space.

Counterpoint: Parks Department cuts down thousands of City’s Mature Trees, Vegetation

If this was accurate, then why has the New York City Parks Department, under Commissioner Benepe and Mayor Bloomberg, not preserved the mature trees in city parks? Instead, as they plan with Ridgewood Reservoir, they have been cutting down significant numbers (thousands) of mature trees in parks in the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens solely because they are in the way of their redesign plans.

Save Ridgewood Reservoir commented: A study showed the cooling effect of trees and other vegetation, an effect that would be severely diminished if Commissioner Benepe cut down the trees and other plants within any of the reservoir’s basins. In fact, an association of manufacturers of artificial recreational surfaces acknowledges that artificial turf surface temperatures can be as much as 30 degrees hotter than natural turf. In his haste to replace the city park’s natural surface fields with artificial material, Commissioner Benepe is clearly working against his boss’s stated goal.

• Highland Park in Queens is one of eight large underdeveloped parks where we are expanding access to help achieve this goal.

Counterpoint: Parks are not “underdeveloped” but are undermaintained

The New York City Parks Department’s has a pattern: Forego necessary repairs and maintenance within a city park for a long period of time. The community inevitably becomes desperate for something to be done. At that point, the Parks Department swoops in with a plan for a total (typically unwelcome) redesign of that park. (See: Washington Square Park.)

For an underfunded City Agency, the Parks Department ought to focus on maintenance and repair instead of elaborate reconstructions. However, that’s not quite as splashy.

As Save Ridgewood Reservoir stated, “Highland Park is not underdeveloped, it’s under maintained. … Instead of fixing the obvious problems and improving an existing park, the city would rather spend $40 million on creating another park.

• As with all of these projects, the city holds listening sessions with community residents to incorporate their input into the design.

Counterpoint: City’s “listening sessions” do not result in “input” from community being incorporated into design

Anyone who has experienced a Parks Department “listening session” soon realizes that the Parks Department “listening sessions” are held at the point that the Parks Department has already conjured up and blueprinted their plans.

• Many options have been discussed, including one with athletic fields in a small area of the 50-acre Ridgewood Reservoir, an area that is composed primarily of invasive trees and vines that threaten the park’s ecological balance.

Counterpoint: Parks’ “ecological balances” threatened by NYC Parks Department

Save Ridgewood Reservoir rebuts this: “Invasive species are in every park in NYC and, in some parks, are controlled by long-term management plans. I guess that concept hasn’t occurred to the commissioner. The only thing that threatens this ‘park’s ecological balance’ is the removal of trees so that artificial turf fields can be installed.”

• As we begin the design process, we look forward to continued collaboration with the community and with all interested New Yorkers in order to build the best possible park.
• Adrian Benepe, Commissioner, Department of Parks and Recreation
  New York

Counterpoint: Parks Department’s “Collaboration” with communities non-existent

At Washington Square Park, Manhattan Community Board 2 ultimately - but quietly - rescinded its approval of the Parks Department’s plans (after approving them twice). Unfortunately, Commissioner Benepe still uses the initial “approval” as a selling point for his and Mayor Bloomberg’s “plans” for the park. At the heart of it, the community at large never approved of the redesign plans for this park. Their ideas and input were not implemented into the design except in ways that were minimal at best.

Save Ridgewood Reservoir states: “Highland Park and the Ridgewood Reservoir fall within Queens Community Board 5 and Brooklyn Community Board 5. Both boards recently voted to oppose development within the basins and support the mission of the Highland Park/Ridgewood Reservoir Alliance.”

In the News… NYU Student goes for home run at graduation at Yankee Stadium — First time in 32 years graduation not held at Washington Sq Pk

Yesterday, for the first time in 32 years, NYU Students graduated somewhere other than Washington Square Park, and one ambitious student, William Lopez, decided to try for a home run at replacement graduation site, Yankee Stadium. He got to third base before he was tackled by a security guard. (Seriously, he got that far. They couldn’t have let him score a home run?)

As the Daily News reported, “NYU held the ceremony at the Stadium because of ongoing construction at Washington Square Park, where previous graduation ceremonies had been held.”

Lopez is on the cover of many of the papers (Daily News, Metro) and was cheered on by fellow NYU graduates for his pants-less act.

For a picture of it, see the cover of Metro in which Patrick Arden also has an alarming cover story, “City gives a pass to Toxic Turf Ballfields: Shrugs off data indicating heat would release gases from rubber base.”

NYC Parks Department Sticking to Pro-Turf Stance Despite Incomplete Answers from “Review”

The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released its draft report (officially termed a “literature review”) on artificial turf.

The New York Times reports today that the the report “conducted on behalf of the Bloomberg administration says that there is no scientific evidence that synthetic turf fields in New York pose major health hazards for people playing on them.”

The Times piece, written by Timothy Williams, states, “Critics, however, said the study by TRC Companies, an engineering, consulting and construction management company based in Connecticut, would not quell concerns about artificial turf because the analysis was only a review of previous scientific studies and included no original research.

The surface has been used for decades as a playing surface for professional and collegiate athletes, but has proliferated more recently in public parks and schools around the nation as a cost-effective, more durable alternative to grass.

The city’s parks department said that it had installed 77 turf fields since 1997 and that it planned on putting in 23 more.”

NY City Council Members have called for a moratorium on the use of this substance because of health concerns. As the Times notes:

At the heart of the dispute is whether synthetic turf, particularly crumb rubber fields made from recycled tires, places athletes at risk because of the presence of lead and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which have caused cancer and organ damage in animals and may be a cancer risk to people if they are exposed over a long period.

Researchers, however, have not determined conclusively how easily the hydrocarbons — which are also found in toys and other materials — can be absorbed by the human body.

Critics of the fields also say turf creates “heat islands” that can climb as high as 170 degrees because the synthetic surface absorbs sunlight and emits heat. There are also concerns that the fields may exacerbate the risk of serious sports-related injuries.

However, it’s not just athletes who are exposed to this. Bill Crain, a developmental psychologist who works at City College, is one of the leaders exposing these potential problems in our City parks, collaborating with Dr. Jim Zhang. As he reported in his testimony before the City Council, among other concerns, children have been finding the rubber pellets from the parks in their shoes. Crain also researches and writes about the importance of “natural settings” and how they benefit children’s psychological development. (For more information on this, write to him at BillCrain -at- aol.com.)

We also have no idea how this impacts the natural environment and wildlife - squirrels and birds primarily - who interact with this synthetic surface that has been placed in way too many of our city Parks.

Crain, who has not yet seen the report, stated in an email, “The essential research–on the bioavailability of toxicants in the turf (whether they can be absorbed into the body)–has yet to be done to any significant degree. Until we have more research, a moratorium on new installations is a minimum and essential step in the interest of public health.”

In the News… Parks in Bronx…NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe: artificial turf is “safe”

Metro NY reporter Patrick Arden’s consistent reporting on the NYC Parks Department is a welcome presence.

In today’s edition of Metro, Arden reports that there’s some news about the Yankee Stadium “replacement parkland” in the Bronx.

On Friday, the Bloomberg administration opened a new artificial-turf ballfield on an old schoolyard here and billed it as “the first Yankee redevelopment park.”

The city had promised to create replacement parks in the South Bronx to make up for the 25 acres of parkland lost to the new Yankee Stadium project.

Unfortunately, as Arden reports, the new Park is one mile away from the previous parks (Macombs and Mullaly Parks) and in a another neighborhood.

(Didn’t Mayor Bloomberg announce as part of “PlaNYC 2030″ that everyone in New York City should be within ten minutes of a park? … Unless, I gather, they want to build a corporate ballpark there.)

It seems artificial turf is questionable to everyone except for Parks Commissioner Benepe. The Metro article also states:

Last week, two artificial turf fields were closed by New Jersey health officials after detecting high levels of lead. Lead can cause brain damage and other illnesses.

While the concerns arose from surface coloring and airborne dust, many turf fields use crumbled tire rubber, which has also been found to contain lead.

The city’s Health Department is currently compiling its own report.

“There’s no doubt in my mind it’s safe,” said Parks Department Commissioner Adrian Benepe.

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To read more, previous entries covered the Yankee Stadium situation in the Bronx (“Play Ball: How New York City Destroyed Two Bronx Parks”) and also the City Council initiative to end use of artificial turf in our city Parks.