Adrian Benepe

Expanding parks is not supposed to be this difficult.

“This is the worst situation I’ve ever encountered in terms of [dealings with] the community,” said Carol Greitzer, a former councilwoman from the West Village who helped start a group called 250+ Friends of New York Parks. It opposes many of the Bloomberg administration’s park plans. “They come up with a plan. Maybe—maybe—if you’re lucky, you can tweak it slightly, but that’s about all you can do.”  read more »

It happens in New York City, and it's a crime: the deliberate killing of trees.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, according to the Sunday New York Times, encourages anyone who knows about an arborcide to call... 311, sure, but probably 911, too.  read more »

>>Read the full text of the Mayor's speech here.  read more »

Pamela Lippe was excited. On Sunday afternoon, the green consultant and executive director of Earth Day New York for 17 years was sitting in one of the hundreds of white and blue chairs lining the American Museum of Natural History's Millstein Hall of Ocean Life, anxious to hear Mayor Michael Bloomberg's speech revealing PlaNYC, the city's 127 new initiatives that are supposed to make New York City "greener" and "greater" by 2030.  read more »

It quickly became apparent at Wednesday morning's hearing on the city's controversial Randall's Island plan that private schools were already hogging the available playing fields on the island.

Some 95 percent of the weekday after-school permits are controlled by private schools; public schools get just two or three fields a week, according to Sabina Ellentuck, director of Randall's Island Kids & Community.

Why? Because of a Parks Department "tradition" of grandfathering each permit holder from one season to the next, and the private schools were the ones who first migrated to the island years ago.

So, how about ending that tradition and giving priority to public schools to use the present fields there?

"I would suffer the fate of the Czar and his family if I were to get rid of the grandfather clause," Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe told The Real Estate after he came under fiery cross-examination by City Council members who didn't like the way a renovation plan gave precedence to private schools. "I would be lined up in a room and shot."

"Probably the City Council would come after me. The grandfathering creates a reliable way for leagues to know they are going to have fields on which to play each year: all the Little Leagues, all the Catholic schools, all the public schools, all the adult leagues, all the corporate leagues."

- Matthew Schuerman

Washington Square Park has been due to get its three-year, $16 million face-lift for several months  read more »

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On the morning of Jan.  read more »

Only the Deputy Commissioner for Traffic and the city's Transportation Commissioner, Iris Weinshall,  read more »