Edward
November 29th, 2002, 01:20 PM
New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Park coming ashore
By SONDRA WOLFER
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Friday, November 29th, 2002
It ain't Orchard Beach, but the South Bronx is not complaining about a new waterfront park in the works for Hunts Point.
Barretto Point Park, once it is built, will be the only riverside park in the South Bronx.
"It's going to recapture the sense of the South Bronx as a waterfront destination," said Paul Lipson, director of The Point, a community development group in Hunts Point. "It's going to be a great place for people to come boating, jogging, walking or to enjoy their lunch."
The 5-acre park on the East River will have a small beach, a boat launch for canoes and kayaks, an outdoor amphitheater constructed with stones, earth and grass, and volleyball, basketball and handball courts.
The city Parks and Recreation Department was awarded a $350,000 state grant for the $5 million project, with construction expected to begin in the spring and take 18 months to complete.
"For several hundred years, New York City's waterfronts were used for industrial uses," said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe.
"This is really a significant piece of Mayor Bloomberg's plan to reclaim the waterfront for parks and greenways and to get people back to the waterfront," Benepe said.
The property, sandwiched between the Tiffany St. Pier and the Hunts Point Sewage Treatment Plant, was given to the Parks Department by the city's Department of Environmental Protection.
Landscaping shield
Unsightly views of the treatment plant from within the park will be blocked by tree plantings and other landscaping, Benepe said.
Before construction starts, the DEP will oversee an environmental cleanup of the property, which was contaminated with waste from a paint factory that used to stand on the site.
Community leaders are pleased to be gaining a park in the South Bronx, where open space is scarce, but there is some disappointment because of failed efforts to have the entire 13-acre plot turned into parkland.
"It's not the best to have a waste-water treatment plant next to a park, but we'll take it," said John Robert, district manager of Community Board 2. "We're park-starved. Our biggest park is 2 square blocks."
A state grant for $322,500 awarded to the DEP will fund the relocation of a stormwater drainage pipe that is in the path of the Bronx River Greenway.
The two grants are part of $18 million in funding Gov. Pataki awarded last week for 119 open-space, recreation and historic preservation projects across the state.
The Bronx River Greenway eventually will stretch 11 miles along the Bronx River to Long Island Sound not far from Barretto Point Park.
"If you think of it as a necklace of green," said Lipson, "Barretto Point Park will be the gemstone."
Park coming ashore
By SONDRA WOLFER
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Friday, November 29th, 2002
It ain't Orchard Beach, but the South Bronx is not complaining about a new waterfront park in the works for Hunts Point.
Barretto Point Park, once it is built, will be the only riverside park in the South Bronx.
"It's going to recapture the sense of the South Bronx as a waterfront destination," said Paul Lipson, director of The Point, a community development group in Hunts Point. "It's going to be a great place for people to come boating, jogging, walking or to enjoy their lunch."
The 5-acre park on the East River will have a small beach, a boat launch for canoes and kayaks, an outdoor amphitheater constructed with stones, earth and grass, and volleyball, basketball and handball courts.
The city Parks and Recreation Department was awarded a $350,000 state grant for the $5 million project, with construction expected to begin in the spring and take 18 months to complete.
"For several hundred years, New York City's waterfronts were used for industrial uses," said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe.
"This is really a significant piece of Mayor Bloomberg's plan to reclaim the waterfront for parks and greenways and to get people back to the waterfront," Benepe said.
The property, sandwiched between the Tiffany St. Pier and the Hunts Point Sewage Treatment Plant, was given to the Parks Department by the city's Department of Environmental Protection.
Landscaping shield
Unsightly views of the treatment plant from within the park will be blocked by tree plantings and other landscaping, Benepe said.
Before construction starts, the DEP will oversee an environmental cleanup of the property, which was contaminated with waste from a paint factory that used to stand on the site.
Community leaders are pleased to be gaining a park in the South Bronx, where open space is scarce, but there is some disappointment because of failed efforts to have the entire 13-acre plot turned into parkland.
"It's not the best to have a waste-water treatment plant next to a park, but we'll take it," said John Robert, district manager of Community Board 2. "We're park-starved. Our biggest park is 2 square blocks."
A state grant for $322,500 awarded to the DEP will fund the relocation of a stormwater drainage pipe that is in the path of the Bronx River Greenway.
The two grants are part of $18 million in funding Gov. Pataki awarded last week for 119 open-space, recreation and historic preservation projects across the state.
The Bronx River Greenway eventually will stretch 11 miles along the Bronx River to Long Island Sound not far from Barretto Point Park.
"If you think of it as a necklace of green," said Lipson, "Barretto Point Park will be the gemstone."