qchron.com<\/a>].<\/p>\n\u201cI spent my childhood in this park,\u201d said Richards. \u201cI\u2019m 43 years old and not once in my lifetime has this park been meaningfully invested in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The task force\u2019s goal is to secure and leverage greatly increased public and private investment in the park.<\/p>\n
Richards places the floor at $100 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no reason this park can\u2019t receive the love that Central Park does,\u201d Richards said. \u201cIn fact, this is larger than Central Park. During the summer it is the center of the sports and entertainment universe. Tens of thousands flock here every summer for what? Governor\u2019s Ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cHundreds of thousands of tennis fans come here every year for the US Open, every August and September. Millions flock to Citi Field every season, even seasons like this one.\u201d<\/p>\n
He then mentioned the raves FMCP received from international visitors during the World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that\u2019s true, why do we continue to shortchange this park?\u201d Richards asked.<\/p>\n
Richards co-chairs the Flushing Meadows Corona Park Task Force with Mike Luba, a partner in Tiebreaker Productions, the longtime lead Forest Hills Stadium concert series promoter.<\/p>\n
The roster also includes:<\/p>\n
\u2022 the Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park;<\/p>\n
\u2022 the Center for an Urban Future<\/p>\n
\u2022 Community Boards 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8;<\/p>\n
\u2022 Councilwoman Shanel Thomas-Henry (D-Corona) and Councilman Shekar Krishnan (D-Jackson Heights);<\/p>\n
\u2022 the Governor\u2019s Ball;<\/p>\n
\u2022 the NYPD and the city Departments of Design and Construction, Environmental Protection, Parks and Recreation and Transportation;<\/p>\n
\u2022 the Mayor\u2019s Office of Mass Engagement<\/p>\n
\u2022 the Waterfront Alliance;<\/p>\n
\u2022 the Queens Botanical Garden; and<\/p>\n
\u2022 FMCP fixtures the New York Hall of Science, Queens Night Market, Queens Theatre, Queens Zoo and United States Tennis Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m speaking with Mayor Mamdani on this,\u201d Richards said. \u201cI\u2019m taking a plane or a train to Washington, DC, to make sure that this park gets the TLC that it deserves. We need everybody who benefits from this park to be invested in its success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas-Henry concurred.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs someone who grew up here, Flushing Meadows Corona Park has always been more than a green place for me,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a place where memories are made and generations come together. We want to assure that our park will receive the same commitment that our community has invested in it for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n
Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz (D-Corona) recalled riding her bicycle around the Unisphere as a child, and said the park is not what it once was. Even recently, \u201cWe had people in leadership in the mayoralty and in the Council who did not care about the park,\u201d she said. \u201cWe will assure that this park is the one Queens deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richards has similar memories.<\/p>\n
The borough president said his family would visit the park and picnic by the Unisphere with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we did on weekends,\u201d he said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have a backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anthony Sama, executive director of the Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park, said his members are proud to help support the park. But he said the task force will not be enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is so much work to do in this park,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Richards said he hopes the task force will not have to exist long-term. \u201cTask forces are not here to be here forever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The borough president said he hopes a lot of park maintenance problems, for example, can be fixed by greater communication and cooperation among city agencies.<\/p>\n
He cited a recent instance in which the city Department of Environmental Protection cleaned out FMCP storm drains in advance of a major storm.<\/p>\n
Areas that traditionally flooded did not.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust through interagency conversations there were things that are getting corrected in the park,\u201d Richards said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to step up,\u201d Richards said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s got to step up. We will end this era of disinvestment in our backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. can cite chapter and verse on the history and features that he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[114511,37264,3945,3242,118975,2100,609,118974,9,24,63,10649,122,124,123,35334,18411,4324,115181,118973],"class_list":["post-315327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-alliance-for-flushing-meadows-corona-park","tag-center-for-an-urban-future","tag-donovan-richards","tag-environment","tag-flushing-meadows-corona-park-task-force","tag-flushing-meadows-corona-park","tag-government","tag-jacqueline-langsham","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-parks","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-queens-zoo","tag-shanel-thomas-henry","tag-the-world-cup","tag-ty-hankerson","tag-waterfront-alliance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315327","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=315327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}