\u201c[FMCP] is at sort of an inflection point,\u201d said John Wang, the founder of the Queens Night Market. \u201cYou got the casino development, and then you’ve also got the soccer stadium. That only brings more eyes to the park.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI think sometimes the park seems siloed,\u201d he added. \u201cI’d love to see a unified effort to get all the stakeholders on the same page with unified messaging.\u201d <\/p>\n
The renewed funding efforts began on Thursday with the allocation of $22.5 million \u2013 $17.5 million from the BP and $5 million from Thomas-Henry \u2013 to overhaul the Playground for All Children. The playground was the first in the United States to be built for both able-bodied and disabled children, and predates the Americans with Disabilities Act. Despite it\u2019s historical significance, it hasn\u2019t seen new funding since it was built, officials said. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo every parent raising a child with a disability, I hope today’s investment sends a clear message: your family belongs here, and this community will continue working to ensure every public space reflects that truth,\u201d Thomas-Henry said. <\/p>\n
Funding for the playground is just a drop in the bucket of what officials want to do at FMCP, which they estimate would need as much as $100 million just to get the ball rolling. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s so much work to do in this park,\u201d said Anthony Sama, the executive director of the Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park, who is also on the task force. \u201cAfter years of disinvestment and disinvestment in these marginalized communities, it is so encouraging to see so many people here today representing the task force.\u201d <\/p>\n
The history of the park\u2019s funding has been troubled. <\/p>\n
In 2012, Estelle Cooper, the leader of Unisphere Inc., a nonprofit that raised funds for the park for maintenance and programming, was arrested for stealing $50,000 from the organization. <\/p>\n
Cooper, who was once credited for revitalizing the park, died while the theft charges were pending against her. <\/p>\n
In their report, the Center for Urban Future laid out 20 ideas for the park, which included redesigning the Playground for All Children, as well as addressing flooding, reducing the amount of asphalt in the park and reimagining the entrances to the park. <\/p>\n
Richards said addressing the flooding and infrastructure is a major priority, as is returning the famous Unisphere to its former glory with working lights and sprinklers. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s low-hanging fruit that we can address right now,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Thomas-Henry said she is thinking more holistically about the 900-acre green space. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to start with a master plan of the entire park to see what it’s going to take,\u201d she said. \u201cThe reimagining of the entire 900 acres is going to take a lot of time, and as the borough president said, it’s going to take resources from Washington.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of infrastructure, climate resiliency things that are going to need to be tackled, and we’re going to need all of our partners from the federals on down,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201c[FMCP] is at sort of an inflection point,\u201d said John Wang, the founder of the Queens Night Market.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-310793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}