Gothamist: Randall's Island: Playground for Richy Rich Kids?

Patrick

Sun, 11 Feb 2007 00:18:13 -0500

When the City Council held hearings on this deal in November, over sixty people testified. Curiously, no private school students, parents or alums made a case for the deal, a few actually came and testified against it. After seeing Mr. Strong's ugly comments above, I can understand why the headmasters kept these people locked up. Fortunately for them, they've got the Mayor on their side.

anonymass

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 22:38:33 -0500

Please do us all a huuuuge favor and take your private car services one way to Greenwich where you all belong. Believe me, this city can go on without you. You earn money here, you'll be paying city tax regardless.

George Templeton STRONG

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 20:32:13 -0500

Let´s get something straight here: the parents of these kids, who chose to stay in this city despite having the resources to pull up stakes and move elsewhere, are the people who pay the taxes that make this city viable somehow. The rest of you are mostly a drain on resources and should have been cut adrift a long time ago. So stick that up your ass and leave it there.

Patrick

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 18:01:53 -0500

Even if you find the idea of selling access to public parkland palatable, the method it was done is unseemly. Rather than put the field permits out to bid, the Mayor let the Randalls Island Sports Foundation (RISF) decide who could buy them and at what price. No public schools were allowed to participate even though many could have raised the funds through corporate partnerships or pta funds. Not surprisingly, the list of schools in the deal bears an uncanny resemblance to the schools represented on the RISF board of trustees, which has no people from East Harlem or the South Bronx. Equally troubling is how the Mayor refused to follow the city charter guidlines for granting major concessions of this type. Rather than go to the local community board for review like he's supposed to, he simply will push it through this arcane committee where he controls all the votes.

anonymass

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 17:47:36 -0500

First of all, my numbers came from Gothamist: The city would kick in an additional $18 million for the fields, and $53 million for island infrastructure. 18+53 = 71. That's where I got my number. If you have a problem with those numbers take it up with Gothamist, not me. Oh, but then I read the actual article, which says: Now the real cost of the ballfields project is more than $120 million. More than $90 million of that has already been earmarked by City Hall in the capital budget. "The island has not had a lick of infrastructure upgrade since the Robert Moses era," Boden said, "All the existing utilities date to that time and have not been improved." While that may be true, it also means that the private schools are offering to pay only a third of the real project construction costs of $120 million - even less when you count the interest the city will pay on those $120 million in bonds. Learn to eat my ass.

anonymass

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 17:43:54 -0500

anonymass

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 17:37:25 -0500

Sorry, fuckface, I trusted Gothamist's summary which reads: The city would kick in an additional $18 million for the fields, and $53 million for island infrastructure. 18+53 = 71. Get it? If the numbers are wrong, blame Gothamist, not me.

Learn to Read

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 17:11:57 -0500

If you read the article, anonymass, you'll see that the city is kicking in the balance of the $71 million...which comes to a more manageable $13 million. How paying $13 million for the renovation of that shithole that is Randall's Island is a bad thing is well beyond me.

RicktheCabbie

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 16:31:03 -0500

Well, with no more deals to cut to get re-elected, Mayor Mike can do as he pleases. Expect more and more of this shite as he waves goodbye. With most workers spending almost an hour traveling each way to work they have plenty of time to read all about it from the rag of their choice. Move before it gets worse, because it's going to get worse.

anonymass

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 16:12:48 -0500

Tell me you're not that naive. I used to like Bloomberg, but he's proving to be an elitist especially as of late. The NYC coffers suddenly have $71 million to "kick in" for this project? Why can't that spare $71 million go toward building new public parks? Bloombergy seems to find money for these vanity projects - tax breaks for already filthy stinking rich developers, projects like this that benefit the silver spooner set, and so on. This whole thing stinks. The title of the article is exactly right: New York is turning into a playground for the rich, and now in a more than figurative sense.

Dave H.

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 13:10:07 -0500

If I'm reading that proposal correctly, then from 3-6pm, the situation would improve from 34 fields reserved for the private schools with two 2 fields open to the public, to up to 42 fields reserved for private schools with 21 fields open to the public (a ten-fold increase). The rest of the time, the increase in playing fields for everyone would increase from 36 to 63. I can't possibly imagine how anyone could object to this. You're getting private schools to bankroll the expansion of playing fields for the public with no decrease in public access at any time--actually a significant increase over the current state. Mind boggling.