Many of you may remember the Waterblogged discussion in November 2009 about the promise to link the east-west passage way in Van Cortlandt Park over I-87.   Link:  http://www.waterblogged.org/pedestrial-bridge-connecting-van-cortlandt-park-east-to-west/

Finally the report was provided in April, and discussion will follow in May at the FMC meeting on the 20th.  Report is on the CB 8 web page under the Croton Water Treatment Plant, Van Cortlandt Park, Pedestrian Bridge Feasibility Study
Van Cortlandt Park Pedestrian Bridge Feasibility Study Part 1
Van Cortlandt Park Pedestrian Bridge Feasibility Study Part 2

Letters of support are being sent to the Community Board 8.  Here are a few:

FIPNA Support Pedestrian Bridge 05182010

BCEQpedestrian_bridge_support05182010

Pedestrian Bridge Support Letter FVCP 051710

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Interesting how the NY Post can get this exclusive, but the community can not get any answers.

Below is the article.  Here is the PDF for the article: Harris Park $14 M Jan 2010

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New York Post – Updated: Thu., Jan. 28, 2010, 1:16 PM

Bronx field now city’s $14M

blunder land

By RICH CALDER, Posted: 2:31 AM, January 19, 2010

A city plan to rebuild one of The Bronx’s biggest sports fields has morphed into a money pit for taxpayers.

Workers renovating Harris Field in Bedford Park recently uncovered contaminated soil under the playing surfaces, helping push the anticipated cost to nearly $14 million, city officials told The Post.

The price tag for the renovation had already gone from the $6.6 million announced in 2007 to $8.7 million, records show.

Now the Parks Department is confirming that it has to add another $5.2 million for cleanup because of the high levels of lead unearthed while workers were preparing to install drainage-system tanks needed to restore the popular park’s six playing fields.

Harris Field used to be part of a reservoir before the city acquired the 15-acre site in 1917.

Department spokeswoman Vickie Karp said it is believed that the park was created with “the use of incinerator ash as fill, which would explain the presence of lead.”

The original playing fields at the park were grass, but the city plans to cover two with synthetic turf.

A Parks Department official wishing to remain anonymous said that contamination wouldn’t be an issue if all the fields were going to be grass but that replacing two with turf requires digging deeper to install the drainage tanks. Karp says this is untrue.

A fiscal 2008 mayoral report showed the Parks Department topped city agencies in cost overruns with projects costing an average of 50 percent more than the original contract price. The city average was 17 percent.

Harris Field is in line to rise by more than 110 percent.

“The project shows just how poorly the city does its due diligence on parks projects,” said Geoffrey Croft, of the nonprofit group New York City Park Advocates, when told of the costs.

The project’s long delays are crippling a popular Little League that plays there.

“The Parks Department only cares about construction, not children,” said Don Bluestone, executive director of the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center.

Bluestone said the nonprofit group’s youth baseball league has gone from 1,000 players to 500 since construction began. He ripped the department for closing the entire park and relocating the league miles away to parks filled with drug dealers and plagued by flooding.

The city’s Web site says construction will be complete by the spring, but Bluestone was preparing to have his league play elsewhere this season.

rich.calder@nypost.com

NEW YORK POST is a registered trademark of NYP Holdings, Inc. (nypost.com , nypostonline.com , and newyorkpost.com are trademarks of NYP Holdings, Inc.), Copyright 2009 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy | Terms of Use

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This was discussed at the last FMC meeting on Nov 5, 2009.  It seemed to catch many by surprise.  The history of the bridge is repeated here for information:

In 1999, the New York City Council passed the ULURP resolution approving the site selection to build a filter plant in Van Cortlandt Park.  The resolution promising certain things, including the Facility Monitoring Committee.

The pedestrian bridge is mentioned in the resolution and on the list of projects.    If the project is feasible, and for some reason, too expensive, then we should be given the opportunity to raise the money elsewhere.  Parks should do the report, then it has to go to the CITY COUNCIL.

HERE ARE THE DOCUMENTS:

• RESOLUTION: Reso 933 of 1999
  
• LIST OF MITIGATION PROJECTS:Mosholu Mitigation Res 993 of 1999

Among the many other items included is this one:

9.) DPR shall undertake a study and impact analysis (the study) to determine whether or not a pedestrian footbridge, crossing the Major Deegan Expressway linking the heretofore and connected east and west portions of Van Cortlandt Park is technically, legally and financially feasible. Said study shall be completed by September 2002 and the results of such study shall be filed with the Speaker of the City Council and the Director of the Land Use Division of the City Council within the ten (10) days of completion. In the event that said study determines that the construction of such a pedestrian footbridge is technically, legally and financially feasible, a Budget Modification, transferring from DEP to DPR funds sufficient to design and build it shall be introduced in the Council by the Mayor within sixty (60) days of the completion of the study;

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The next Croton Facilities Monitoring Committee (CFMC) meeting will be held on Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 7 PM in the DEP’s Contractor’s community office on 3660 Jerome Avenue, Bronx NY 10467 (across from the CWTP between 213th and Bainbridge)

1. Welcome, Call Meeting to Order
2. Consider, Adopt Minutes of    CFMC 4-30 (as revised) and 6-18 Meetings
3. DEP Report on Jobs & Hiring
4. Parks Dept Report on Jobs & Hiring
5. Status Report – Jerome Park Reservoir Public  Access Study
6. Croton Construction Update
7. Discussion, Set Next Meeting CFMC Principals

Topics should include questions concerning the below listed documents:

1.  Comptroller’s Audits

• DEP’s Oversight of Costs to Construct the CWTP, FR09-110A, 9/1/2009 – http://bit.ly/AI5Pr
• DEP’s Progress in Constructing the CWTP, FR08-121A, 9/1/2009 – http://bit.ly/1a4a3E

Community response  WaterBlogged.org » From Guest Pens: Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz – Croton is one of the Mayor’s worst failures http://bit.ly/3Xawfi

2.  Public comments in June and DEP response in September

June Public written:  Why_to_the_DEP_June_2009 (verbal comments in minutes we have not seen yet)

CRO-313-312OS Minor Mod RTC 07-24-09 v2

CRO_Design Commission Response_090728_FINAL

PDC Response 2 – Friend of VCP

3. Community’s response to the Design Commission

Deisgn_Comm_re_Parking_MGH_101309

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(Editor’s note:  We started the category of Guest Pens.  Just send the info in on any one of our comment section (it is always monitored), and I will post.  Some people do not want to use their name, but I have to verify that they are credible. )

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz

3107 Kingsbridge Avenue, Bronx, New York 10463 ● (718) 796-5345

November 1, 2009

The meeting that the five community members of the Croton Facilities Monitoring Committee (CFMC) held in the Amalgamated House’s Vladeck Hall on Thursday, October 29 illustrated conclusively that the water filtration plant boondoggle that is costing taxpayers unnecessary billions and is being grossly mismanaged by a secretive NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is one of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s worst failures.

At the meeting, Deputy Comptroller John Graham explained that the recently released audits by Comptroller Bill Thompson found that the DEP could not account for the astronomical rise in costs as compared with their original budgeting for the project.  Many who attended spoke emphatically that the comptroller’s findings definitively support their long-held claim that the DEP cooked the books in order to see to it that the plant was built in Van Cortlandt Park and to create a lucrative bonanza for contractors and engineers while sticking everyday New Yorkers with an outrageous bill.

Specifically, the comptroller reported that the DEP failed to account for a cost escalation rate above those substantiated by industry indexes such as the Engineering News-Record Construction index of 5.04%, or the Handy-Whitman Index of Public Utility Construction of 5.73%, or the Prevailing Wage Rates of 4.7%.

I agree with the Comptroller:  “(The DEP’s) Underlying estimate was unreliable and lacked sufficient documentation to substantiate its accuracy and completeness.”  The still unanswered question of why they did it and who benefited from it was also raised at the meeting, but not surprisingly, though DEP and contractor representatives were present, they did not participate in the discussion.  What is clear is that we all need to continue our due diligence until the truth is definitively known.

Though not an official CFMC meeting, the gathering was a clear statement to Mayor Bloomberg’s DEP that a majority of the seven-member committee is fed up over the unexplained costs, debilitating and expensive construction delays, and ongoing DEP stonewalling and lack of transparency as indicated in the comptroller’s audit.   It was made clear that at the next CFMC meeting, scheduled for Thursday, November 5 at 7:00 p.m. at the DEP office at 3660 Jerome Avenue, the comptroller’s report is going to be on the agenda and Mayor Bloomberg’s DEP is going to have to attempt to justify their actions and also change the opaque processes which contribute to the scandal on a daily basis.

Since its establishment by the City Council in 2004, the committee charged with monitoring this project was manipulated by the DEP, thereby hampering its work.  However, in 2007 after my office reported that the DEP’s explanation rate for the cost escalation was not correct and that DEP’s stated justifications were invalid smoke screens, the committee finally stood up to then-Commissioner Emily Lloyd, and voted to ask for the audit.  In a pathetic and obvious attempt to avoid inquiry, though the report was issued almost two months ago, the DEP has balked at scheduling meetings of the CFMC until after the mayoral election.

But Thursday’s history-making meeting proves that no matter how much the Mayor controls the Manhattan media, the people of the Bronx must continue to stand strong in the pursuit of truthful information from City Hall and diligence over the administration’s ongoing attempt to hide from scrutiny.

I applaud the work of the community members of the Croton Facilities Monitoring Committee, and look forward to its next meeting on Thursday, November 5 so we can hear what the DEP has to say.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, 81^st AD

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The question has been raised by many who would say that Robert Moses did this, and he did that, and he is responsible for destroying neighborhoods, etc.  Most of these come from the book written while Moses was alive and without the benefit of his archives.

Is it possible that Robert Moses was misunderstood?  Imagine mediating land use stakeholders during his tenure.  What if he negotiated something that although not so nice, was many times better than what the landowners wanted to build.  We understand that Moses was telling the city’s fathers to take care of the CSO problem in order to protect the beaches that he built in the parks.  More on that as time passes.

Let us take one small step into a few pages of documents showing how Robert Moses felt about the Yankees taking parkland, in particular, Macombs Dam Park.

Below is a file from the New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division, Humanities and Social Sciences Library archives:

From the Robert Moses Collection, Box # 79, Folder number/title:  1961 – Coorodinator, Misc. corresp. 5 of 5, Item Description, Yankee Stadium Parking, Number of pages:  13

• June 15, 1961 letter from Moses to Parks Commissioner Newbold Morris: “We established no precedent whatsoever for your action.”

• June 14, 1961 memo from TBTA Arthur Hodkiss to TBTA Commissioner Robert Moses recounting the history of negotiations with the Yankees:

“In 1958 the Yankees demanded that you provide additional parking space around the Stadium.  …………..At the meeting they asked that part of Macombs Dam Park be made available for parking area.  This was refused.

“The Yankees and Jim Lyons continued to put pressure on you during 1959 and 1960 through the Mayor to make the park available for parking.  You refused to go along.”

Attached to this memo was addition info on this issue.

• February 10, 1960 letter from NYC Parks Commissioner Moses to Mayor Wagner:

“I take it that the old crazy scheme to turn over the heart of Macomb’s Dam Park again advocated by Jim (Lyons no relation to the BP) and the Yankees is at last buried for good.  It never had any validity and the arguments that Macomb’s Dam Park is not needed, that the Yankees are practically a public agency, that you could dig up three or four millions for a substitute park at an undisclosed location in the Bronx, that the Yankees would otherwise take their marbles and go home, that he could obtain special legislation to put this over, was and is so much hogwash.”

“……..the attached memo from Stuart Constable tells the story.  It would seem that the entire subject is academic since the extra-ordinary letter to you of Monday from the Yankees offering to sell their Stadium to the City.  You referred this complicated offer to us for report.  To the extent that we can understand it at all, we think it has no merit. ……….”

“This proposal is manifestly aimed to renew pressure for Macomb’s Dam Park and to attack and bedevil the building of the Flushing Meadow Stadium.  It is curious that the Yankee representatives never mentioned this quaint and ingenious deal at the conference with you only ten days ago.  It must have been a sudden inspiration.”

• April 22, 1959 letter from Parks Commissioner Moses to New York Yankee General Manager George Weiss:

“There is no possibility whatever that any public park area will be converted for use as a parking field for the Yankees.”

“You have pursued this matter for years, brought all the pressure you could muster, and now imply that we not only exaggerate park usage but that we have a more active interest in inducing some other major league club to operate in New York City than we have in assisting the Yankees.  This is perposterous.  We have done everything possible to assist you, except to agree to let you use park property for private purpose.  So long as I am Commissioner of Parks, we shall not do this.” (bold emphasis added)

“Your problem can be solved if you will spend some money on land and parking structures.  There is plenty of space around, without invading the park system.” (bold emphasis added)

• March 3, 1959 letter and Memo from Parks Commissioner Moses to Mayor Wagner:

“The area the Yankees would like to use for parking is our Macombs Dam track ……………This is one of the most heavily used areas in the park system.  This spring we will have at least 22 track meets, 45 baseball games and over 200 softball games in the area.”

“The use of more park area for Stadium parking is out of the question.”

• October 3, 1958 letter from Parks Commissioner Moses to New York Yankees President Daniel Topping:

“As to the park, we simply cannot open that up for parking without  ruining the surface so that it would be unusable for park use.  It would create precedents all over the city adjacent to schools, stores and other privately and publicly owned developments.”

• November 14, 1949 letter from Assistant Director of Construction Coordinator WS Chapin to State DPW District Engineer JJ Darcy:

“A compromise scheme was worked out whereby the Park Department agreed to give up one of the ball diamonds and to otherwise rearrange their facilities in order that this area could be kept open for parking during important Yankee Stadium athletic events. The area will be paved and will this provide for roller skating, sofl ball and other athletic events during the times when Yankee Stadium is not in operation.  The number of hand ball courts was increased from nine to twelve.”

• August 8, 1949 letter from Assistant Director of Construction Coordinator WS Chapin to State DPW District Engineer JJ Darcy: moves a retaining wall at 157th Street for the Deegan Expressway.

• July 29, 1949 letter from Coordinator Moses to Director Real Estate Bureau Board of Estimate:

“The State Department of Public Works has awarded a contract for the construction of the Major Deegan Expressway between the Bronx Terminal Market and the notherly limits of Macombs Dam Park.  This contract includes incidental parka nd other construction ….., now leased as parking spaces.”

“You are familiar with the fact that we plan to develp this park area in a manner which will allow the Park Department to operate it as a parking field on days when baseball is being played at Yankee Stadium, and at other times for recreation.  This has been fully approved by the Mayor, as well as the Federal and State agencies involved.” (bold emphasis added)

Copies of the full 13 pages in the folder:  RobertMoses B79 Yankee Stadium Parking 1961

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On Thursday, October 29, 2009 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Community Members of the Croton Facilities Monitoring Committee (CFMC) – Bronx Community Boards 7, 8 &12, Borough President Ruben Diaz and Council Member Oliver Koppell, will hold an informational meeting on the audits prepared in response to the December 2007 CFMC motion concerning the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

The public is invited to attend this presentation. A representative of the New York City Comptroller’s office will present the September 1, 2009 Audit Reports listed below:

The audits can be found at the following links:
• DEP’s Oversight of Costs to Construct the CWTP, FR09-110A, 9/1/2009 – http://bit.ly/AI5Pr
• DEP’s Progress in Constructing the CWTP, FR08-121A, 9/1/2009 – http://bit.ly/1a4a3E

VLADECK HALL, Amalgamated Housing Co-op, 74 Van Cortlandt Park South, enter off of Hillman Avenue, Bronx, NY 10463.

Parking is limited, please use public transportation.

Bring a friend
Refreshments

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Below please find a letter from concerned activists to the Design Commission on the Mosholu Golf Course.

As you may remember from last October 2008, the DEP took more land then they were supposed to take.  That is, more than the 43 acres already alienated.  Instead of giving it back as they were supposed to do, they extended into more land.

Now they are saying that the Parks Department needs to take more land from the public parkland.

In the words often heard stated by Dart Westphal, “you can not tell just by looking, you have to figure it out,” here is a letter from some interested persons.

Deisgn_Comm_re_Parking_MGH_101309

http://www.waterblogged.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/cwtp_above_ground_facilities_mgc_jpr-112008.pdf

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Well, here we are at the end of September 2009 and the Demo Plant is finally, finally going down.

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