Flushing Meadows: Park or Parking Lot?

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Streetsblog doesn’t manage to get out to Queens all that often these days, so it’s good to know that The Park Watchdog is keeping an eye on Flushing Meadows Park. Here is what he sees: Cars. Lots of them. Parked all over the grass. 

The Dog’s general thesis:

When Robert Moses handed over Flushing Meadows park in 1967 to the City of New York the three decades dream of creating a great city park on the site of what once was a notorious ash and garbage dump, he foresaw that a Manhattan-oriented bureaucracy would neglect the beautiful park that was bequeathed as a result of two World’s Fairs. His fears were proven by the fact that the Mayor of the City of New York did not even see fit to show up for the opening ceremonies of the park.

The City’s contempt for Flushing Meadows – Corona Park could not be more evident than in the desecration of its parkland by turning this precious space into nothing more than a gigantic parking lot.

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In Flushing Meadows, Parking Encroaches on Queens Park Space

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When New York City played host to the 1939 World’s Fair, the most influential attraction in Flushing Meadows was General Motors’ Futurama, a miniature vision of a future with highways crisscrossing through cities and mass ownership of the personal automobile. A science fiction vision at the time, it wasn’t far off from what ultimately happened. […]