The Queens borough president is raising some eyebrows by earmarking hundreds of thousands of dollars for a park outside her borough. NY1's Ruschell Boone filed the following report.
All around Queens, there are parks that are in deparate need of repair. In Ridgewood, Rosemary's Playground is among the worst, with peeling paint, deteriorating equipment and uneven surfaces.
This park, though, didn't receive any of the $32 million that Borough President Melinda Katz has set aside for park improvements. Instead, many are upset that $300,000 is being allocated for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island, which is in Manhattan.
"We probably need about $1 million to fix this place, but a lot of little things could be done with several hundred thousand," said Richard Fassett, who is part of a resident group called Let's Fix Rosemary's Playground.
According to Katz's office, the money for Roosevelt Island will be used to improve the lighting along the shorefront facing Queens to make it more attractive to people in what she likes to say is the World's Borough.
From what we saw, the best view of Four Freedoms Park is from a group of high-rise buildings, which is another point of contention.
"The city is becoming a center for the rich people, and they need to have certain places fixed," said one New Yorker.
On a blog devoted to Queens, there were dozens of comments from constituents blasting the allocation, with many unkind words.
In Ridgewood, many of the residents were measured in their criticism of Katz. They're still hoping she'll do something to help their borough park.