Major League Soccer won't get a Queens stadium without a fight
At a Flushing Meadows Corona Park meeting in Corona. Dana Rubinstein
10:15 am Sep. 18, 20124
A Major League Soccer stadium may be a good fit for Flushing Meadows Corona Park and the soccer-loving communities that border it from a marketing perspective, but as a packed Monday night meeting made clear, the project won't materialize without a fight.
"There's a lot of issues here," State Senator Tony Avella told Capital, shortly before the meeting began. "You can't just say, 'Oh, that sounds like a great idea."
"Why are they choosing our flagship park?" asked Councilman Daniel Dromm, an hour and a half later, talking to a reporter as the meeting at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic church in Corona continued behind him. "Why don't they put this in Central Park?"
Well, why don't they?
"Because they always dump on Queens," he said. "And this time, I don't think they're going to dump on Queens and be able to get away with it."
Beyond Dromm, about 250 people, most of them of people of color, were talking about Flushing Meadows Corona Park, and the developments set to transform it and its environs.
This was the first public meeting of the Fairness Coalition of Queens—an amalgam of a dozen or so groups like Make the Road New York and Queens Congregations United for Action—whose first task, according to Make the Road deputy director Theo Oshiro, will be "making sure there's a voice for the community" in the ongoing developments impacting Flushing Meadows.
Certainly, there's a lot happening in and around there. In addition to Major League Soccer's stadium plans, the Bloomberg administration has reached a tentative deal with developers to build a large mall to the west of Citi Field, and new parking lots, some retail and a hotel, (and perhaps also, ultimately, housing) to the stadium's east, on an industrial swath of land known as the Iron Triangle that now houses small businesses.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Tennis Association wants to implement a $500 million expansion of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center that includes two new above-ground parking garages in the park.
"In my professional opinion, I think all of these plans are deeply flawed," said Donovan Finn, an urban planning professor at Stony Brook University, who gave the policy keynote of the night, complete with a slide show, and who argued that Major League Soccer would need at least 20 acres of parkland to build its stadium.
Earlier estimates had Major League Soccer requesting fewer than 10 acres.
"That's the new number from what I understand," said Finn, when asked where he got it.
A Major League Soccer spokesperson told Capital that the stadium would need no more than 13 acres, which is both smaller than Finn's estimate and larger than the original ones.
Either way, Major League Soccer will have to overcome several obstacles before it can break ground. It must find replacement parkland elsewhere—a process it has already begun—and then get state approval for the land swap.
The stadium will also have to go through a land use review process that entails getting City Council approval.
"Out of all the proposals, Major League Soccer is one that the community embraces," said Councilmember Julissa Ferreras, whose district encompasses the park.
But she said the league's timing is bad, with the stadium proposal coming at the same time as nearby USTA and Citi Field developments.
"It almost feels like everything is being rushed," she said.
Everything the Mets want to do on parkland is illegal! And no to tennis expansion! But yes to soccer if they get the parkland to replace a sitting toilet.
One question that comes to mind is, where will MLS replace the parkland? If they can buy property in neighborhoods that lack park space, help build them up, and turn them over to the Parks Department, that would be fantastic.
Pardon the expression, but Julissa Ferreras is as dumb as a box of rocks. How does she know what her community wants when she hasn't even asked? She's playing games, claiming she's "undecided" on Willets Point, for example, while making statements in support of the project and cutting deals in the backroom.
Bloomberg should also be ashamed of himself -- he's been awarding public parkland to private developers for years, not just here but in the Bronx (look at, for instance, Yankee Stadium and the Trump golf course in Ferry Point)), Manhattan (all those public/private partnerships making his pals wealthy). and Queens (that Mets' shopping mall would be built on parkland, too). I can't wait until the rich guy's out of office.
As much I understand the concerns of the community you have to remember this.... it's about what will drive the economic engine for Flushing/Corona and for the City of New York. As for the case of the US Open Expansion... we are only talking about ONE ACRE of Land being taken away from the park. The US Open generates $760 Million Dollars a year that goes into the City's economy and is there a need for the City to risk that FOR ONE ACRE !!!! And of the Soccer Stadium which would be built in a seldom used portion of the park which is a complete eyesore ! Also Major League Soccer has promised to completely renovate the 9 soccer fields that are in that park that is a direct benefilt to the community. {Has anyone seen the condition of those fields which are in not so great shape.) And Major League Soccer has also promised to build additional fields in adjacent areas of the park should any other soccer fields be displaced. And a Soccer Stadium would also be an important economic engine for the local community that local business's would greatly benefit from. AND YOU WANT TO RISK THAT FOR 15 ACRES !!! Also there is support from many sectors of the Latino Community in terms of building this stadium in and around where the Stadium is being built. And what about the jobs that would be created constructing the Wilpons Mall on the parking lot of Citi Field and JOBS that would be created once the mall is complete and additional tax revenues that would come into Queens and the City of New York. THE NIMBYS ARE AT IT AGAIN !!!! PLEASE ALLOW COMMON SENSE TO PREVAIL INSTEAD OF WHAT DRIVES THE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS AND LOBBYISTS. HEY WILLETS POINT UNITED... ARE YOU LISTENING !!!!!