Flushing Meadows: Park or Parking Lot?

2:01 PM EDT on October 26, 2006

Streetsblog doesn't manage to get out to Queens all that often these days, so it's good to know that The Park Watchdog is keeping an eye on Flushing Meadows Park. Here is what he sees: Cars. Lots of them. Parked all over the grass.

The Dog's general thesis:

When Robert Moses handed over Flushing Meadows park in 1967 to the City of New York the three decades dream of creating a great city park on the site of what once was a notorious ash and garbage dump, he foresaw that a Manhattan-oriented bureaucracy would neglect the beautiful park that was bequeathed as a result of two World's Fairs. His fears were proven by the fact that the Mayor of the City of New York did not even see fit to show up for the opening ceremonies of the park.
The City's contempt for Flushing Meadows - Corona Park could not be more evident than in the desecration of its parkland by turning this precious space into nothing more than a gigantic parking lot.

Aaron Naparstek

AARON NAPARSTEK is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparsteks journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. Naparstek is the author of "Honku: The Zen Antidote for Road Rage" (Villard, 2003), a book of humorous haiku poetry inspired by the endless motorist sociopathy observed from his apartment window. Prior to launching Streetsblog, Naparstek worked as an interactive media producer, pioneering some of the Web's first music web sites, online communities, live webcasts and social networking services. Naparstek is currently in Cambridge with his wife and two young sons where he is enjoying a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. He has a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Naparstek is a co-founder of the Park Slope Neighbors community group and the Grand Army Plaza Coalition. You can find more of his work here: http://www.naparstek.com.

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