Jackson Heights Life

I think the green lawn is a horrible idea. To take away the heavily used asphalt area that is used for baseball, vollyball, bike riding, jogging and tennis and replace it with a lawn just doesn't make sense.

DNA article

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20150721/jackson-heights/great-lawn-performance-space-planned-for-travers-park-redesign

Matt is on the mark; I welcome the addition of a lawn. As others have said, I don't use the park now except to walk through and go to the Greenmarket. A lawn would provide a great space for lounging/reading in the grass on lazy days, law seating for movie nights and other events, and just generally more public green space. Desperately needed.

But, why are the plans pushing the activities out of the park. The answer is not that there are other areas - that is not really true. Also the neighborhood schools use that baseball field for gym classes and after school teams.

I may be wrong, but it looks like there is a baseball diamond on the southeast corner of Staunton Field. I think the designers have been really considerate of the many uses of the park while trying to introduce some new ones.

For those that are new to Jackson Heights and aren't familiar with the recent history leading up to the redesign, there have been many positive additions of public space to the three blocks between 77th and 80th in this location.

1) What started as a temporary play street on 78th Street in the summer months became closed to traffic year round. It is now getting a makeover as part of the Dot's Plaza Program: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/pedestrians/publicplaza-sites.shtml#2008

2) The Garden School had some financial difficulties and a decision was made to sell off their playground. Community members, with much help from Council Member Dromm's office, came together with a plan for the city to purchase this land which most likely would have ended up being sold to a developer: http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/rory-stanton-field

3) The IS 145 schoolyard becomes part of the Schoolyards to Playgrounds program which renovates schoolyards in exchange for opening them to the community outside of school hours: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/ps-69-145-congested-jackson-heights-set-open-playgrounds-public-article-1.977432
http://www.nycgovparks.org/greening/planyc/schoolyards

These all are great improvements to our neighborhood, however one thing they all share is that they are and will remain primarily paved and used for sports as per this design. The argument that we are losing paved area used for sports simply is not true. We've gained a tremendous amount.

 The sports that are currently played most days of the year in the area that would now be the grassy hill are volleyball,
cricket and soccer, none of which I believe are using regulation size courts. There was a choice to give tennis and baseball
their regulation courts. This disperses an evening crowd of JH's looking for recreation and athletics to where exactly?
Every other local area is full to capacity too. The smaller soccer field in the 90's is always packed. If you Google mapped
the activities in the park for a length of time to analyze use, I believe the numbers would skew towards excessive use
of the asphalted areas. IMHO a better way would be to take the fences down of course but put in lot's of green planting
of the shrub, small trees and perennial types which have gone a long way in the also busy parks of Manhattan to create
green space. Try walking around the park anytime after 5:00 and see what is being used and by whom. I feel certain
the planners did not do this.

  We need to be realistic and I think, progressive, about what this community is and installing a big green hill is questionable
in this time of climate change from an environmental perspective. Most areas are moving away from the green lawn-
even golf is looking for alternatives- and given the acute need for recreation and our limited budget is this the best choice?
I believe there should be a time factor imposed on the lawn if it becomes a reality. So that if it ends up being mostly mud
and taking a disproportionate amount of the park maintainence budget, there is a plan B. Or establish a conservancy
like the big parks have that make the staffing of the lawns a reality?

Looking at NYC Park website:
https://www.nycgovparks.org/planning-and-building/capital-project-tracker/project/6276

Does that mean spring or summer of 2017 the park will start the construction and we won't be able to access to it.

When will tney start breaking ground? 2017?