tagged w/ yanks
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How the New Yankee Stadium Turned Parks into Parking Lots
From the article>>
When the Yankees opened their new stadium and pinstriped stars like Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera ran onto the field for the first time, the cheers of delirious New York fans echoed for miles. But to environmentalists and residents in surrounding neighborhoods, a Bronx cheer seems a more appropriate response to the new Yankee Stadium project, which they say isn’t nearly green enough, grass notwithstanding.
A baseball’s throw from the storied old yard that housed the Bronx Bombers from 1923-2008, the new Yankee Stadium opened to fanfare this spring. While the park accommodates fewer spectators (52,325, including standing room), it boasts more concessionaires, restrooms and nearly double the retail space of the old haunts. There are also more luxury suites: 56 instead of 19, plus 410 “party suites.”
The high-rolling Yankees have long led the major leagues in financial clout, and New York’s new $1.3 billion home looks like a license to print money. Front-row seats sell for $2,500 each and some fans are committing to season ticket plans for as long as 10 years.
But don’t expect to see parks advocates lined up at the turnstiles. They and some of the stadium’s Bronx neighbors are furious at the Yankees and the city for building over more than 25 acres of public parkland and cutting down 377 mature trees, 70% of the local tree population in a poor area that already had a sky-high asthma rate.
“I started crying when I saw security guarding a public park that they had seized,” says Geoffrey Croft, president of New York City Park Advocates and outspoken opponent of the stadium project. “Kids were crying while they chopped down these trees with no warning whatsoever.”
Critics cite among their grievances the secretive nature of the city’s deal to allow the Yankees to pave over popular Macombs Dam and John Mullaly parks, which was negotiated and signed before the public was informed, they say. Protests and legal actions against the project were unsuccessful.
“Everybody just loves the Yankees so much that they wouldn’t even consider what the people had to say,” says Karen Argenti, a board member of the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality, which also opposed the new stadium. “There were no elected officials who would stand up for the community. It was impossible to get a fair hearing.”
As part of the deal, the Yankees and New York City promised to replace the lost open space with multiple parks that will be individually smaller but greater in total combined acreage.
The bulldozed park.
“It’s never easy letting go of a nice old park,” says Josh Laird, assistant commissioner for planning of the New York Parks Department. “Macombs Dam Park had a nice stand of mature elm trees and others. We understand why people in the community had concerns with the project. But when we’re finished, they’ll have more and better parks.”
For instance, the old Yankee Stadium will be demolished to make room for the new Heritage Field, which will contain three fields for baseball and softball. The roof of the new stadium’s parking structure will be the new seven-acre Macombs Dam Park, replete with running track, basketball courts and fitness equipment. Other parks will have tennis courts, picnic areas, play equipment and green space.
None of the new parks are yet open. Heritage Field has suffered the greatest delay, and now looks to open in 2011.
Too little, too late, say park advocates. “These people lived across the street from a park where children had a chance to play. Now they live across from a stadium and a bunch of parking lots,” says Argenti.
The new $1.3 billion Yankee Stadium.
Also maddening is the delay in tearing down the old Yankee Stadium, especially when the city’s Mets left their old park at the same time and tore down Shea Stadium...How the New Yankee Stadium Turned Parks into Parking Lots
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