Author: admindudley

Help raise money to support the Play Street!

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Help raise money to support the Play Street!

The Jackson Heights Green Alliance has partnered with online donation website ioby to raise funds for the improvements to the Play Street for 2011.

This summer we want the Play Street to be better than ever. In particular, we hope to get better outdoor furniture, better sun canopies, and more sports equipment, among other improvements. But we need to raise money, and right now ioby is offering a special program. All donations to the Play Street through ioby will be matched dollar for dollar. In other words, if we raise $800 we’ll get the $1,600 we need. Even if you can only give a few dollars, this is a huge opportunity for us and we hope you can help. No donation is too small, especially since everything is doubled!!

All transactions are secure, and ioby accepts all major credit cards.

For a direct link to our project page on ioby, visit:

http://ioby.org/projects/queens/jackson-heights-78th-street-playstreet

The matching contributions only last until April 30, so please don’t delay. Thank you for all that you do to make Jackson Heights a more livable place!!

(Note: There is a donation match cap of $200 for individual donations, though donors are welcome to contribute more. As folks donate to your project, the match amount will appear within 12 hours of a donation.)

Will you help to buy a park for Jackson Heights?

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Will you help to buy a park for Jackson Heights?

Thanks to everyone who came out last night for the Emergency Community Meeting about the Garden School athletic field. Despite the snow, 150+ people showed up to hear more about the situation and brainstorm ideas for a solution.

Following is a summary of the situation:

- Council Member Daniel Dromm has secured $5 million in capital funds for the City Parks Department to purchase the Garden School athletic field and turn it into an extension of Travers Park.

- While the Garden School would prefer to sell the lot to the city, their Board of Directors has voted to sell to a developer to address their immediate cash flow needs of $500,000 in the next few months. The money from the developer would be available more quickly than the money from the City because the City must go through ULURP (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure). This is the process that allows for public review and environmental study of any purchase of land by the City. ULURP typically takes 12-18 months to complete. The money can not be released until ULURP is completed.

- We want the Garden School to accept the city’s offer, so the attendees at the meeting have proposed that the community lend the money to the Garden School to address their immediate cash flow needs. This would basically be an interest-free loan to be repaid in the next 12-18 months, upon completion of the city’s land use review process. Once the Garden School receives the money from the city, the money will immediately be repaid.

We at the Jackson Heights Green Alliance are reaching out to the community to ask if you would pledge money to this cause. For amounts of $500 and above, this would be a LOAN to be repaid by the Garden School within two years when the purchase by the City is completed. Amounts under $500 would be a donation and would be reserved for Parks-related improvements.

We are in the process of working with an attorney to draft a contract that will establish the terms of the loans from Jackson Heights residents to the Garden School.

If you are willing to help save one of the last remaining open spaces in the neighborhood for the expansion of Travers Park, please email me at [email protected] with your name, email, phone, and the amount you’d be willing to pledge. Once we have worked out the details of where the money will be held we will then request you to honor your pledge.

Let’s do everything we can to preserve the open space we so desperately need!

Get Involved,
Dudley Stewart
Jackson Heights Green Alliance

Emergency Community Meeting about the Garden School field - Wednesday, January 26th 8pm

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The Jackson Heights Beautification Group and Jackson Heights Green Alliance are facilitating an emergency community meeting about the Expansion of Travers Park / Garden School field.Please come out to get an update and plan future actions on this very important community issue.Please join us:

Wednesday, January 26th 8pm

Community Methodist Church
81-10 35th Avenue

A timeline of events so far

The Garden School, a prestigious private school that has been serving Jackson Heights since 1923, has a playing field attached to the school which they are looking to sell in order to raise funds. For a number of years, the school has been with an increasingly large deficit between operating costs and income.

In the beginning of 2010 Councilmember Danny Dromm was approached by the Garden School to consider the city’s interest in purchasing the playing field.

In May and June, 2010 Councilmember Dromm orchestrated a series of meeting between the Parks Department and the Garden School to consider the viability of this option.

On July 1st, 2010 Councilmember Dromm secured $4M from the city’s capital budget in conjunction with $1M from Borough President Helen Marshall to enable the Department of Parks to buy the land as an extension to Travers Park.

The Garden School and the city were in general agreement to move forward with the city purchasing the land. In late September Councilmember Dromm was informed by the school that they would need the money much sooner than expected. An unexpected drop in enrollment this academic year has made the situation more critical. Since the city must follow the 6-18 month long ULURP process the Garden School’s cash flow needs made a deal with the city more problematic. As a result, the school put the playing field on the market, listing it for $5.25M

Councilmember Danny Dromm, in partnership with the Jackson Heights Beautification Group and Jackson Heights Green Alliance worked on securing the Garden School bridge financing to help cover the school’s expenses until the city completed the ULURP process.

The Garden School informed Councilmember Dromm last week that the school’s board of directors had voted to not pursue the city’s offer. The city was not offered the opportunity to counter-bid.