Results tagged “parkscommissionerbenepe”

The family of late Detective Dillon Stewart was joined by Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and other city officials in the dedication of a Prospect Park playground in Stewart's honor. The Parade Ground Playground, at the corner of Caton Avenue and Parade Place, near East 16th, was renamed the Dillon Stewart Playground. Stewart was killed on November 28, 2005, when he and his partner stopped a car for a traffic violation. Someone...

As we mentioned earlier this week, the vendors who set up shop at the Red Hook ballfields may be at risk for losing their permit. According to the New York Times, the vendors have operated for years under a series of temporary use permits, but now they will have to place a formal bid with the city in order to remain in the space. But the vendors are not guaranteed to win this bid, so the fans of this culinary community institution have rallied behind it.

It is not the natural state of a New Yorker to look up at the sky. The skyscrapers block our view and we need to be alert to what our fellow pedestrians are doing. Gothamist has tried to get people to look at the halos, sun dogs and iridescent clouds with limited success. Luckily there are meteorological phenomena to see on the ground. On our way to work in the morning Gothamist walks up the 116th Street stairs in Morningside Park. The top set of stairs are made of pink granite slabs. The mortar between the steps has long since disappeared so air and water move into the cracks (take note Parks Commissioner Benepe!). When it gets cold after warm days when water has seeped into the cracks these little frost patches appear on the steps.

Yesterday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve the Parks Department's plans to redesign Washington Square Park, but the Parks Department will scrap its plans for gates. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said, "The gates were clearly a hot-button issue that went beyond the neighborhood. The people have spoken, and we have listened." Yes, the gates people like are saffron and removed after sixteen days. Reaction to the approval is mixed, with many residents feeling left out of the process and some local politicians threatening to withhold city money if plans are not revised. The main opposition to the new plans for the park is directed at a proposed perimeter fence; Parks Commissioner Benepe explained, "You can't have a landscaped park without a perimeter fence, or else people will walk through the landscape and soon there is no landscape." So, landscapes are not for walking? Good to know.