Thursday, October 8, 2009

It's not a demolition

The NYC Parks Dept. held a briefing last night on the state of the Yankee Stadium demolition and the replacement parks, in general. Some highlights:

  • The structural demolition (or as Parks prefers to call it, "deconstruction") of Yankee Stadium will begin next month.
  • They expect the demolition to be completed by opening day next spring (April).
  • "Heritage Field," the park which is to be built on the grounds of the old stadium will include three ballfields....and won't be completed until Fall 2011.
  • Turner Construction, the firm in charge of the Yankee Stadium demolition and New Yankee Stadium construction, will also manage the development of Heritage Field.
  • Of the famous white frieze from Yankee Stadium, 70 out of 72 partitions are to be sold — the other two will be placed behind the backstop at Heritage's softball field.
  • The famous giant bat will be repainted and kept at Heritage field.
  • Macombs Dam Park East, a section of the park that includes a track, a soccer field and two basketball courts is now open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
  • The rest of Macombs Dam Park is expected to be completed by April. It will include a new skate park, but the completion date for that element is "dependent upon weather," because of concrete-mixing issues.
Some issues/complaints aired by area-residents at the hearing:
  • The synthetic turf used for soccer and football fields at the new parks have been known to get inhospitably hot. This is a safety issue we'll write more about. It's a tough debate between natural fields (which during the summer often turn to dust with overuse) and their synthetic counterparts.
  • The 6 a.m. opening time for parks is not conducive to some weekday morning jog schedules — the old tracks were available 24/7.
  • One woman said that either MTA workers or Parks workers have been closing off the only safe pedestrian passage to Mill Pond park. Parks Dept. people are looking into it, but the pedestrian walkway should always be open.
For more info check out the Redevelopment Website.

Posted by Graham Kates at 8:04 AM

4 comments:

  1. there's no way there are 72 pieces of frieze... look at a picture and count, its only 19. theres an error or typo in there somewhere
    ReplyDelete
  2. 70 out of 72 partitions, not 72 frieze(s)
    ReplyDelete
  3. gax in the bronxOct 8, 2009 05:56 PM
    the artificial turf problem is rampant in parks throughout the city.

    but at this point the issue can not be resolved because all the available evidence is anecdotal because the city - possibly illegally - replaced natural grass surfaces with substances that were not properly tested.

    and now, quite after the fact, they insist they've studied it and all materials being used are safe. but unless the problem is assessed scientifically by an objective entity, the issue will forever be in the hands of politicians with their own agendas.

    just a guess... if the city wanted to, they could REALLY address the problem in concert with environmental scientists and collaboratively come up with a substance/method that would balance the overuse and environmental issues to everyone's satisfaction.

    another guess... this city administration ain't going there!
    ReplyDelete
  4. I did some research on the synthetic turf question and wrote about it on my CUNY-Journalism blog. The New York State Department of Health doesn't seem to fond of synthetics. Check out the post...

    http://blogs.journalism.cuny.edu/interactive2010/2009/10/09/synthetic-fields-and-the-injuries-they-cause/
    ReplyDelete

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