From left: Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and map rendering of Manhattan Greenway plan

The East River waterfront is set to be transformed into continuous parkland and recreational space along the East Side that will rival the Hudson waterfront, the New York Times reported, following a number of important announcements by the Bloomberg administration, including the conversion of Pier 42 into open space and the opening of Pier 15. But the vital turning point may come in the form of the United Nations East River esplanade deal. Following the announcement of Bloomberg’s 20-year plan for the waterfront, unveiled in March, the most significant development may be an as-yet unlinked deal with the U.N., the Times said. [more]

Parks Department commissioner Adrian Benepe and a rendering of the Finger Building in WilliamsburgThe very same measures the city put in place to spur residential development in Williamsburg are coming back to haunt it as it tries to fulfill parkland promises to residents near the hated “Finger Building,” according to the New York Times.

The 200-foot-tall building, located at 144 North 8th Street, managed to be grandfathered in after the city rezoned large portions of Williamsburg and Greenpoint to reduce the height of buildings off the waterfront to 60 feet. But the larger purpose of the rezoning was to encourage inland development, which would have brought thousands more residents to an area that was already short on public green space. As a result, the city had promised a 28-acre patch of land to the community, which it would turn into a park.
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Helen Foster and Heritage Field rendering

As the Yankees begin their 2011 season today at Yankee Stadium, the community surrounding the ballpark continues to wonder when the city will fulfill its promise to replace the nearby ballfields it tore down to make room for the $1.5 billion behemoth in 2009, according to the New York Times. State law required the city to replace the 22 acres of parks cleared during stadium construction, and most acres have been replaced in parks throughout the city, but the highlight of the project was supposed to be $51 million Heritage Field across the street from the new stadium. But little progress has been made, and neighbors are frustrated, particularly those affiliated with school baseball teams dependent on those fields. [more]

Brooklyn’s new waterfront park could raise up to $7 million a year without building controversial condominium towers, according to a report released yesterday, the Daily News reported. Some of the money would come from an idea calling for the creation of a Park Improvement District, charging fees to surrounding businesses and property owners. According to the Brooklyn Paper, the report predicted that $1 million to $4
million towards the park’s $16 million maintenance budget could come
from a new tax on residents and business owners within a quarter-mile of
the park. Another option is that officials could build new parking lots or increase their private fund-raising. [more]

The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation is on target for all their PlaNYC goals, Commissioner Adrian Benepe told American City, a magazine which promotes economic growth. Since many of the early-action aspects of PlaNYC were in parks, the department was able to accomplish a lot, Benepe said. As part of its goal to have a park or playground within a 10 minute walk of every New Yorker, the department has transformed 165 part-time schoolyards into full-time playgrounds and there’s been a 16.5 percent increase in the number of playgrounds overall. Another big project of the parks department is the creation or enhancement of major regional parks in eight neighborhoods across the city. [more]

The Department of Parks and Recreation is no longer counting on a fundraising plan that would have sold off the naming rights to city-owned properties like the McCarren Park pool and the Central Park tennis center. According to the Post, the agency removed the plan from the budget last week because of a dearth of prospective bidders. “It’s not a viable idea in this economic climate,” Benepe said. “We don’t budget for what we can’t attain.”  [more]

Greenwich Village residents are making a renewed push to keep three parcels of land out of the reach of an expanding New York University by transferring their control from the city’s Department of Transportation to the Department of Parks and Recreation, according to the Daily News. Community Board 2 has already orchestrated several unsuccessful attempts at the transfer, but this time, amid the school’s 2031 expansion plan, Villagers are stepping up their efforts, having already sent out petitions to Mayor Bloomberg, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. NYU has said it wants to take the blocks where the land parcels — including the Mercer Playground, LaGuardia Park and the Mercer-Houston Dog Run — are located and “knit them back into the city.” [NYDN]

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A year after the fateful storm that destroyed more than 500 trees in Central Park, Adrian Benepe, the commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, is describing the destruction as an opportunity in disguise. In the storm-affected portions of the park, particularly on the West Side near 100th Street, officials are now looking to alter and redesign the original layout, according to the New York Times. “The storm wasn’t all bad, because it created some opportunities,” Benepe said. “The storm was like a giant chain saw coming through here creating a circumstance where you could look at it for the first time and say: ‘Well, do we want to have a woodland here? Or do we want to have a meadow?’” So far, roughly 350 replacement trees are slated for the park, costing anywhere from $175 to $300 a piece, officials say. [NYT]

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Hudson River Park, the five-mile waterfront band stretching from Battery Park to 59th Street, is so short on cash that City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe is warning that it may soon reach “crisis” levels, unable to generate enough cash for necessary maintenance. The park is supposed to generate its $15 million annual operating budget on its own. Nearly half of that comes from parking fees at Pier 40 at Houston Street — for which the state sought a major developer but never found one — according to Connie Fishman, president of the Hudson River Park Trust. The pier’s crumbling roof has resulted in the closure of 160 parking spaces this year, worth an estimated $600,000 in funds, and more closings could be imminent, Fishman said. Some advocates say the government is at fault for pitting the park’s success on deals with developers that might never pan out, while refusing to pay for services with state funds. A development at Pier 40 would have paid for the pier’s renovation and generated additional revenue for the park. Hudson River Park is expected to increase in size by 25 percent next year with new sections opening. “We will have more park to operate and less money available,” Fishman said. [Post]

Preservation efforts are getting off the ground at the New York State Pavillion in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, where an engineering study last month found that the columns were crumbling to the point of being “critically unstable.” The 1964 World’s Fair site was approved as a state landmark in September, and volunteers have recently begun clearing debris and weeds from the site. On Monday, two volunteers repainted the Pavillion’s iconic red and white stripes on its promenade exterior. Meanwhile, architecture firm Perkins Will is looking into how the city could use the restored building, on a pro bono basis. Last year, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said it is possible the Pavillion could ultimately be used as a welcome center or museum.