De Blasio Housing Plan Seeks Land Promised as Yankees Replacement Park
A decade has passed since the city demolished more than 25 acres of South Bronx parkland to build a new multibillion-dollar Yankee Stadium. Yet the legacy of that project, and the contentious park swap that made it possible, now threatens the plans of Mayor Bill de Blasio as he tries to put high-rise housing on a vacant lot beside the Harlem River. After months of controversy, city officials are insisting that the disputed parcel was never promised as parkland — despite Bronx residents’ recollection otherwise.
The land in question is adjacent to Mill Pond Park, which was created on the Harlem River waterfront as part of the Yankee Stadium parks replacement plan. For years neighborhood residents were told the vacant lot, which lies to the south, would eventually be added to the park. The extra acreage was included on the Parks Department’s website, and a sign in the park even featured a map describing the area with the words “Future Park Expansion.”
But in May the de Blasio administration announced a plan to have an as-yet-unnamed developer construct housing towers there with up to 1,045 apartments, plus retail shops and a publicly accessible lawn and esplanade. Half the units would be designated as affordable for households earning up to 80 percent of the city’s median income, meaning a family of four making up to $76,320 a year could apply for residency. (The annual median income in Bronx Community Board 4, where the site is located, is around $26,000.) Some in the neighborhood are preparing to once again do battle with city hall over parks.
“It’s another broken promise,” says Highbridge resident Anita Antonetty, who was secretary of Bronx Community Board 4 when the stadium plan was first proposed. At both board and community meetings, she recalls, city officials spoke of the future addition to Mill Pond Park. The Parks Department’s manager of the Yankee Stadium project, Frank McCue, was among those who promised that the undeveloped parcel would hold a skate park, a kayak launch, a recreational building, and lawn space, she says: “They kept saying, eventually, down the line, when they got the money, they’d finish the park.”
Read more: https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/09/05/de-blasio-housing-plan-seeks-land-promised-as-yankees-replacement-park/