Go Yankees!

"Heavily used park"?!?! Have you ever been to that park. That park was emtpy 90% of the time. Unless you count the guys dealing weed near the pool entrance or the bums collecting cans. Let's get rid of the Yankees and see were the south Bronx is in a couple of years.

First of all if you ever went to the parks around the stadium you would know they were used by over 20 neighborhood schools. It was a sports center for the kids who live near the stadium. A park where they could aspire to one day play inside the stadium. This comes from a guy who grew up in the South Bronx not who just drove by it at night trying to buy the bag of weed from the guy near the pool entrance.

Where would the south bronx be without Yankee Stadium? It would be a place where the asthma rate for children would be a hell of a lot lower because all the car fumes they breath in on game days would be gone. More affordable housing could be built. There would be more park space instead of parking spaces. There would parking paces on the street for the people who actually live there year round. The people of the Bronx and the rest of New York would have millions of tax subsidies back that could be used for good causes and not pissed away by a multi-million dollar franchise.

The park was extremely well used prior to its destruction - on the track it was not uncommon to have it full with runners, walkers and children learning to use bicycles, while in the center, there would be a soccer or football game. Literally dozens of schools used the park and track and the portion of Mullaly that remains is often more heavily used then sections of central park. The surrounding neighborhood has extremely limited park space. This is not an attack against the Yankees, many in my family are die hard Yankee Fans, but that park was extremely important to the neighborhoods that used it and to make the comment that the park was only used by bums and drug users is extremely inaccurant and the response can be seen a racist attack as 98% of the residents in the surrounding area are people of color (and mainly latino and afroamerican). I am white and I live in the Highbridge neighborhood which overlooks the parkland in question. My daughter learned to ride her bicycle on the Mullaly Track before it was torn up.

To Mr. Bronx Guy,
For all the negative issues we had with the Parks Dept, they were "spot on" when they said the parks were "heavily used". This is why we tried to SaveOurParks! Just read the Environmental Impact Statement and it will dispute your claims.

That the parks were heavily used by community residents and other New Yorkers was never in dispute by anybody. Now the construction has displaced the parks and plans move forward for the destruction of more parks to build parking garages while at the same time Metro North builds a new station. What a waste. Look how hard it has been for the city to attract a contractor willing to build and operate these garages. They aren't needed, will not support themselves (but will tax NYC taxpayers), will destroy much needed parkland and open space, etc. A bad deal all around.

Whom ever this Bronx Guy is, he must not live in the Yankee Stadium area. All the parks in this neighborhood are heavily used, to the point that they suffer with bare fields and poor maintenance makes the situation worse. Take a tour of the parks fella.

I'm not some causal visitor to the South Bronx. I actually grew up on Jerome Ave. and 164th Street (I moved 4 years ago). Yes the track area was used very frequently but the rest of the park from 162 st. and up was not. It was pretty empty compared to the other big parks in the Bronx i.e. Roberto Clemente, Cortona, Van Cortland and even Randall's island. The point about drug dealers (i went to school with some of them) and bums was not a racist statement it was fact. They were there all the time from mid-afternoon till dawn. The point about the asthma is overblown. I doubt that 81 games spread out over 6 1/2 months is the main contributor to this high rate. I think the Major Deegan and the Grand Concourse play a bigger part in the problem (they gridlock 75% of the time)

That park never lived up to its potential. Maybe the new ones will.

The Yankee Corporation wants huge new garages that have passageways into the new stadium that are lined with their retail shops. And, contractors and construction unions want to build the garages and shops. Public officials who approve use of tax dollars to subsidize construction of MORE parking spaces for a new stadium with FEWER seats are representing these interests.

Watch - see how some officials have totally different standards for different parts of the City. South of 86th St., some officials want to charge a fee to discourage vehicles from entering mid-town Manhattan. In the South Bronx they want to use our tax dollars to encourage more vehicle-use by drivers from outside of the City coming to Yankee Stadium. They want to reduce air-pollution south of 86 Street; and indirectly, they support increasing traffic-jams and air-pollution in asthma-plagued areas of the Bronx and northern Manhattan.

There were other options. The Boston Red Socks are rebuilding Fenway Park on its (existing) historic site, as requested by their fans and the local community. Former Bronx Borough President Ferrer proposed that the Yankees similarly expand and rebuild their Stadium on-site. Instead, the Yankees threatened to leave New York, and worked out a deal, in secret, to get 22 acres of community parkland. Taxpayers even paid for their lobbyists and lawyers.

Re: use of Mullay and Macom'bs Dam parks – For 5 years I worked at W 165 & the Concourse. The parks were the the community's 'center', in many ways. In the winter I even saw players shovel snow off the handball courts, so that they could continue to play.