And the rich eat you!

Sounds like the Class Warriors shot themselves in the foot once again.

Surprise, surprise!

Randall's Island was developed by Robert Moses to cater to 'the right sort of people,' those with access to cars. Notice that there are no pedestrian bridges or mass transit. That solved the problem of preventing negroes and hispanics from enjoying his island headquarters even though it's nestled between the Bronx and Spanish Harlem.

That's why this island retreat is practically neglected when other parks in this city are packed to the gills.

Ever wonder why there's no decent mass transit to Jones Beach? Guess why.

While you're right about Moses and cars and the sort of people he expected to drive them, you're wrong on the facts about Randall's Island: there is a pedestrian bridge (via Wards Island), and there is mass transit (MTA bus from East Harlem). And if Moses was hoping to keep people of color from using Randall's Island, a quick visit on any weekend will show that he failed spectacularly.

Fair enough, saying there is no mass transit is inaccurate. But a single bus line stretches the definition of 'mass.'

Why do you think the pedestrian foot bridge is all the way down on 103rd street (where did the upper east side end and east harlem begin?) and there isn't a direct bridge to the Randall's end?

The bridge at 125th has pedestrian paths, and so does the Queens-Randalls span.

The pedestrian bridge to 103rd St. is at the southernmost point of the island, it goes as close as is possible to the Upper East Side.

It's worse than the class warriors shooting themselves in the foot: they cost us all $52.6 million, which the government could have well used to improve another park, or which Randall's Island desperately needs. It already runs programs for kids in the Bronx and Harlem.

The lawsuit makes my blood boil, because the City even had to pay the other sides legal fees, for bringing a lawsuit which accomplished precisely nothing. The problem has always been one of getting kids there. But instead of tackling that problem, the Class Warriors started a lawsuit, complaining about which land review process was used? Some of those protesting over this issue have been pretending to be fighting for kids, when the results suggest otherwise. Public schools have not been denied use of Randall's, and they never were. Less land use litigation, please, more volunteer coaches.

The pedestrian bridge to 103rd St. is at the southernmost point of the island, it goes as close as is possible to the Upper East Side.

It's worse than the class warriors shooting themselves in the foot: they cost us all $58 million, which the government could have well used to improve another park, or which Randall's Island desperately needs. It already runs programs for kids in the Bronx and Harlem.

The lawsuit makes my blood boil, because the City even had to pay the other sides legal fees, for bringing a lawsuit which accomplished precisely nothing. The problem has always been one of getting kids there. But instead of tackling that problem, the Class Warriors started a lawsuit, complaining about which land review process was used? Some of those protesting over this issue have been pretending to be fighting for kids, when the results suggest otherwise. Public schools have not been denied use of Randall's, and they never were. Less land use litigation, please, more volunteer coaches.

this is a big issue, its unfairness.

in private school we ran track around central park, played tennis on our own courts, in our indoor court we played basketball, volleyball, on the ourdoor field we played lacrosse, soccer, footbal and baseball.

plus we had our own photo lab, theatre, art dept.

back in public school, gym period was thousands of kids lindering around the gym and yard with about 4 old basketballs, it looked like a prison yard straight out of a movie.

this is old news, the whole privatization of the randalls island fields has been going on for years.

its unfair and elistist. its not called the "PAY TO PLAY" scandal for nothing.

It's not a non-issue, but it isn't the issue the article makes it out to be, either. There have to be more reasons that public schools aren't able to make as much use of the fields as the private schools: lack of teachers to run the after school programs, lack of funding for equipment for programs, blah blah blah.

The one example offered was about access difficulty for that one particular team in that one particular instance, they should have dug up some more.

They also didn't speak about the geographic convenience of the fields to Manhattan schools vs outer borough schools which often have access to smaller facilities out on the edges. I want to know how many public schools WANT to use the facility and can't.

Exactly right, Ozik. The article's example of the Brooklyn tema 's problem aren't the fairest picture of what's going on. There are plenty of Manhattan public schools, much closer to Randall's, who would love to use it, but they can't afford the buses, supervision, equipment, etc.

Attending public school isn't a sign that a kid or his/her family are a bunch of unemployed, welfare abusing dope fiends. Most of the city kids attend public schools, and every working resident pays taxes towards those schools. This bullshit mindset that a lot of people have that public schoolers should just shut up and accept whatever crap they're fed has got to stop. These aren't prisoners griping about a lack of tvs in their rec areas - they're our kids for crissakes.

It can't be that friggin hard to 1)keep our school equipment safe and up to date, 2)ship our kids to and from school, 3)allow our kids to play team sports in our public parks, and 4)let our kids study music and art.

If we didn't allow so many of our kids to go to shitty schools and have shitty access to the finer things in this city there'd be less bitching about out of control kids killing and robbing us and getting knocked up at 14.

I did good!

This is how it was before the French Revolution.



...the poor french kids couldnt play in the nice baseball parks (really)

Eventually the poor people rose up and forced the wealth of the country to be more fairly distributed.

If the poe folks ever catch on that the govt they've been following are there not to protect them, but to protect rich people and their property.

The same thing could happen here.

I don't think there was much baseball being played in France in 1789.

..I was purposely being silly.

It's safe to say you didn't read the article.

haha

i just wanted bring up the french revolution on a tuesday morning.

now having rtfa, I think its more of a subtle 'I told you so from the bloomberg POV. saying that if they took the funding for the park and guarenteed that the private schools have access to it, we'd have the same situation as we have now but now the city didnt get the money and the private schools are still using it (even the catholics who werent going to pay are using it for free!)

bah.

I dont see it that way at all. I see it as HUGE win that the city was not allowed to privitize a park.

The fact that its difficult for poor people who live far away to get there is unrelated to whether the city should sell the rights to what is a public asset.

but note thats what the times writers tries to subtly link.

This kind of shabby thinking from the Times 'well the poor people arent using it, at least we could have gotten some money from the private schools' is why I loathe the Times.

they have no depth. no morals. Paper of record my ass.

What a stupid non-issue.

Sounds like poor planning by the government. What's new?

So typical of NYC. A win/win for everyone is rejected because of the use of private funds. And people wonder why taxes are so high. Think outside the box!