Holding Our Breath - Editorial on Marriage Equality Bill - Queens Tribune

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First and foremost – we thank and congratulate Sens. Shirley Huntley and Joe Addabbo for changing their position on gay marriage. The two were the only remaining Queens Democrats who had previously voted against gay marriage; this week they said they changed their minds. Yes, we recognize that they perceived the issue to be in opposition of their constituents, and we are glad to see that the people they represent spoke up in great numbers to convince them to change their position.


We certainly realize that this is not a fait accompli. As of printing, there were only 31 Senators committed to voting in favor of granting members of the LGBT community the right to marry one another; 32 are needed, and a vote was expected by Friday.

This newspaper has taken great pride in championing what we feel is the basic equality of civil rights for all New Yorkers. If, indeed, the measure does pass, it will be a historic day in New York – and one of celebration here in Queens, home to one of the largest organized gay communities on the East Coast.

We patiently await the vote of the Senate. Do the right thing. We all should be equal.

MoveOn Targets Citibank In Queens by Joseph Orovic - Queens Tribune

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David Yale stood in front of Citibank’s Bell Boulevard branch, offering worn scrunchies to passersby.

“Free tax loophole?” he said. “Would you like the one Citibank used to pay zero dollars in taxes?”

Sporting signs that read “Make Deadbeat Corporations Pay,” a group of protestors used Tax Day to decry a system that allowed multi-billion dollar companies to pay nothing in taxes, and in some cases walk away with a refund.

The protesters in Bayside were part of a larger group of staged protests around the country organized by liberal netroots group MoveOn.org. The picketing was aimed at drawing attention to a system they contend has been corrupted by profits, influence peddling and a soft stance on corporate taxation. Citigroup refused to comment.

“I think that there’s a lot of collusion between corporations and the politicians,” said Joe Lauria, co-coordinator for the Queens Council of MoveOn.org. “People generally in America are asleep politically.”

Lauria and 50 others banded together at Citigroup’s headquarters in Long Island City to protest the bank’s willingness to accept government bailout money combined with aversion to paying taxes.

Yale’s protest was particularly striking, as it rested in the middle of a district that kept a Republican in the State Senate for 38 years and has an unabashedly Republican Councilman, Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone).

“I’d like to welcome MoveOn.org to Bayside on behalf of the many overtaxed families that live here,” Halloran said. “I’d be curious if MoveOn had anything to say about the sky-high taxes and big government regulations that are killing the small businesses they marched by on Bell Boulevard.”

Those joining picket line with Yale said awareness needed to be raised over the issue.

“The media doesn’t cover it,” said Michael McGrath, not mentioning the fact that he was saying it to a reporter.

Forest Park’s Future: Parks Dept. Eyes Expanded Uses At Site Some Prefer Be Left Alone by Domenick Rafter - Queens Tribune

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With the first signs of spring showing, the closed section of Forest Park Drive between Metropolitan Avenue in Kew Gardens and Woodhaven Boulevard in Woodhaven begins to crowd with joggers, bicyclists, skaters and other locals just enjoying the first warm sun after a long cold, snowy winter. The trees are still bare and little green shoots are the only sign that winter has passed.

Sitting on top of the glacial moraine that slices Queens in two, Forest Park is the natural boundary that isolates the South Queens neighborhoods of Richmond Hill, Ozone Park, Woodhaven and Howard Beach from the more centrally-located Forest Hills, Glendale and Ridgewood. It is home to The Overlook, the Parks Dept.’s Queens Headquarters, an 18-hole golf course and Oak Ridge, the former clubhouse that now houses the headquarters of Queens Council on the Arts and a reception hall that boasts extraordinary views of South Queens right down the beaches in Rockaway and the runways at JFK Airport.

Forest Park doesn’t have the grassy fields that Flushing Meadows Corona Park has or the open marshlands that make up Alley Pond Park, but it is much larger than Queens’ other urban getaways like Astoria Park, Crocheron Park and Baisley Pond Park. Forest Park is a natural oasis without a master plan, but one that has gotten the attention of the Parks Dept., sometimes to the delight of the surrounding communities, sometimes not.

The Carousel

The Parks Dept. is looking for a new vendor to operate the Forest Park Carousel.

The century-old Carousel has been in Forest Park, on a hilltop only steps from Woodhaven Boulevard, since 1972, but since 2008, the carousel has been quiet, shuttered behind a chain-linked fence after former vendor New York One basically abandoned it. Local activists have been pushing the Parks Dept. to find a new vendor, but so far efforts have turned up dry.

The Parks Dept. issued a new Request for Proposals for the carousel, as well as the carousel in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, on April 8. Part of the RFP includes allowing the sale of alcoholic beverages at the Forest Park site, though only with food, and added an optional site for more amusements in the area between the carousel and Woodhaven Boulevard.

So far no interested parties have bid.

“If a proposal includes the optional amusement venue, the Forest Park location would expand to include the open area to the east of the carousel. This area slopes down to the low, wrought iron fence along Woodhaven Boulevard. The Parks Dept. envisions an amusement venue that would include small rides that cater to ages 12 and younger,” the RFP states. The area could also include games and other attractions subject to Parks Dept. approval, a proposal Ed Wendell, President of the Woodhaven Residents Block Association, likes.

“Additional attractions will increase the chances of making a good profit, which increases the chances that our carousel will be up and running,” said Wendell, who has led efforts to reopen the carousel. “It’s a very positive development.”

The Parks Dept. will mandate that the vendor operate the facility at a minimum during the months of April through September from 11 a.m. until sunset, seven days per week, weather permitting.

The contract would end Dec. 31, 2025. All proposals for this RFP must be submitted no later than Friday, May 13 at 3 p.m.

The Trails

The eastern two-thirds of the park, where its namesake forest exists, are covered by nature trails. These trails that meander through the park and connect Union Turnpike to the north with Myrtle Avenue and Park Lane South to the south, are packed with people on any given summer weekend, and the bridle path is frequented by horseback riders, who can often be seen alongside Union Turnpike.

But when the sun sets, a different demographic takes to the park’s trails. The trails that delights during the day have become notorious for being frequented by men engaging in sexual activity behind the thick brush, sometimes only feet from Park Lane South. A decade ago, the men in the park at night numbered over 100, but a mix of increasing police presence in the park, adding more lighting on trails and Forest Park Drive and more public acceptance of homosexuality have decreased those numbers to a dozen or so.

The reputation remains, however, and many who hike the trails come back with stories of strange events they come across deep in the woods.

“I saw a naked photo shoot in there while hiking,” said Nicole Peters, a Rego Park resident. “Some shady things happen in that park.”

George Seuffert Bandshell

Forest Park’s bandshell (above) underwent a massive renovation last year.

Acting almost as the epicenter of Forest Park activity, the Seuffert Bandshell has been home to summer concerts and plays for almost a century. Its adjacent parking lot has played host to special events like circuses. When music isn’t being played on its stage, it becomes a popular makeshift skateboarding park for local teenagers.

The bandshell that some have called “the cultural center of the community,” has been renovated at three times in the past 35 years, in 1977 and 1999 and once again last year when its wooden benches began rotting away and breaking, leading some to get splinters just sitting on them.

With the help of funds from Borough President Helen Marshall and Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village), even at the time when budgets were tight, the bandshell and its seating underwent a massive renovation in early 2010. The old wooden benches were replaced with more durable steel ones. The stage got a fresh coat of white paint and new trees and shrubs were added around the perimeter and among the benches, creating the image of a concert hall in the forest.

Ridgewood Reservoir

The Ridgewood Reservoir in Highland Park

Though not technically part of Forest Park, Ridgewood Reservoir shares the same glacial moraine on the other side of the cemeteries straddling the Brooklyn border. The reservoir was decommissioned in 1989 and given to the Parks Dept. in 2004.

Since then, nature has reclaimed the reservoir and local residents like it that way; but the Parks Dept. had other plans for it. Unlike the nature trails, the carousel and the bandshell before it, the City found itself at odds with the parks’ neighbors.

“In all our public meetings, never less than 75 percent of the people wanted it to be left natural,” said Community Board 10 member David M. Quintana.

Quintana said the Parks Dept. came in with a “preconceived plan” and never intended to listen to the desires of the community.

“It’s typical of how the Bloomberg administration operates,” he added.

In 2008, then-Comptroller Bill Thompson shot down a plan to redevelop the reservoir into recreational fields on environmental concerns, but approved a bid to upgrade and build new walkways around the perimeter of the reservoir, work that has already begun. But even those plans didn’t fit community wishes. The plan to put a path and new lighting around the perimeter did not include an overpass over busy Vermont Place to an adjacent parking lot that would allow children, seniors and disabled residents to access the site without crossing the thoroughfare.

As for Phase 2, which would include the recreation fields that Thompson killed in 2008, a lack of money and political will has been blamed for its demise. In the meantime, activists continue fighting on the state level, with support from legislators on the Queens side, to have the reservoir declared a protected wetland. Representatives on the Brooklyn side support developing the site as baseball and other athletic fields, something they say is badly needed in their neighborhoods. On the Queens side there are already fields farther east in Forest Park, like Victory Field and the Park Lane South tennis courts in Woodhaven.

Bay Area Locals Fret Over JFK Plan by Domenick Rafter - Queens Tribune

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Residents and environmentalists living around Jamaica Bay are concerned a recent report detailing possible expansion plans for JFK Airport will severely impact the environment around one of the East Coast's largest wetlands.

Earlier this year, the Regional Plan Association released a 158-page report on the future of air travel in the New York area. Among its recommendations was to expand all three major airports, including JFK. Three of the four options the RPA outlined would require building new runways into Jamaica Bay, reclaiming as much as 400 acres of the bay.

The report sparked outrage among residents in neighborhoods around the bay, including Howard Beach, Broad Channel, Rosedale and the Rockaways. The Jamaica Bay Task Force, a group of private citizens and organizations concerned about the bay, met April 7 at the American Legion Hall in Broad Channel to discuss the potential the RPA's plan has to damage the ecological makeup of Jamaica Bay. The meeting was attended by more than 150 residents and civic leaders, including U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Kew Gardens), who flew back to New York from Washington D.C. during last week's budget negotiations just to make an appearance at the meeting.

"I'm against this and I'm not going to let this happen," Weiner said to the crowd, noting that any reclamation of land needed to expand JFK would require federal legislation. Most of Jamaica Bay is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, owned by the federal government and managed by the National Park Service.

Dan Mundy Sr., of the Jamaica Bay Eco Watchers, criticized RPA for both the general tone of the report and for a lack of outreach to civic leaders and groups around Jamaica Bay.

Mundy also said the plan showed RPA did not have good knowledge of the bay. A section of Grassy Bay, part of Jamaica Bay directly off the main runway of JFK, was termed "dead" by the RPA because of a lack of oxygen does not support life, but local fishermen fought the accusation, saying the location was anything but dead.

"The people in the back of the Bay, they know the Bay," he said.

Don Riepe of the American Littoral Society showed photos of birds and animals that live 150 yards or less from the airport. Some of them live and thrive along the boundaries of the airport. The bird populations, he said, could interfere with air traffic coming in and out of new runways in nesting areas.

"Birds like the snow goose can really get into trouble with aircraft," he said.

Capt. Vincent Calabro, a fisherman who fishes in Jamaica Bay, fought the labeling of Grassy Bay as "dead," showing pictures of fish he has caught within yards of JFK, including two-to-three-foot-long striped bass, flounder and fluke.

"We have to speak up for the Bay," Calabro said. "The Bay asks nothing for us."

An expansion project reclaiming land in the bay would be a "disaster," he added.

Mundy suggested that the Port Authority, which will use RPA's report to examine how to deal with future air traffic growth, should utilize airports like MacArthur on Long Island, Westchester County, and Stewart Airport in the Hudson Valley before expanding any of the existing ones, which is another option named in RPA's report.

Besides environmental concerns, some were worried about noise issues and the potential for disasters like the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 into a Rockaway neighborhood in 2001. One proposal calls for a new runway to be constructed on the west side of JFK that would send air traffic directly over Broad Channel at low altitudes, a problem that has already plagued Howard Beach, South Ozone Park, Rosedale and the Rockaways.

"Putting aside the potential environmental catastrophe, what about the quality of life issues," asked Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park).

The implementation of NextGen, new air traffic control technology, will allow planes to fly closer together, meaning planes would be flying over residential neighborhoods as often as every 30 seconds.

Former Councilwoman Melinda Katz Names Her Son After a TV Show by Azi Paybarah - The New York Observer

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Melinda Katz, the slender former City Councilwoman who surprised the city one day in 2008 with a story about being 'nearly eight months pregnant' just had her second child, Hunter.


The Queens Tribune:


'You can attribute the name to ex-football player Fred Dryer for acting in one of Ktaz's favorite TV shows - 'Hunter,' which ran from 1984 to 1991.'


Don't worry. Hunter's middle name is Charles.

Shelter Switch Brings Outrage, Fear by Domenick Rafter - Queens Tribune

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About a month ago, Valerie Lewis, the principal of PS 124 in South Ozone Park, noticed students who lived in the Skyway Hotel homeless shelter two blocks from the school began missing class. Concerned about the pattern of absences, she walked over to the shelter which housed homeless families at 132-10 South Conduit Ave., and was horrified at what she found.

The Skyway Family Shelter sign still hangs outside the men-only site in Community Board 10. Tribune Photo by Ira Cohen

Families, given only five days' notice, were uprooted. The water in the building was turned off. Furniture was being thrown into the street.

"What was going on there was egregious," Lewis said.

Without warning, the shelter was reclassified a "men only shelter," and local residents and officials, irate at the City for what it calls "lack of respect" for their neighborhood, have grown further incensed. Nobody, not the shelter's neighbors, nor local officials, nor Community Board 10, knew it was happening. By the time parents and community members gathered at PS 124 on March 3, more than 30 men had already moved in.

Lewis said she had contacted the City and the new owners of the shelter, who had told her that the homeless population among single adults had risen, necessitating the need for more shelters, and families were being moved to parts of the City where there were "more opportunities." By the end of March, she said, the shelter would house up to 180 men.

"I think they thought no one would notice," she said.

An angry Councilman Ruben Wills (D-South Jamaica) told parents at a March 3 meeting that he was told about the change the night before. He said Dept. of Homeless Services Commissioner Seth Diamond told him that DHS moved the shelter into the community because "they met opposition elsewhere." Wills noted that more than 70 percent of Queens' homeless shelters are in Southeast Queens.

"Our unfair burden of housing the homeless population of Queens is not to be tolerated," he said. He added Council legislation to "scatter" homeless shelters was blocked, and called on the state legislature to step in. He also called for parents and local resident to "be loud" and suggested a rally be held at City Hall.

"This room should be packed," he said. "The more people there are, the more press it will get. The worst thing for the mayor right now is bad press. I'm not going to accept that you don't have time to fight for this."

CB 10 Chairwoman Betty Braton, who was also kept in the dark, called the shelter's change "outrageous." She said CB 10 District Manager Karyn Peterson has met with the Commissioner of Public Services about the shelter.

"I find it hard to believe they didn't have enough time to notify everyone," Braton said.

In a statement, Dept. of Homeless Services spokeswoman Heather Janik said the change was necessary and they would work with the community.

"As DHS continues to provide temporary, emergency shelter to homeless New Yorkers, we strive to be a good neighbor and work with the community to address any concerns that arise," the statement read. "We have recently seen an increase in the number of single adults seeking services from our system, and as such, must utilize all available capacity to ensure the needs of our clients are met every night."

DHS said it notified CB 10 and local officials Feb. 9 of the change and chose new management on Feb. 10.

Parents are concerned about the population of homeless men living in the shelter in the quiet community bordering JFK Airport and bisected by the Belt Parkway. They began to notice men from the shelter loitering at gas stations and a park on North Conduit Avenue, asking for money, and wandering residential streets at night. Eileen Lamanna, who has a child and a grandchild in PS 124, said she has seen groups of men gathering in areas where children walk every day.

"We don't know what they're putting in that shelter and they aren't going to tell us," Lamanna said. "What were these people in power thinking?"

The PTA at PS 124 met with the new management at the shelter to discuss security. They were told the shelter would have five full-time security guards working on three shifts, but the shift changes will coincide with school arrival and dismissal, which worried parents.

The guards will only work on shelter grounds and after 10 p.m., the doors of the center will be locked and those left outside will be left to fend for themselves until morning. The shelter has agreed to provide vans to bring the men outside of the neighborhood for recreation. They admitted the shelter does not know the criminal records of the men who will be housed there because the City gives them little notice when they drop off residents.

That point opened up concern about the possibility of violent criminals or sex offenders living in the shelter without anyone knowing. The school and the surrounding neighborhood sits in between the shelter and the A train subway and Aqueduct Racetrack, leading to concerns about men in the shelter coming in contact with children on their way to and from the casino scheduled to open there this summer.

Lewis said PS 124 would now have to come up with its own security plan. The school building will be locked down during the day. In the schoolyard at recess, the gates will be locked, with teachers and staff having the key to open them.

Lewis said PS 124 was recently changed to a "priority one" school, calling for added security. Lewis said she thought it was because of the school's proximity to JFK. Landing planes often fly low over the school. Now she believes the shelter had something to do with that change.

"That should have been my first signal," she said.

Reach Reporter Domenick Rafter at drafter@queenstribune.com or (718) 357-7400, Ext. 125.

Disgraced Politician Dies In Federal Prison by Dominick Rafter - Queens Tribune

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Former State Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio, who represented Southwest Queens for more than 30 years before resigning in disgrace in 2009, died Jan. 6 in a North Carolina prison at the age of 75.

Seminerio, a Democrat, was elected in 1978 to represent a Richmond Hill-based district in the State Assembly. His 133-vote victory assured him the seat for the next 31 years.

In later years, he often endorsed Republican candidates like Rudy Giuliani for Mayor, George Pataki for Governor, and Rick Lazio and Al D’Amato for U.S. Senate. During his time in the Assembly, he represented Glendale, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Ridgewood and Woodhaven. He last faced a Republican opponent in 2000 and often got the nominations of both the Democratic and Republican parties in his reelection campaigns.

“For over 30 years Anthony Seminerio represented the 38th Assembly District with passion and dedication,” said Assemblyman Mike Miller (D-Woodhaven), who succeeded Seminerio in the Assembly. “We should remember all of the good things that he has done for the community. My heartfelt sympathy goes out to his wife and his children. “

In 2009, a federal indictment was handed down on charges of fraud, after he was accused of using a fake consulting agency to collect payments on actions he took as an Assemblyman between 1999 and 2008. According to the charges, Seminerio solicited and received payments to a consulting firm he set up called Marc Consultants from persons and organizations that had business with the state for nearly a decade beginning in 1999, and sometimes threatened anyone who refused to pay to the firm. Prosecutors discovered that Seminerio did not perform “any bona fide consulting services that fall outside the scope of activities an elected official could readily be expected to perform on behalf of his or her constituents.”

Instead, he used his elected office to lobby state legislators and state agencies on behalf of his paying clients and occasionally against people and organizations, including some of his own constituents, who refused to pay his firm a fee.

According to specific charges, Seminerio approached the founder of a Queens-based consulting firm in 1999 for whom he once worked and demanded a share of the company’s revenue. When the founder refused, Seminerio sought to dissuade their clients from doing business with them and instead hire Marc Consultants. That same year, Seminerio also pressured Robert Richards, the President of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, to pay fees to Marc Consultants and threatened to work against vital state funding to the Chamber of Commerce in the state legislature if they didn’t pay consulting fees. In January 2000, Richards agreed and paid a monthly fee to Seminerio’s firm for approximately two years.

More recently, in 2008, Seminerio had attempted to convince Dennis Whalen, a senior New York State Health Department official, to allow Jamaica Hospital, which had paid Seminerio’s firm consulting fees, to acquire the Caritas Hospitals. Whalen had mentioned that other state officials supported Parkway Hospital’s bid to acquire Caritas. Parkway had refused to pay Seminerio’s firm any money. Seminerio never disclosed to Whalen that Jamaica had paid him.

Seminerio had attempted to claim his actions were approved in 1996 and thereafter by the New York Legislative Ethics Committee, but the court rejected the assertion.

In February 2010, a federal judge sentenced Seminerio to six years in jail and a $1 million fine.

Reach Reporter Domenick Rafter at drafter@queenstribune.com or (718) 357-7400, Ext. 125.

‘N Word’ Ed. Official Gets Fired, To Appeal by Sasha Austrie - Queens Tribune

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A School District 29 parent advocate who used the “N Word” to refer to parents in a school meeting earlier this year has been fired and is appealing his dismissal.

Ron Barfield, the family district advocate for District 29 in Jamaica, was recorded on May 27 using the “N Word” in a number of instances at a parent association executive board meeting at PS 134. The meeting was held to craft bylaws per the Chancellor Joel Klein’s regulations.

In the meeting, Barfield said the parent association should meet on Fridays because “niggers don’t like to come out on Fridays.” He closed the meeting with a reminder to the board: “Keep the niggers out.”

Barfield held his post since October 2007 and is one of 32 family district advocates throughout the City. A district family advocate’s responsibility is to assist parents if they still have questions after consulting with their parent coordinators or principals.

Felicia Galy, a former PA board member, who spoke against Barfield’s use of the “N Word,” said her initial reaction was “shock,” which turned into dismay when at a Nov. 18 hearing Galy said three members of the current PA were in support of Barfield’s return. She alleged that Lennon Murray, District 29’s superintendent, also supported Barfield.

As of press time, Murray and members of the PA did not return calls for comment.

William McDonald, a member of the NAACP and Community Educational Council for District 29, said the appeal is part of the process, but that the DOE has no interest in Barfield.

“This is a pattern,” McDonald said of Barfield’s behavior. He said Barfield has been ousted from Districts 16, 17 and now 29. McDonald said he has heard Barfield use the “N Word” on previous occasions.

“He uses it as a term of endearment,” McDonald said. “It disenfranchises parents,” he said. “His job is to empower parents.”

Matthew Mittenthal, a DOE spokesman, said though Barfield was terminated, a successor will not be named until the arbitrator makes a decision at month’s end.

McDonald said he found it interesting that the DOE was “holding the job for him.” He said the lack of a family district advocate is “a huge problem.”

“The parents are disenfranchised,” he said. “The community is disenfranchised. That is a big loss for the community.”

Though the NAACP is taking a wait-and-see stance, McDonald said Barfield would not be reinstated.

“Barfield will not be coming back to the district under any circumstances,” he said. “And if they are dumb enough to send him back, that is like declaring war on the community.”

Cemetery Emerges From Dense Cover By Domenick Rafter - Queens Tribune

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Once hidden by overgrown weeds and brush, historic Bayside Cemetery is slowly being cleaned up.

For decades, nature has been reclaiming Bayside Cemetery, a nearly century and a half-old Jewish cemetery in Ozone Park.

Situated between Liberty Avenue and Pitkin Avenue, between 84th and 80th Streets, Bayside Cemetery was distinct from two adjacent cemeteries because it looked more like a forest than a graveyard. Overgrown trees and brush have drowned out the gravestones, and the cemetery has also been a target for vandals, with some mausoleums having been opened.

The dilapidated cemetery, the final resting place for more than 35,000 people, had become part of the lore of the neighborhood. Local children would tell stories of ghosts haunting the grounds, and the surrounding neighborhood.

Efforts to get the cemetery's owner, Congregation Shaare Zedek on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, to clean up the site had failed. Despite being sued by the grandson of two people buried in the cemetery, where burials continued through the 1980s, the synagogue said it did not have the money for maintenance.

Now, thanks to the Community Association for Jewish At-Risk Cemeteries (CAJAC), a Westchester County-based group that helps clean and maintain Jewish cemeteries in the Greater New York area, an army of volunteers have been making progress over the past year, turning the neglected site back into a place to remember lost loved ones. Now, gravestones, monuments and mausoleums, hidden for years by the overgrowth, are reappearing, the stones glistening to riders passing on the train.

"When I first went out there this past summer, the task seemed Sisyphean, it now seems merely Herculean," wrote Peter Kaufman, a volunteer from Brooklyn who has been helping clear the cemetery on his blog InkLake. Kaufman said he first noticed the cemetery while taking the A train to JFK and was disgusted by it. He found some information on the internet and joined CAJAC to help clean it up.

"We want to make the cemetery a place where people can go to remember their loved ones and not feel sick," he said.

Review Can Proceed but Aqueduct Decision on Hold by Stephen Geffon - Leader-Observer

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Queens Tribune

The State Division of the Lottery can proceed with the evaluation process for the Aqueduct casino project, but can’t award the VLT contract until a legal challenge is resolved.

State Supreme Court Justice Barry Kramer amended the temporary restraining order he issued on July 12 that the State Lottery stop its ongoing review of Genting New York, the lone remaining bidder in the project. The Lottery was in the middle of the review, looking to make a recommendation by August 3.

Kramer's amended order allows the review to continue, but the agency agreed not to issue a recommendation on the project to the governor and legislative leaders before the July 23rd court hearing date. The governor and legislative leaders also agreed not to make a final decision before that hearing.

Aqueduct Entertainment Company (AEC), formerly called Aqueduct Entertainment Group, which this year won the racino bid but was later deemed unlicensable by the Lottery Division, has sued to stop the new bidding process for the Aqueduct VLTs and get reinstated as the operator of the Aqueduct casino.

In the lawsuit, AEC said they are “requesting declaratory and injunctive relief to end the mounting and irreparable injury they presently suffer as a result of arbitrary, capricious, unauthorized and discriminatory actions taken against them by the New York State Division of the Lottery, Governor David Paterson, Senate President Malcolm Smith, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.”

AEC also stated that, “nearly a year after the bidding process had commenced and AEC had been selected, the Assembly speaker changed the licensing rules.”

All parties to the lawsuit are scheduled to appear before Justice Kramer in Schenectady on Friday.

Earlier this month, two bidders for the Aqueduct franchise, a consortium of SL Green, Hard Rock International, and Clairvest Group and Penn National Gaming were disqualified.

Lottery officials said the two bidders did not agree to all of the state’s terms set for the operator of the franchise, including a $300 million nonrefundable licensing fee due before the final contract was signed, as well as paying off a portion of the New York Racing Association’s debt.

SL Green appears is not standing idly by, and in a formal letter to the Lottery, which may be a prelude to a lawsuit, said the firm, “Protests the decision of the New York State Division of the Lottery to disqualify SL Green's proposal...this decision was itself unfounded and, more importantly, reflects a flawed RFP that was designed to inhibit competition rather than promote it.”

“We received the letter and are reviewing it and we’ll have a response to them in a timely manner,” said Lottery spokesperson Jennifer Givner.

Additional related articles:

Introducing Genting: Lone VLT Bidder Makes Its Pitch To Boro Community, Local Leaders by Domenick Rafter - Queens Tribune

Aqueduct Plan Touts Dining, Entertainment - by Bryan Yurcan - Queens Chronicle

DOE's Ron Barfield Probed for Allegedly Dropping N-Word Repeatedly During PTA Meeting by Edgar Sandoval and Meredith Kolodner - NY Daily News

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The Education Department is investigating an employee who allegedly used the N-word repeatedly during a PTA meeting - and doled out advice on how to keep parents from getting involved.

Ron Barfield, an African-American who is the district's paid parent advocate responsible for helping public school families in northeast Queens, reportedly was caught on tape during a May PTA meeting for Public School 134.

During a discussion of when to hold meetings, Barfield allegedly said: "Do it Fridays, cause n-----s don't like to come out on Fridays," according to a partial transcript published by the Queens Tribune.

"That's the truth, 'cause I ain't coming out to nothing," he continued.
School District 29, where Barfield works, is 70% black. The student population at PS 134 is 84% black.

Barfield's job is to assist parents who can't get issues resolved by school staff.

"I'm surprised," said Alicia Hyndman, president of the parent council in District 29. "I've never heard him use those words. He's always been respectful. If he is using those words, [the Education Department] should do whatever's necessary to remove him, as long as the tape is authenticated."

Barfield, who was paid $52,322 last year, has worked for the Education Department since 2003, and has been the family advocate in District 29 since October 2007.

He could not be reached Sunday for comment. Education Department spokesman Matthew Mittenthal said the investigation is ongoing and no action would be taken until it is complete.

"Hurtful, offensive language has no place in our schools," Mittenthal said.

DOE Family Advocate Drops ‘N’ Bomb by Sasha Austrie - Queens Tribune

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This is a composite recording of a meeting of the PS 134 PTA Executive Board as they met with District 29 Family Advocate Ron Barfield to discuss changing over to a PA and adopting bylaws.

In the recording, they are reviewing a template from the Office of Family Engagement and Advocacy, and setting up the new PA’s bylaws with Barfield’s assistance.

:05 – When discussing when to hold PA executive board meetings, Barfield suggests days that would discourage parental involvement:
“Do it Fridays, cause niggers don’t like to come out on Fridays... That’s the truth, cause I ain’t coming out to nothing.”

In the second section, which starts at :20, the Executive Board is discussing what standing committees (pronounced communities on the recording) should be established. Standing committee chairs would have a vote on the Executive Board.

:53 – Barfield suggests not having standing committees in order to reduce the number of voting members.

“No community liaison. No standing committees... Just vote em in. Keep the niggers out… All them niggers are going to be voting and getting y’all to debate and dividing up the board. “

In the third section, which starts at 1:11, the board is voting to adopt the by-laws, which is supposed to be done by the full membership, and is not.

1:44 – Barfield suggests making t harder for parents to be involved:
“Please make sure that I get a copy, you keep a copy and let everybody else beg you for a copy.”

2:06 – After the vote, on his way out, Barfield give a word of encouragement to the people present:
“Keep niggers out the house.”

By The Department of Education has initiated an investigation into the Family District Advocate of District 29 after a recording of him using the “N Word” and other derogatory statements at a PA organizational meeting surfaced.

Ron Barfield was recorded on May 27 at a parent association executive board meeting at PS 134 in Hollis, using the word “nigger” on a number of occasions. The meeting was held to craft bylaws per Chancellor Joel Klein’s regulations.

Barfield has held his post since October 2007 and he is one of 32 family district advocates throughout the City. A family district advocate’s responsibility is to assist parents if they still have questions after consulting with their parent coordinators or principals.

While the executive board was discussing the implementation of standing committees, Barfield dismissed the concept as a divisive measure.

“We don’t want no community liaison, no ‘standing’ voting on your board; keep the niggers out,” the recording states. “All those niggers ain’t going to be voting and y’all going to debate and divide up the board.”

Felicia Galy, former vice president of the PA and Frances Vicioso, former recording secretary, confirm that the voice on the tape is Barfield.

“I actually was shocked when he said it,” said Galy. “He is a black man in a high position. I was just shocked.”

Vicioso, who had not attended the meeting, said she was “dumbfounded” when she heard the recording.

Barfield makes numerous references to “niggers” during the almost hour long recording.

At one point, the board is discussing when to host executive and general membership meetings. One board member said to continue the meetings on Wednesday, but Barfield suggests Friday.

“Hold it on Thursday or Friday,” Barfield said. “Hold it on Fridays because niggers don’t like to come out on Fridays. That’s the truth, cause I ain’t coming out to nothing.”

After Barfield’s statement, a chuckle rises from some in the room.

Matthew Mittenthal, a DOE spokesman, said Barfield’s alleged statements could land him on probation, transferred or demoted. He said the most extreme would be termination.

“Hurtful, offensive language has no place in our schools,” Mittenthal said. “We are referring these allegations to the Special Commissioner of Investigation.”

Galy said she has no faith in the DOE’s investigation.

“They basically cover for each other,” she said. Galy said her previous complaints to the DOE about the PA’s dysfunction had fallen on deaf ears.

“It’s a buddy system,” she said. “They cover for each other.”

Though Galy has a total lack of faith, she is hopeful that Barfield is disciplined, but not fired.

“What would be hopeful is that we don’t have these types of people in our schools,” she said.

In the recording, after the overhaul of the bylaws, the executive board unanimously votes to adopt the new amended version, without the vote of the general membership. According to the chancellor’s regulations “PAs must adopt a set of bylaws by a vote of the parent members.”

“Please make sure that I get a copy, you keep a copy and let everybody else beg you for a copy,” Barfield said.

Chancellor’s regulation requires the bylaws to be available at every meeting and to members upon reasonable request.

Just after the school bell rings signifying the end of a period, Barfield closes the meeting with “Keep the niggers out.”

There Is Relief For Annoying Signs by Domenick Rafter - Queens Tribune

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Those ugly signs often spotted nailed to telephone poles and lampposts throughout the borough advertising such services as “Refinance your Homes,” “Sell Your Home Fast!” and “Get Rid Of Insects,” are illegal and one neighborhood civic group is taking them on.

After spotting signs along residential streets in Woodhaven, the Woodhaven Residents Block Association took action and discovered the signs are actually illegal. The NYC Department of Sanitation’s code specifically bans the posting or painting any type of printed material on any type of public property, including fences, telephone poles, and traffic lights.

The WRBA is calling on residents in Woodhaven to contact them if they see signs on residential streets. To report signs along Jamaica Avenue, residents should call the Greater Woodhaven Development Corporation.

“The intent is not to routinely bust people and cause them to pay large fines. It may be that they are unaware of the law,” said Ed Wendell, WRBA President on his blog Project Woodhaven. “The WRBA is doing them a favor by warning them.”

WRBA spokesman and Community Board 9 member Alex Blenkinsopp said one company who has been posting signs in Woodhaven has been put on notice and will be again before the WRBA reports them to the city.

“It looks like they took down some of the signs, but not all of them,” Blenkinsopp said. “We’ve had partial success. We will contact them one more time and then report them to our council members and the Department of Sanitation.”

According to the law, each sign is a separate violation and the first offense is a fine of $75-$200. Each subsequent offense carries a fine of between $150 and $300. That means someone with 10 signs could face fines of up to $2,900, plus the cost of taking the signs down.

Similar problems with signs have been reported elsewhere in the borough, most recently in Flushing, Richmond Hill, and Woodside.. Residents in those neighborhoods can report the signs to the local community board or city councilmember’s office or take the signs down themselves. Blenkinsopp noted it was important that anyone who reports the signs take pictures; otherwise fines could not be imposed.

Wal-Mart Plan Stirs Queens Ghosts by Domenick Rafter - Queens Tribune

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A plan to open a Wal-Mart store in a proposed Brooklyn shopping center, only minutes from Queens, is meeting opposition from a local union and digging up ghosts of rumors past.

The 23,000-member United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500, New York State's largest grocery workers union, accused Wal-Mart Stores of waging a "cowardly and undemocratic" campaign to subvert the New York City Council, local community boards and residents of targeted communities.

"Wal-Mart's campaign is based on avoiding the New York City Council, the local community boards, community groups and the New York City labor movement because they fear an honest and democratic debate," said Bruce Both, president of UFCW Local 1500. "It shows that profits, as always, are the only item on Wal-Mart's agenda."

Wal-Mart is said to be eyeing a spot in the planned 630,000 square-foot Gateway Mall II Project in East New York, Brooklyn, along the Belt Parkway. The site is only minutes from the Queens neighborhoods of Broad Channel Howard Beach, Ozone Park, and South Ozone Park.

"We do not have a project to announce anywhere within the five boroughs of New York City. However, we know that New Yorkers want to shop and work at Wal-Mart and as a result, we continue to evaluate potential opportunities here," said Steven Restivo, Director of Community Affairs at Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart sought to open stores in Rego Park, in the current location of the new Rego Park Mall, and in Staten Island, but staunch opposition thwarted both attempts. The company said the new store would bring much-needed jobs to an area stymied by double-digit unemployed. As of February 2010, the unemployment rate in Brooklyn and the southern Queens neighborhoods adjacent to the Wal-Mart site was more than 10 percent.

A 2006 poll performed shortly after Wal-Mart withdrew itself from negotiations for the Rego Park site showed nearly two-thirds of Queens residents would shop at a Wal-Mart in Queens if there is one. A hoax story in the April Fool's Day edition of the Queens Tribune sent hundreds of people flocking to Atlas Park looking for jobs and to shop when the lead story joked that a Wal-Mart took over the Glendale mall's location.

According to Wal-Mart's Web site, the average wage for a full time, hourly employee in a Wal-Mart in New York State is $12.03, nearly $5 more than minimum wage, and close to what full-time, hourly employees at Wal-Mart's competitors make. Restivo noted that "more than three quarters" of Wal-Mart's management team started as hourly associates.

"Across the country, we create jobs that include a competitive wage, affordable benefits and the chance to build a career," he said. Wal-Mart has a store in Valley Stream, less than a mile from Rosedale.

New Monitoring At Newtown Creek by Kaitlyn Kilmetis - Queens Tribune

Queens Tribune

Last week, the Department of Environmental Protection declared it will open a new microbiology laboratory on the shores of infamously polluted Newtown Creek.

On March 9, DEP Commissioner Cas Holloway announced the creation of a new $2.3 million facility that will serve to improve operational efficiency and enhance monitoring of local waterways.

The 2,000 square-foot lab, located at Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Brooklyn, will feature state-of-the-art equipment including modern incubators, sterilizers and purification systems.

Prior to the lab’s creation, water testing was performed at 14 different wastewater treatment plants; with the new lab, bacteriological analyses will be consolidated at one center so the staff will have the ability to analyze an increased number of samples on a daily basis and compare samples more efficiently.

“One of our core responsibilities is to make sure that wastewater is effectively treated, so that it has as little impact on our receiving waterways as possible,” Holloway said. “This new microbiology lab will substantially increase our monitoring and testing capacity, giving us the vital information we need to meet and exceed treatment standards, and continue the resurgence of New York City’s waterways that is central to Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC vision.”

According to Holloway, DEP will begin to take additional bacteriological samples within Jamaica Bay beginning this summer to assess water quality and also monitor several tributaries to evaluate ambient improvements resulting from combined sewer overflow retention investments.

Newtown Creek, a highly-contaminated urban waterway that traverses Queens and Brooklyn, is currently in a Superfund designation public comment review period.

Opponents Leap On Koslowitz Denial Of Polling by Chris Bragg - City Hall News

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Statement before Queens Tribune editorial board contradicts CFB disclosure

In late July and early August, residents of Council Member Melinda Katz’s district in Queens received phone calls from a polling company hired by Karen Koslowitz, who is seeking to return to the Council seat she held for a decade.

Yet on Monday, in a simultaneous screening of all the candidates in the race conducted by the editorial board of the Queens Tribune, Koslowitz said she had not conducted any polling during the campaign, in response to a yes or no question from the editorial board asking each of the candidates whether they had done any polling.

Campaign finance records show that on July 21, Koslowitz paid $12,000 for “Polling Costs phone poll” to Global Strategy Group, the city’s premier polling firm.

Global Strategy did not return a call for comment.

Gregory Lavine, Koslowitz’s campaign manager, chalked her discrepancy up to a slip of the tongue.

“She just misspoke. That’s it,” Lavine said.

Lavine then offered another explanation: “It was also just a matter of not discussing polling with any type of media.”

A state Board of Elections rule requires a campaign to disclose the methodology and results of a poll if the poll is discussed in public.

Regardless of the reason, Brian Rafferty, managing editor of the Tribune, said the contradiction could be a concern as the paper makes its decision on whom to endorse.

“It’s definitely something we’ll have to consider,” Rafferty said. “We understand that they may have to hedge their answers, because their opponents are sitting around the table. But if that’s the case, we would expect them to follow up with us and be forthright and make their answer clear to us as soon as possible.”

Rafferty said that he had not spoken with Koslowitz since the screening.

As for the poll itself, Michael Denenberg, a resident of the Council District 29, reported being told various statements about the candidates, after which he was asked how those statements would alter his perception of them. The poll seems to have included a number of positive statements made about Koslowitz’s record during her first tenure on the Council, he said. As is standard, when later in the call Denenberg answered a question about who he was supporting by saying Michael Cohen, Denenberg said he was asked if the fact that Cohen is under investigation by the attorney general’s office would change his view of Cohen. (Though this reflects some memories, others familiar with the poll say that this is an inaccurate representation of the questions.)

This type of polling is fairly routine for campaigns seeking to test out positive and negative messaging for use later in the campaign, but several of Koslowitz’s rivals pounced on her evasions to paint her as ill-suited for the district.

“It’s troubling, but not surprising, that Karen Koslowitz doesn’t know what her campaign is spending money on,” said Michael Tobman, an adviser for the Cohen campaign. “I cannot think of a clearer incident than being either untruthful or ill informed—because she had to be one of those—in an important editorial board meeting to highlight her lack of independence.”

Flushing Drama Trumps Dem Choices by Vladic Ravich - Queens Tribune Blog

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James Wu and John Choe are both running for the 20th District

John Choe officially announced his candidacy for the 20th Council District on Monday and promptly won the endorsement of the Queens County Democratic Organization the next day.

The endorsement gave a boost to former Chief of Staff for Councilman John Liu – who currently holds the seat, but it was the most hotly contested of all the endorsements made that day. Choe faced a strong challenge from District Leader James Wu for the endorsement, but following the abstention votes by District Leaders Julia Harrison and Martha Flores Vasquez, Wu relinquished his votes to Choe “for the sake of party unity.”

“I’m totally happy with the situation,” said Wu. “Of course I would’ve liked the endorsement, but the will of the voters is more important.” Wu emphasized that he still supported John Liu for Comptroller, explaining that he understood why Liu would back one of his former staffers. “Having Liu running strong citywide will still help me on the ballot,” said Wu.

Wu said that while he could have tried to force a deadlock and move on to more rounds of voting, the two abstentions made it impossible for him to win, because even assuming he won the plurality of the votes, he would still lack a majority. So the choice became a stalemate from Liu’s district, which Wu said would look bad for everyone, or Wu would have to switch his votes to his opponent.

“I do think abstention is a huge cop out,” said Wu.

Vasquez said she and Harrison made a “mutual decision” to leave the decision to the voting community. Vasquez said she wanted a candidate to represent the whole district, “not just the Asian district.”

“In this district we go one of two ways: we want an Asian candidate or a qualified candidate. I think this is the year for a qualified candidate,” said Vasquez. She also said that Wu changed his vote out of “anger and retaliation.”

Harrison said she did not appreciate U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Jackson Heights), the county Democratic Chairman, dictating which candidate would be endorsed. “There is a united front in the community to not have someone shoved down our throats – let it be a free election and let the community decide for itself.”

She also said “I don’t know how John Choe can possibly win with three Korean people in the race.” She then said her sources tell her that Choe is “perceived as an advocate of a North Korean government […] The anxiety is very strong about John Choe proselytizing to the young people of immigrant parents selling them on the philosophy of the North Korean government.”

Choe brushed off the accusation as “crazy talk,” calling it “a desperate attempt by opponents to distract the electorate from the real issues.”

“Working families care about how they’re going to support their families, provide health care and a good education to their children. They care about maintaining the quality of life for their neighborhoods and to work with their neighbors to improve their community,” Choe said. “That’s what I’m running on and that’s what I’m qualified to help people as a candidate and elected official.”

Choe also noted the double standard for multiple Korean candidates: “When there are multiple white candidates no one says they are splitting the vote.”

The Queens County Democratic Organizations also endorsed Bill Thompson for Mayor, Eric Gioia for Public Advocate and John Liu for Comptroller. All the incumbents, including Helen Sears, received the party’s backing. The Democrats also endorsed Jerry Iannece for the 19th district; Deirdre Feerick for the 26th district; Frank Gulluscio for the 32nd district; and Karen Koslowitz for the 29th district.

Residents Support Nature Preserve at Ridgewood Reservoir By Michael Lanza - Queens Tribune

West Queens residents overwhelmingly supported plans to preserve Ridgewood Reservoir’s natural integrity during a Parks Department listening session on Saturday.

Four out of five groups of attendees polled during the session supported plans to convert the area into a nature preserve, according to Community Board 5 District Manager Gary Giordano.

Other plans included filling in the reservoir basins and replacing them with baseball and soccer fields and a hybrid plan where only one of three basins, the largest one, would be converted into a recreational sport area.

The fifth group, who Giordano described as baseball players from Brooklyn, supported the hybrid plan.

Giordano is pressing parks officials to use $10 million of the $50 million allocated to the project to repair six ailing baseball fields at nearby Highland Park. The remaining $40 million would fund the removal of invasive plants species, improvements to pathways, and the creation of an education center at the reservoir’s pump house.

“Why put ballfields in what is really a natural habitat when you can reconstruct ball fields that already exist,” Giordano said. “You have fields there now, why invade the natural habitat before you figure out how you can improve the fields that already exist? And by improving the fields that already exist, they would potentially have a much better place to play ball much sooner.”

The listening sessions will presumably determine the park’s final form in phase two of the reservoir’s development.

Phase one began last month with promises of increased lighting, steps and benches as well as new perimeter fences to help secure the area.

The project was awarded to Mark K. Morrison Associates, an award winning Manhattan based landscape architecture firm. The company was also required to produce the three development plans under the contract. The complete plan calls for $7.7 million in initial work to secure the area, followed by a $50 million development project slated for 2010.

The reservoir’s declining condition became the center of a battle between preservationists and developers in recent years.

City Comptroller Bill Thompson shot down proposals by Mayor Mike Bloomberg to convert the reservoir into a sports field last June, citing the ecological importance of the space.

“This plan flies in the face of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s widely hailed environmental blueprint, which bemoans the loss of the city’s natural areas,” Thompson wrote, protesting the plan. “The Parks Department’s own scientific consultants have warned against disturbing the reservoir, an area they call ‘highly significant for the biodiversity of New York City and the region.”

The Mayor’s plan proposed filling one of eight bodies of water that comprise the reservoir and converting the space into a baseball field.

A final public hearing on the development plans will take place in the coming weeks, after which one will be selected and design work will begin.

The reservoir, located on the border of Brooklyn and Queens, was created in 1848 to provide drinking water to Brooklyn. But it was converted to a back-up in 1959 and finally taken off-line in 1989. The site is now a natural haven for plants, turtles, fish, frogs and more than 137 bird species -- including eight rare species on the National Audubon Society’s “Watch List.”

A Green Future?: Jamaica Bay Marsh Loss In Decline Thanks To Army Corps Restoration by Michael Lanza _ Queens Tribune

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Conservationists like Bill Dunphy, who helps remove abandoned boats from the bay, have struggled for years to prevent decline at the marshes.

Jamaica Bay is going to the birds. And that's a good thing.

Officials gathered at the bay on the eve of Earth Day to announce that the City’s only wildlife refuge had grown for the first time in decades.

“These marshlands are the very foundation of this ecosystem,” said U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D - Kew Gardens). “They are havens for insects, attract clams and support fish and birds. For years, concerned residents and environmentalists have warned us that they are disappearing. We can say now that the marshlands are coming back.”

The bay is home to 325 species of birds, 91 species of fish and 214 species of special concern – including some classified as threatened and endangered. The salt marshes also serve as natural levies for the City – breaking down storm surges and protecting against coastal flooding.

Conservationists have struggled for years to stanch the loss of marshlands, which are dissappearing at a rate of 44 acres every year. And for the first time, they are seeing glimmers of hope. The marshes expanded by 15 acres this year.

The increase was thanks to a $16 million Army Corps of Engineers project to restore Elder’s Point, a small island in the northern portion of the bay where 48 acres of marshland were rebuilt. The engineers replaced 240,000 cubic yards of beach soil and transplanted more than 750,000 native plants into the depleted area.

“We’ve now tried to expand by quite literally growing grass elsewhere, planting it in acres in this area and trying to see if it holds,” Weiner said. “And the answer so far is: yes it’s holding.”

Jamaica Bay is home to 325 bird species. Pollution and erosion have threatened the bay’s ecosystem for decades.

Jamaica Bay’s marshes have suffered for years under the twin threat of rising sea levels and water pollution. Nearby water treatment plants dump more than 15,000 kilograms of nitrogen every day into the surrounding waters, according to the National Parks Service, killing the marsh plants that form the foundation of the wetlands’ ecosystem and strengthen island beaches against erosionary forces.

“This is a jewel. And it’s a jewel that disappearing little bit by little bit,” Weiner said. “We have to stop the man-made reasons that we have this problem. We have to stop dumping nitrogen in the water here as we process our waste water. We have to do something about global climate change that’s causing the water levels to rise. And generally speaking we have to be better stewards of the earth if we expect to be better stewards of Jamaica Bay.”

To combat those threats, Weiner announced plans to hold and improve on this year’s gains.

Paramount among them is an effort to reduce nitrogen emissions by 60 percent using $431.5 million allocated to the state for environmental initiatives through federal stimulus funds. The money will fund plans to retrofit four coastal sewage plants, significantly reducing their nitrogen output.

Meanwhile, engineers will continue to build on their success at Elder’s Point. An additional $9 million was allocated for restoring nearly 100 acres of marshland over the next few years. The engineers will build 60 acres of marsh using 250,000 cubic yards of sand on Yellow Bar Hassock, 34 acres of marsh using 200,000 cubic yards of sand on Elders Point West and study additional restoration options for sites around the bay.

“We have to reverse the trend of what we’re losing each year,” Weiner said. “We’re going to have to do more work here to keep up with the loss that we have.”

More than 2,000 acres of marshes have disappeared from the bay since the decline began in 1924. And while Weiner acknowledged that restoring the marshes would be a long and expensive slog, he said the alternative is unacceptable.

“We’re putting our finger in the dike right now,” he said. “It’s a race – we are putting in 50 acres and losing 44. It’s not a great success, but it sure beats the alternative.”