Flushing Meadows Corona Park has three distinctions: It is the most used of this city’s municipal parks; it has the largest lake; and it is the most neglected, underfunded and abused, dumped upon with all sorts of structures that do not belong in an urban park, courtesy of the Neanderthal politicians who mismanage this city, view FMCP not as an urban park but as real estate to be turned over to real estate and business interests — their true constituents — and the public be damned.
They never understood this park is the lifeblood of an urban society and used primarily by the underprivileged who do not have homes in the Hamptons and probably not even a rear yard.
In the 50 years since the close of the 1964-65 World’s Fair, if one were to walk around Meadow Lake and wanted to sit down on a bench and admire the lake, it could not be done because there are no and never were benches.
In the May 23-29 edition of TimesLedger Newspapers, the current Borough President Melinda Katz is quoted referring to FMCP as “the crown jewel of the park system in Queens.”
Katz has been on and off in politics for years, never lifted a finger to help FMCP and always supported alien transgressions in the park. If it be a jewel, it be zircon. In view of her abysmal record, I nominate her for the chutzpah award of the year.
Benjamin M. Haber
Flushing
