Bronx $400 million
Manhattan $354 million
Brooklyn $273 million
Queens $198 million
Staten Island $119 million
Total $1.344 billion
Source: NYC Parks & Recreation Department
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Significant Park Improvement Projects by Borough
There are more than 400 capital improvement projects totaling more than $1.3 billion to build new parks or fix existing ones throughout New York City that are in either in construction or the design phase. Here are some of examples by borough, along with an account of parks projects during the Bloomberg administration’s six years:
Bronx: Over the past six years, the City has invested more than $174 million for Bronx park improvements, including new waterfront parks, greenways, and recreational facilities. Over the next four years, it plans to invest more than $400 million to develop park projects in the Bronx, including the Yankee Stadium redevelopment projects, and projects funded through the construction of the Croton Water Filtration Plant.
Soundview Park: Through the Mayor’s PlaNYC, the City will spend $36 million restoring salt marshes and fixing 90 acres of athletic fields at this 212-acre park in the South Bronx.
Concrete Plant Park: When complete this fall, it will bring a $10 million, 2.7 acre waterfront park to the site of a former concrete mix plant on the west side of the Bronx River.
South Bronx Greenway: A key component of the Hunts Point Vision Plan that will vastly improve access to the waterfront, provide recreational opportunities, improve transportation safety and greatly enhance the network of bike and pedestrian paths on the South Bronx peninsula. When the entire project is complete in 2011, it will encompass 1.5 miles of new waterfront greenway, 8.5 miles of new greenway, and nearly 12 acres of new waterfront open space.
Croton Capital Projects: In September 2004, the City Council approved the construction of a water filtration plant for the Croton Water Supply under the Mosholu Golf Course in The Bronx’s Van Cortlandt Park. As part of the agreement, more than $200 million generated from water and sewer revenue will be spent on improvements to over 70 Bronx Parks over the next five years. Croton-funded projects include improving neighborhood parks, renovating regional recreation facilities, developing the Bronx Greenway, and improving and expanding access to the Bronx waterfront. To date, the Parks Department has completed 16 projects, spending $21 million. There are 16 projects worth $53 million under construction and an additional 43 projects representing $125 million in design.
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Brooklyn: Over the past six years, the City has spent more than $211 million for Brooklyn park improvements, including new parks, bike paths, and improved recreational facilities. Currently, there are 35 projects costing $100 million under construction, and another 64 projects costing $173 million in design/planning stages.
McCarren Park: The City through PlaNYC will invest $50 million rebuilding the outdoor Olympic-size pool in Williamsburg, creating a year-round recreation center and refurbishing the historic entryway.
Dreier-Offerman Park: The $40 million PlaNYC project for Coney Island is scheduled for completion by 2011. It includes three new baseball fields, six new soccer fields, kayak launches, picnic areas, restrooms, a bicycle path, new nature trails, an amphitheater, a playground, a field house and nature center, and a pavilion. The park will be a center for competitive soccer and baseball on the improved Brooklyn waterfront.
Marine Park: Work began this spring on an $11 million community center. It will be made with recycled materials and have energy-watt savers for lighting, geothermal heating and cooling instead of a boiler, a green roof, and solar cells that will generate some of the building’s energy.
“The Dust Bowl”: The city this summer plans to spend $2.8 million converting the famed “Dust Bowl” in Bay Ridge into a synthetic turf field. It was named “Dust Bowl” because it was so heavily used that not a single blade of grass survived.
Police Officer Robert Venable Playground: The city this summer plans to begin construction on a $5.6 million park in East New York that will contain a playground with play equipment, a spray shower, a comfort station, a performance area, basketball courts and volleyball courts.
Junior Golf Center at Dyker Beach Park: On June 6, the city and the City Parks Foundation opened the center for golfers ages five to 17 years old that includes a six-hole course and driving range. It is free and the first facility of this kind in the nation.
Canarsie Park: The city is spending $5.4 million in the first phase of rebuilding a 132-acre park. This phase, which could open this fall, includes a new cricket field with bleachers, meadow, hill, wetlands, ponds, garden fencing, paved pathways, and lighting.
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Manhattan: Over the past six years, the city spent more than $180 million for Manhattan park improvements, including new waterfront parks, bike paths, and greenways. There are now 34 park projects in the borough under construction costing $149 million, and another 66 projects costing $205 million in design/planning stages.
Fort Washington Park: The city through PlaNYC will spend $40 million improving soccer and volleyball playing sections and improving the greenway.
The High Bridge: The city through PlaNYC and money raised by Rep. Jose Serrano will spend $65 million restoring the city’s oldest bridge, which connects the Bronx and Manhattan. It will link New York City’s expanding waterfront Greenway, with new pedestrian and bicycle access to Highbridge Park.
Greenway at Riverside Park: The city will spend $13 million building a new waterfront Greenway at Riverside Park from 83rd to 91st Streets, creating unbroken waterfront access from 59th Street to 133rd Street to open next year.
East River Park Promenade: Originally constructed in 1939, this 57-acre park is the largest park south of 59th Street. This project costs nearly $80 million and the completion date is scheduled for summer 2009. The construction includes the replacement of deteriorating bulkheads to make the park safe, accessible and beautiful.
Union Square Park: This project includes a dramatically expanded and redesigned playground, and a restored historic pavilion and plaza that will figure prominently at the northern end of the park. The $20 million project is scheduled to open by fall 2009. Imagination Playground (Burling Slip): With both public and private funds totaling $4 million, the Parks Department is creating an innovative playspace at Burling Slip where staff members will invite kids to play with sand, water and other objects in a “free play,” unstructured environment that makes each visit to the playground unique. The “play workers” are trained adults who will work with the kids and spur their imaginations, while facilitating and supervising activities. Architect David Rockwell is designing the Imagination Playground pro bono, with funding from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and developer Kent M. Swig.
West Harlem Piers: This project is overseen by the Economic Development Corp. and is intended to create waterfront open space in West Harlem. It will also serve as a continuation of the Cherry Walk bike path. The project will add a fishing dock, a kayak launch, and recreational piers as well as an excursion and ferryboat pier. The project cost is $22 million and construction is expected to be completed this summer.
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Queens: Over the past six years, the Parks Department has spent more than $184 million for Queens park improvements, adding more than 80 acres of parkland and the largest recreational facility in any city park. Currently, the department is in the midst of improving borough parks with 37 projects costing $52 million that are under construction and another 69 projects costing $146 million in design/planning stages or procurement.
Highland Park: The former Ridgewood Reservoir, nestled in the broader expanse of Highland Park, was built in 1856 on a natural basin. The 50-acre site of the Ridgewood Reservoir consists of three reservoir basins, pump houses and a caretaker cottage. When the basins were drained, nature took over. About $46 million that has been allocated through PlaNYC will reconstruct Highland Park’s infrastructure and develop a new destination park. Th city is exploring both the preservation of the natural basins and the possibility of using a portion of one of three basins for recreation. Many options have been discussed, including one with athletic fields in a small area of the 50-acre Ridgewood Reservoir – an area that is composed primarily of invasive trees and vines that threaten the park’s ecological balance.
Far Rockaway Beach: The $40 million that has been allocated through PlaNYC will improve the boardwalk and adjacent parkland between Beach 9th and 31st Streets. Potential amenities include new recreation areas, bathrooms, concessions, new parks and playgrounds, parking and boardwalks.
Flushing Meadows Corona Park Pool/Rink: Running 120,000-square foot it is largest recreation complex ever built in a city park. It cost $65 million and opened February 29. The complex provides an Olympic-size indoor public pool with an adjustable floor and diving tank for public swim and competitive meets. An NHL-standard indoor ice hockey rink is anticipated to open in the winter and will serve as a year-round facility for competitive leagues and individual skaters. The modernist, architecturally distinguished building’s cable-supported roof system allows for potential future expansion.
Gas Tank Park: The first phase of this $5 million project at the former Elmhurst Gas Tanks’s site in Elmhurst began in the fall and includes new clean fill, horticultural fill, perimeter sidewalks, street trees, fencing and gates. Future phases may include a small playground, walking paths, a comfort station, a flagpole, a kinetic sculpture, benches, a sitting area, additional plantings and an underground irrigation system.
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Staten Island: Over the past six years, the city has invested more than $70 million for Staten Island park improvements. Currently, it is in the midst of a major initiative to improve parks throughout the borough with 17 projects valued at approximately $19 million under construction, and another 33 projects valued at $100 million currently in design/planning stages or procurement.
Tappen & Tompkinsville Parks: In the fall of 2007, the Parks Department broke ground on two neighborhood parks. The $1.7 million in renovations to Tappen Park include replacing the existing pipe rail fence with a new decorative steel perimeter fence and gates, installing new benches, trash receptacles, drinking fountains, bicycle racks and ornamental water fountains. In addition, the park will be re-landscaped. The $1.3 million renovation of Tompkinsville Park will include a new decorative steel perimeter fence and gates, new benches, trash receptacles, an accessible drinking fountain, ornamental water fountain, new plantings and reconstruction of the lawn. Tompkinsville Park was opened to the public in June and the construction completion of the Tappen Park is scheduled for fall 2008.
Ocean Breeze Park: Seventy-million dollars was allocated through PlaNYC to restore Ocean Breeze Park to its natural state, with 10 acres to develop for active recreation. Ocean Breeze is the 110-acre former Staten Island Homeport site. The city wants to use create major athletic facilities, including soccer fields, baseball fields and the city’s third indoor track.
Fresh Kills Park: The 2,200-acre site has begun the transition from a closed landfill to world-class park. Construction is imminent for Owl Hollow Park and Schmul Park, adjacent sites that will provide access to the greater Fresh Kills site. Owl Hollow, a previously undeveloped 21-acre site, will offer four synthetic turf soccer fields (two of which will be lighted) and a LEED certified comfort station complete with green roof, geothermal heating and cooling and a potential wind turbine. A newly renovated Schmul Park will offer playground, handball and basketball courts, flowering meadow, native grass areas and a rain garden. The development of the neighborhood parks will set the stage for further, staged development across the larger site. The first phase of Fresh Kills Park development is slated for 2009, after the completion of the land use reviews and issuance of the Final Environmental Impact Statement.
Conference House Park: The 267-acre park has undergone more than $10 million in renovations that have transformed the park into a popular visitor destination. For most of its life, Conference House Park remained an undeveloped swath of land. The recent renovations included the construction of new pathways that let visitors enjoy leisurely walks along the scenic Raritan Bay, as well as landscape and public safety improvements, including perimeter-edge delineation. There is also a newly refurbished playground and a pavilion located on the shore facing Perth Amboy. An existing house was renovated to become the Visitor Center, which will be the first stop for patrons of the park. These improvements have set the stage for the re-imagining of the park’s most prominent feature: its historic structures, which include three historic houses that trace the history of the borough over the course of three centuries.
Source: New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.