Norwood News

The list of injustices emanating from the deals surrounding the construction of the new Yankee stadium is long and depressing.

But the greatest civic offense is the theft of invaluable public green space and the broken promises to provide replacement parkland to the community in a timely fashion.

Several parks were promised as replacements for the centrally located Macombs Dam and Mullaly parks now occupied by the new stadium. None are on-line and most have experienced delays.
The most substantial of the replacements, a waterfront park on the Harlem River, has run into repeated delays, as Jose DeJesus, a student in our youth journalism program reported in the most recent edition of Bronx Youth Heard.

As journalists Gary Axelbank and Harvey Araton recently commented, perhaps the grandest monument to the city’s unforgivable heist of green space in a community struggling with asthma and other public health problems, is the old Yankee Stadium, which still stands despite city promises it would be razed to make way for new baseball fields, so local kids can start running the bases again.

The city says the Yankees needed their old offices while constructing the new stadium.

Araton, a New York Times sports columnist, points out that it’s somehow acceptable that kids all over the city can learn in trailers hogging schoolyards in perpetuity. But the Yanks can’t spend a few months in similar quarters?

And the city says tearing down the old Yankee Stadium “requires a complicated public procurement process.”
So, how is it that the city had no problem getting a wrecking ball at Shea Stadium in October?

“Why was it more important to ensure that the Mets have ample parking for their new stadium in time for Opening Day than it is to give Bronx families the parkland they’ve been promised in time for spring?” asked Axelbank, in a video commentary on the Bronx News Network.

We have one more question: Why is it that only reporters are making noise about this? Is there not one elected official who considers this important enough to at least issue a press release, especially since every elected official save one supported the project? Our fax machine hums with elected officials’ press releases on issues they have little if any control over, but when it comes to a situation where taking a stand might accomplish something? Nada.

“Our elected officials are missing in action,” says Joyce Hogi, a veteran Bronx activist and parks advocate who lives on the Grand Concourse. “They were supposed to be watching. All they did was sign off on the parks and they haven’t done anything since.”

We, and many Bronxites, are tired of this crap. We’re tired of city officials railroading unwise projects through the land use process. We’re tired of the broken promises. And we’re tired of our elected officials – and we can’t think of any exceptions in this case – abandoning their duty to represent the public interest.

So, we’ll step into the breach once again, as we did with the languishing Kingsbridge Armory project. With this issue, we inaugurate the “Tear It Down” clock. The clock will measure the days since the wrecking crews arrived at Shea Stadium and it won’t stop until the cranes show up for work on River Avenue. We’ll update it bi-weekly in every issue of the Norwood News and more frequently on the Bronx News Network blog (westbronxnews.blogspot.com).

If you want to add your voice, simply call the mayor’s office (212-788-3000) and tell Mayor Bloomberg, “Tear It Down. Now!”