for you to save Flushing Meadows Corona Park!
Our park is threatened with plans for three major construction projects that would turn this historic open space into a campus for professional sports facilities and mall shopping. Think the Jersey Meadowlands. More details later.
Please write a quick letter to an elected official. If everyone who sees this message writes a letter, we win! Is saving a heavily used park that hosted two history-making Worlds Fairs worth five minutes?
We’ve made it easy. See below for lists of elected officials and top reasons to save the park. Write what matters to you and put it in your own words. Be direct, but polite!
You can write to your own elected official, but Councilmember Julissa Ferreras has a big say because the park is largely in her district. The Councilmember says she is undecided. An outpouring of letters could sway her.
Make sure you include your name and street address so your opinion is counted, whether you send it through the Post Office or attached to an email. Then send it!
Write a letter to an elected official in 3 easy steps:
1. Start with what Flushing Meadows Corona Park means to you and why you want it saved.
2. Say why the land grab is bad. If needed, use some ideas below. Put them in your words. Time is critical. The tennis center expansion is under review now.
3. Finally, say you don’t want any more parkland taken from the children and people of Queens. It’s not for sale; we don’t want to make a deal.
Why the Flushing Meadows land grab is wrong:
* Proposals for a huge soccer stadium, an expanded National Tennis Center, and the city’s largest shopping mall in our park are an insult to the people of Queens. They never would be proposed for Central Park.
* Flushing Meadows is essential to Queens. It’s an oasis of green and tranquility in a crowded city. We need more of it, not less.
* The National Tennis Center sits on 42 acres of prime parkland. Since opening, it’s expanded further and further into the park. Now it wants more, even though it leases enough land from the city for its new tennis stadiums and garages.
* Despite the success of the US Open at Flushing Meadows, the US Tennis Association does not provide any direct funding for the park. It pays only 1% of its revenue for the land, money that goes to the city’s general fund.
* The USTA provides very little money to the surrounding communities, only $6,000 to nonprofit groups in Queens in 2010.
* Flushing Meadows already has enough buildings in its midst – two major professional sports facilities (Citifield and the tennis center), highways and train yards. No other city park is burdened with these kinds of intrusions.
* Flushing Meadows is a flood plain and acts as a sponge, soaking up rain and floodwaters. More construction means it can’t protect Queens against the growing threat of future flooding. Remember Hurricane Sandy?
* Don’t let developers “buy” our parkland with talk of a deal or an “alliance.”
* It’s time to say enough concrete, steel and asphalt, and commit to creating a Flushing Meadow Corona Park that we can be proud of.
* Parkland is a sacred trust from one generation to the next, not something to be traded away. That’s why parkland has special legal protection in New York State. Don’t let them get around the law with a deal or “alliance.”
Who to write to:
Councilmember Julissa Ferreras
32-33A Junction Blvd
East Elmhurst, NY 11369
jferreras@council.nyc.gov 718-651-1917
Councilmember Daniel Dromm
37-32 75th St.
Jackson Heights, New York 11372
ddromm@council.nyc.gov 718-803-6373
State Sen. Jose Peralta
32-37 Junction Boulevard
East Elmhurst, NY 11369
jperalta@nysenate.gov Phone: 718-205-3881
Assemblyman Francisco Moya
82-11 37th Avenue, Suite 709A
Jackson Heights, NY 11372
moyaf@assembly.state.ny.us 718-458-5367
Assemblyman Michael den Dekker
33-46 92nd Street
Suite 1W
Jackson Heights, NY 11372
dendekkerm@assembly.state.ny.us 718-457-0384
Borough President Helen Marshall
120-55 Queens Boulevard
Kew Gardens, NY 11424
718-286-3000I