Brooklyn, NY – A waterfront park in Williamsburg has been shuttered – and is being kept that way – by red tape, say frustrated residents and local advocates.
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A month and a half after state officials and community advocates agreed in principle to a deal to reopen East River State Park – at no expense to taxpayers – the park’s Kent Ave. gate remains locked.
The sticking point has been a community group’s inability to meet a state requirement that it provide liability insurance for all park volunteers.
“There’s been a lot of bureaucracy and red tape that gets in the way of doing this,” said Assemblyman Joe Lentol (D-Williamsburg), who had called reopening the park a “done deal” last month.
Hit with a $16.9 million budget cut, the state Parks Department decided last year to shut the park from January until April, aiming to save $40,000-$50,000 by getting rid of six seasonal workers.
After an outcry from a neighborhood where green space is scarce, Lentol and Friends of East River State Park proposed a plan to keep the park open without the state workers. Cops from the local precinct would provide security, and community volunteers would keep the park clean.
But Parks spokeswoman Eileen Larrabee said community groups had not yet been able to meet requirements for insurance and a satisfactory plan to keep the park clean and safe.
“Before it is all resolved, it’s going to be a couple weeks before April,” said Michael Freedman-Schnapp, co-chairman of Neighbors Allied for Good Growth.
Lentol said state Parks Commissioner Carol Ash told him the park would open March 1, but officials were noncommittal. “We’re hopeful, but there are still some issues that need to be worked out,” Larrabee said.
“We will have lost two months, but at least we’ll have the warmest month,” he said. “I’m very disappointed that they couldn’t get it together sooner.”
He said the commissioner assured him budget cuts would not force the park to close for the winter in future years.
Meanwhile, would-be parkgoers are greeted by a locked gate.
“You stand out there on a weekend day when it’s sunny, and there’s still people coming out thinking the park is open,” Freedman-Schnapp said.
Who insures the sidewalks we walk on? Who insures Central Park?
a park is not needed in wiilli but a bike lane? is go figure!
That park is so ugly that I don’t mind it staying closed. Maybe if they fix it up first I’ll care for it.
sounds like Governor Gindal’s story in response to Obama’s speech to congress
IT MIGHT BE A NICE THING THAT THE POLICE STATION VOLOUNTEERED TO KEEP THE SUCRITY IN THE PARK , BUT IT COULD BE A GOOD HANGOUT FOR DRUG DEALERS, BECAUSE WE THE CITY DONT HAVE ENOGH POLICE OFFICERS TO PATROL THE REGULAR PATROL SECTORS ,EMS DONT HAVE ENOGH AMBULANCES TO REPOND TO THE CRIME THAT WILL BE COMMITED IN THE PARK BELIVE ME I HAD WORKED FOR AN EMERGENCY SERVICE IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK, LET POLICE OFFICERS PATROL THE LOCAL AREA
FIRST, AND THEN W’LL SEE————LET NOT INNICENT PEPOLE SUFFER FOR ANY REASON CRIME OR ELDRY SICK——-I WISH THE GREENPOINT AREA ============= G O O D L U C K =============WHATEVER IT SHOULD BE GOOD———