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  #1  
Old Posted Apr 2, 2007, 6:55 PM
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Smile NEW YORK | UN Building | 546 FT | 36 FLOORS

NY Times

At a Longstanding Playground, Yet Another Plan to End the Games

By ALEX MINDLIN
April 1, 2007

The undistinguished little playground at First Avenue and 42nd Street, just south of the United Nations, has been tempting developers for years. Though it is called Robert Moses Playground, it is not much of a tribute to the master builder: a windswept 1.3-acre patch of painted asphalt, used by children, dog walkers and a roller hockey league.

In 1981, Harry Helmsley tried and failed to acquire the playground from the city to construct a 50-story glass tower. And in 2002, Mayor Bloomberg began pushing a plan to build a United Nations office building on part of the site. The State Legislature rejected that proposal in 2005.

Now the playground is back in play. Staff members from the office of Daniel Doctoroff, the city’s deputy mayor for economic development, have met with most of the legislators representing the neighborhood over the last two months, pitching a plan for a 35-story tower that would consolidate United Nations offices now housed in widely scattered city-owned buildings.

Because it involves taking parkland, the plan would require approval in the Legislature.

Janel Patterson, a spokeswoman for the city’s Economic Development Corporation, said that residents would be compensated for the park’s loss by a planned esplanade and bike path along the East River. “The esplanade park would be more than three times the size of Robert Moses,” she said in an e-mail message.

But the playground is 66 years old, and many neighbors say the esplanade is no substitute for this longstanding neighborhood institution. “What they’re proposing is park space for jogging or biking, or for people to sit on a bench and look at the river,” said Brian Kavanagh, the local state assemblyman. “That’s no replacement for a playground that’s used for active sports and kids running around.”

The playground’s most faithful constituency is the East End Hockey League, a roller hockey league that plays five games a weekend there and has used the playground since 1972, often lobbying fiercely for its preservation. Jack Collins, the group’s longtime president, generally plays goalie or defense, a position that strikes him as apt. “There’s a lot of defense going on these days,” he said.

Mr. Collins was skeptical about the group’s chances of finding a replacement space, in one of the city’s least green community districts. “I don’t see where there’s an alternative,” he said. “This is a modest space, but it’s someplace where you can use your imagination and make the most of a little playground.”

ALEX MINDLIN
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  #2  
Old Posted Apr 2, 2007, 10:06 PM
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The playground, (right side)




Overhead view...




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  #3  
Old Posted Apr 3, 2007, 11:28 AM
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Once again, politics enters the fray...

(NY Sun)

Lawmakers Vowing To Block United Nations Building Effort

By GRACE RAUH
April 3, 2007

Elected officials are vowing to fight any proposal by the Bloomberg administration to erect a United Nations office tower at Robert Moses Park on 42nd Street, and say they would do everything in their power to stop such a plan from winning approval in Albany if were to come before the Legislature.

The most strenuous opposition is from members of the Legislature and City Council who mounted a vocal campaign against a previous plan to build an office tower on the property. The proposal required legislative approval, which it failed to receive in 2005.

The officials say they oppose any plan to help the United Nations, which they describe as an antidemocratic, anti-American, and anti-Israeli organization.

"When the holiday is over in the next 10 days, I and others will mount the same kind of campaign as we did before," an Assemblyman, Dov Hikind of Brooklyn, said yesterday, referring to the fight against the previous building plan. He said he thinks any future plan to build a U.N. office tower on the property would fail again in Albany.

"I don't know of anyone who feels differently from a year ago or two years ago," he said. "As far as I am concerned, anything with the United Nations turns my stomach."

A spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg, John Gallagher, said in an e-mailed statement the administration is working with the United Nations to provide a range of expansion options, however, no decision is imminent. In the past, Mr. Bloomberg has said having the United Nations in New York is important for the city's economy.

Council Member Daniel Garodnick said that when he met with representatives from the office of Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff a few weeks ago, the city officials discussed their desire to revisit using Robert Moses Park as space for the United Nations.

For Mr. Garodnick's constituents, the issue of greatest concern regarding any possible development is the limited amount of open park space in his district, he said.

"Protecting the parkland that we have in an area that is starved for it is very important," he said. "Nobody will tolerate simply losing a park."

Previously, the United Nations had indicated it needed extra offices to be used as "swing space" during its renovation. Although that need has been met through other arrangements, the entity still is interested in an office building to consolidate employees scattered in rental space around the city, a spokeswoman for the Economic Development Corporation, Janel Patterson said.

A council member who counts himself among those opposed to the presence of the United Nations in New York, Simcha Felder, said it would be a mistake for the city to help it in any way.

"Arguments have been made about the economic benefits that this city has when it comes to housing the United Nations and I would never debate that," Mr. Felder said. "But the economic benefits of having an entity that's evil? It doesn't matter how much money the city makes on it. It shouldn't be here."
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  #4  
Old Posted Apr 3, 2007, 1:52 PM
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I never realized there was such opposition to the UN here. Maybe it is time they moved to Europe or some other more welcoming environment.
     
     
  #5  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 4:48 AM
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Originally Posted by tdawg View Post
I never realized there was such opposition to the UN here. Maybe it is time they moved to Europe or some other more welcoming environment.
oh snap....Bloomberg's gonna bite your head off for that one.

NIMBYs (and "elected officials") are pains in my ass

LETS SEE A REN-DER-RINGGG!!
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  #6  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 5:24 AM
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This is a proposal by http://www.krjda.com


     
     
  #7  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 5:31 AM
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Originally Posted by tdawg View Post
I never realized there was such opposition to the UN here. Maybe it is time they moved to Europe or some other more welcoming environment.
The kids do need a playground though.
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  #8  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 6:59 AM
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True New York kids don't play in those sissy playgrounds. They played in the streets.
     
     
  #9  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 12:00 PM
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Originally Posted by antinimby View Post
True New York kids don't play in those sissy playgrounds. They played in the streets.
I'm sure people probably do use that park, but I've never seen a single person in it. Not even homeless. But I'm not over there all the time.

Still:

Quote:
Janel Patterson, a spokeswoman for the city’s Economic Development Corporation, said that residents would be compensated for the park’s loss by a planned esplanade and bike path along the East River. “The esplanade park would be more than three times the size of Robert Moses,” she said
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  #10  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 12:01 PM
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This is a proposal by http://www.krjda.com



Is that the Maki version? I remember it being about 500 ft.
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  #11  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 12:03 PM
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“The esplanade park would be more than three times the size of Robert Moses,” she said.



And let me tell you... Robert Moses was a pretty big man in this town... he'd a been a big man in ANY town!
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  #12  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 12:04 PM
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Originally Posted by antinimby View Post
True New York kids don't play in those sissy playgrounds. They played in the streets.
There's a real park a couple of blocks away, and most of those residential towers, even the newer ones have their own private spaces anyway.
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  #13  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 1:08 PM
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The Bush Adminstration will do everything it can to delay this construction until it get the type of reforms it wants from the UN. The political games influencing this project will be intense both on the local, state and national level.
     
     
  #14  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2007, 1:31 PM
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There are plenty of companies in New York that can be considered antidemocratic, anti-American, and anti-Israeli; it is a damn shame the council is letting irrelevant political views get in the way of their primary job, public service on behalf of the city. If they've got a problem with the UN they can take it up with Washington. I doubt Bush will really care if the UN has an office building in NYC, most Washington Republicans loathe New York, no matter how conservative our elected officials can be.

On the surface, the UN has always been getting a free ride (and dammit free parking!) from NYC, but they offer a great deal of benefits that are very hard to quantify, including self proclamation of the World's Capital. I know that park well and I can say very few kids ever venture to that park; sports leagues are always fun and often hurting for space, give the hockey players 200ft by 85ft of pavement and everything will be o.k.
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  #15  
Old Posted Apr 5, 2007, 2:16 AM
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Fuck those right-wing assholes that deride the UN for having the strength to criticize Israeli policy.

The "reforms" the Bush administration wants for the UN are just to make the organization even more of a lapdog to U.S. foreign policy, which is anathema to the UN Charter since it is beligerent and warmongering.

After the Iraq fiasco revealed that the UN was right all along and that Iraq did not have WMDs and the inspections were working, what ground does the Bush administration and its zionist lackeys have to stand on.

By opposing a UN expansion, these dickheads are hurting MILLIONS of people worldwide who benefit from the services the UN provides.
     
     
  #16  
Old Posted Apr 5, 2007, 11:36 AM
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Originally Posted by GFSNYC View Post
There are plenty of companies in New York that can be considered antidemocratic, anti-American, and anti-Israeli; it is a damn shame the council is letting irrelevant political views get in the way of their primary job, public service on behalf of the city. If they've got a problem with the UN they can take it up with Washington.
These politicians just want to sound tough, and pander to whatever base they believe they have. It's easy and popular the criticize the UN, but saying they should be kicked out of the City is ridiculous. If we go down that route, there's a whole list of companies waiting to be shown the door. That's not the kind of message the City should be sending anyway, which is why Bloomberg is doing everything he can to counter it.
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  #17  
Old Posted Apr 5, 2007, 10:49 PM
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The proposed tower looks almost like the UN building itself, a 50 year old structure! Couldn't they have come up with something more original?
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  #18  
Old Posted Apr 5, 2007, 11:18 PM
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Fuck those right-wing assholes that deride the UN for having the strength to criticize Israeli policy.

The "reforms" the Bush administration wants for the UN are just to make the organization even more of a lapdog to U.S. foreign policy, which is anathema to the UN Charter since it is beligerent and warmongering.

After the Iraq fiasco revealed that the UN was right all along and that Iraq did not have WMDs and the inspections were working, what ground does the Bush administration and its zionist lackeys have to stand on.

By opposing a UN expansion, these dickheads are hurting MILLIONS of people worldwide who benefit from the services the UN provides.
If the UN was actually DOING ITS FUCKING JOB, and had the balls to stand up to Iraqi defiance.....there is a good chance that we would have KNOWN FOR A FACT whether or not Iraq had WMD.

I mean...seriously....the UN doesn't even want to acknowledge GENOCIDE that is occuring in the Sudan. The UN is worthless.
     
     
  #19  
Old Posted Apr 5, 2007, 11:25 PM
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Why is the UN thinking in terms of only 35 floors? You'd think they'd have the foresight to anticipate that 2 or 3 decades from now they'll have to go thru all this all over again... why not put up 50 or 60 stories?
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  #20  
Old Posted Apr 5, 2007, 11:39 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hoosier View Post
Fuck those right-wing assholes that deride the UN for having the strength to criticize Israeli policy.

The "reforms" the Bush administration wants for the UN are just to make the organization even more of a lapdog to U.S. foreign policy, which is anathema to the UN Charter since it is beligerent and warmongering.

After the Iraq fiasco revealed that the UN was right all along and that Iraq did not have WMDs and the inspections were working, what ground does the Bush administration and its zionist lackeys have to stand on.

By opposing a UN expansion, these dickheads are hurting MILLIONS of people worldwide who benefit from the services the UN provides.
The UN is the lapdog of everybody. The French and Russians in the "Security Council" for one. It is far from a collective security organization that represents the world with just 5 nation-states representing the world's security. Also, every country has its own interests. Do you love the French because they resisted "Bush's war," but actually many French companies had business deals with Saddam's government and if that government was removed, then there goes the deals and money to the French.

Also, there have been many atrocities in the world post-cold war that the UN did not do much about nor did Kofi Annan want to get involved with. Of course this all falls to the nation-states that control this organization. And if a country does not want to send its troops to Africa or any other place, then nothing will happen.
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