Civic group pitches ideas to governor

A Queens civic group is appealing to newly sworn in New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer to have the state take control of the New York State Pavilion from the city as well as bring a historic document back to its home in Flushing.
David Oats, president of the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park World's Fair Association, submitted letters to Spitzer the day after his inauguration, asking that the state take the Pavilion back from the City Parks & Recreation Department control, secure the building making it safe, and designate it an official State and City landmark.
&#8220Take that building back from the hands of a city that for 40 years has ignored, abused, neglected and debased a heroic symbol of the Empire State,” Oats wrote in a letter to Spitzer.
The Pavilion, built for $12 million in time for the 1964-1965 World's Fair, is the tallest structure in the city's largest park and given to the city as a gift from the state. Oats called the Parks Department clueless and unresponsive to a number of issues relating to the Pavilion including waiting weeks to replace a light bulb on the top of the structure in 2006.
However, the Parks Department maintains that they are committed to continuing to look for future uses of the structure and welcomes community input.
&#8220Their input is vital in determining the future use of this structure, as well as in generating the necessary interest to acquire funding,” said NYC Parks & Recreation spokesperson Abigail Lootens. &#8220We look forward to continuing with the preservation of the Pavilion, as well as making the Tent of Tomorrow, the Tent of Today.”
In addition to asking Spitzer to have the state retake the Pavilion, Oats has also appealed to him in order to return the Flushing Remonstrance - the document signed on December 27, 1657 to bring the concept of religious freedom to the area - back to the Flushing area in time for the 350th Anniversary later this year.
Oats said that the document is currently locked away in a safe, or a prison as he calls it, up in Albany, and the document has only been in Flushing four times in its almost 350-year history, with the most recent visit occurring in1999.
Oats, who was then the managing editor of The Queens Courier, helped spearhead that effort.
&#8220I'm very mindful that if it hadn't been for my period at The Courier, the Remonstrance may not have happened back in 1999; I'm indebted and grateful,” Oats said. &#8220It was a beautiful thing because we really saw the reaction it got and really brought life back to the document,” he said.
Currently, the Queens Museum of Art (QMA) and the Flushing Library has put in a request to the New York State Archives for a temporary loan to bring the document back to Queens for the 350th Anniversary, according to QMA Executive Director Tom Finkelpearl.
However, Oats does not want to bring the document back to Queens just for the anniversary, he wants Queens to become the permanent home for the document.
&#8220Our call is ultimately that we want the document to come back here and be displayed in the community it was written in,” Oats said.