As of September 26th the old Playground will be will be closed as construction on the new playground begins. Hopefully this will be the begining of wonderful things for our park, our community, and our children.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions, comments and or complaints.
Malba Gardens Civic Dedicated to the Safety and Preservation of our Community.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
DOE school bus fiasco Whitestone Highlight
By ERICA PITZI Staff reporter 8:35 p.m. EDT, September 22, 2011
WHITESTONE, NY (PIX11)— Parents with children who go to Junior High School 194 in Queens are scared to death for their kids new school commute.
And the kids are scared too.
"We shouldn't be able to go on the buses at our age because you never know, somebody might pick us up and steal us," 8th grader Megan Hall told PIX 11.
Parent Susan Garcia said, "I don't think they're really safe on the buses, something could happen to them."
Garcia is one of many College Point parents in this predicament since the Department of Education cut school bus service to thousands of junior high school students, including Garcia's daughter Bella.
"It is really dangerous," said Bella.
Not to mention, their school commute can take up to two hours when they live only 15 minutes away.
6th Grader Melanie Dobular explained her route to us, saying, "I go on the 76, then get on 20b, then take the 25 rest of the way."
"This is completely unacceptable - all sorts of safety issues," said NYC Councilman Dan Halloran who is trying to help change this situation for his constituents.
"We're working hard with the Department (of Education) to get waivers for some kids, and we've gotten some of these variances through but the bottom line is the city needs to take better care of these kids as a whole. Our 12-year-olds should not be worrying about how getting to school."
Councilman Halloran says his office will hold a press conference on Monday to raise even more awareness to this issue in hopes of creating change for the affected communities.
The DOE told PIX 11 the cuts came "because of the tight budget" but says it is providing eligible students with Metro Cards.
That does not address the student safety issue, so for some parents, that response is not enough.
"I don't think it's even close to enough," said Garcia.
Even the kids can tell the DOE what is good enough.
"I want them to bring back the yellow school buses," said Hall.
Copyright © 2011, WPIX-TV
wpix-children-scared-commute
http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-children-scared-commute,0,2888410.story
WHITESTONE, NY (PIX11)— Parents with children who go to Junior High School 194 in Queens are scared to death for their kids new school commute.
And the kids are scared too.
"We shouldn't be able to go on the buses at our age because you never know, somebody might pick us up and steal us," 8th grader Megan Hall told PIX 11.
Parent Susan Garcia said, "I don't think they're really safe on the buses, something could happen to them."
Garcia is one of many College Point parents in this predicament since the Department of Education cut school bus service to thousands of junior high school students, including Garcia's daughter Bella.
"It is really dangerous," said Bella.
Not to mention, their school commute can take up to two hours when they live only 15 minutes away.
6th Grader Melanie Dobular explained her route to us, saying, "I go on the 76, then get on 20b, then take the 25 rest of the way."
"This is completely unacceptable - all sorts of safety issues," said NYC Councilman Dan Halloran who is trying to help change this situation for his constituents.
"We're working hard with the Department (of Education) to get waivers for some kids, and we've gotten some of these variances through but the bottom line is the city needs to take better care of these kids as a whole. Our 12-year-olds should not be worrying about how getting to school."
Councilman Halloran says his office will hold a press conference on Monday to raise even more awareness to this issue in hopes of creating change for the affected communities.
The DOE told PIX 11 the cuts came "because of the tight budget" but says it is providing eligible students with Metro Cards.
That does not address the student safety issue, so for some parents, that response is not enough.
"I don't think it's even close to enough," said Garcia.
Even the kids can tell the DOE what is good enough.
"I want them to bring back the yellow school buses," said Hall.
Copyright © 2011, WPIX-TV
wpix-children-scared-commute
http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-children-scared-commute,0,2888410.story
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Whitestone Bayside fields neglected for too long
By Connor Adams Sheets
Thursday, September 22, 2011 11:09 AM EDT
Community leaders and elected officials are working through a number of avenues to improve Little Bay Park in Bayside, saying the park has been neglected for too long.
Located in the shadow of the Throgs Neck Bridge, the 55-acre beachside greenspace offers sports fields, a bike path and a roller hockey rink, but it has seen little in the way of improvements since 1999, when $1.2 million in city money funded the creation of the path and rink.
On Monday afternoon, City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) and Malba Gardens Civic Association President Al Centola met with representatives of the city Parks Department at the park — bounded by the beach, Cross Island Parkway, Utopia Parkway and Totten Avenue — to discuss ways to fix the soccer fields, which suffer from poor drainage and other woes because of their location near the salty waters of Little Bay.
Centola hopes at least one of the park’s two soccer fields can be fixed in time for next year’s season, but the cost to do the needed work is proving prohibitive. Halloran said it costs $2.3 million per field to outfit them with artificial turf, or $1.5 million for sod. The price tags are so high because of the need to do extensive drainage upgrades before undertaking such work.
“We’re trying to get that redone because the field is a mess there. There’s no real field, there’s dust and dirt that turns into mud when it rains,” Centola said. “We’re pushing for turf but it’s more expensive, so we’ll settle for sod if it’s done right.”
Halloran’s office allocated $300,000 in city funds last year that can be used to pay for improvements at the park, and he told Centola Monday he may be able to get at least partial matching funds this year if the civic leader can convince Borough President Helen Marshall to dedicate money for the project. Centola said he and his fellow community members will lobby her to put $750,000 toward the field work, and that he and Halloran are hoping to enlist landscape contractors to help foot the bill.
FOR FULL TEXT PLEASE CLICK ON LINK
http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2011/09/22/bayside_times/news/bt_wtfieldfolo_bt_2011_09_19_q_20110922.txt
“There hasn’t been a lot of attention to Little Bay Park,” Schreiber said.
Thursday, September 22, 2011 11:09 AM EDT
Community leaders and elected officials are working through a number of avenues to improve Little Bay Park in Bayside, saying the park has been neglected for too long.
Located in the shadow of the Throgs Neck Bridge, the 55-acre beachside greenspace offers sports fields, a bike path and a roller hockey rink, but it has seen little in the way of improvements since 1999, when $1.2 million in city money funded the creation of the path and rink.
On Monday afternoon, City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) and Malba Gardens Civic Association President Al Centola met with representatives of the city Parks Department at the park — bounded by the beach, Cross Island Parkway, Utopia Parkway and Totten Avenue — to discuss ways to fix the soccer fields, which suffer from poor drainage and other woes because of their location near the salty waters of Little Bay.
Centola hopes at least one of the park’s two soccer fields can be fixed in time for next year’s season, but the cost to do the needed work is proving prohibitive. Halloran said it costs $2.3 million per field to outfit them with artificial turf, or $1.5 million for sod. The price tags are so high because of the need to do extensive drainage upgrades before undertaking such work.
“We’re trying to get that redone because the field is a mess there. There’s no real field, there’s dust and dirt that turns into mud when it rains,” Centola said. “We’re pushing for turf but it’s more expensive, so we’ll settle for sod if it’s done right.”
Halloran’s office allocated $300,000 in city funds last year that can be used to pay for improvements at the park, and he told Centola Monday he may be able to get at least partial matching funds this year if the civic leader can convince Borough President Helen Marshall to dedicate money for the project. Centola said he and his fellow community members will lobby her to put $750,000 toward the field work, and that he and Halloran are hoping to enlist landscape contractors to help foot the bill.
FOR FULL TEXT PLEASE CLICK ON LINK
http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2011/09/22/bayside_times/news/bt_wtfieldfolo_bt_2011_09_19_q_20110922.txt
“There hasn’t been a lot of attention to Little Bay Park,” Schreiber said.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Little Bay Soccer Fields
We had a meeting today with Councilman Halloran, his Chief of Staff, St. Luke's CYO Athletic group, and the Parks Department about Little Bay Fields under the Throgs Neck Bridge.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
What we are about
This blog is for the community. We take great pride in our dedication to the safety and security to our children and the community.
If you are serious about getting involved in your community, get out and do something. Go join a Civic association, anyone you like, there are 3 in the immediate community. All we ask is that you take the best interest of the community at heart, be it your block, your children's school, the local youth group, Boy scouts, Church Group, Sports Group, whatever you decide is fine, just get out there and be active.. Give back to the community.
If you are serious about getting involved in your community, get out and do something. Go join a Civic association, anyone you like, there are 3 in the immediate community. All we ask is that you take the best interest of the community at heart, be it your block, your children's school, the local youth group, Boy scouts, Church Group, Sports Group, whatever you decide is fine, just get out there and be active.. Give back to the community.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
NEW LOOK COMING SOON
Due to the large response from the Community, and in order to bring you information in a more timely fashion we are updating our site.
PLEASE KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN FOR THE NEW AND IMPROVED BLOG, AS WE WORK TO MAKE IT MORE INTERACTIVE AND RELEVANT FOR THE MALBA GARDENS COMMUNITY.
NEW STORIES, NEW POSTINGS COMING SOON.
LOOK FOR IT END OF SEPTEMBER, BEGINING OF OCTOBER.
PLEASE KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN FOR THE NEW AND IMPROVED BLOG, AS WE WORK TO MAKE IT MORE INTERACTIVE AND RELEVANT FOR THE MALBA GARDENS COMMUNITY.
NEW STORIES, NEW POSTINGS COMING SOON.
LOOK FOR IT END OF SEPTEMBER, BEGINING OF OCTOBER.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Our Proposal for Community Space at the remaining CYO site.
http://flushingtimes.com/articles/2011/07/21/whitestone/whitestone_times/news/wt_whitestone_baseball_field_20110721.txt
Whitestone may get a new place to play ball if some community leaders have their way.
Alfredo Centola, president of the Malba Gardens Civic Association, has floated the idea of converting 6 vacant acres next to the Waterside Estates at the Cresthaven development into a community space featuring possible amenities such as sports fields, a clubhouse and more.
The site, with a sweeping view of the Throgs Neck Bridge, was formerly owned by Catholic Charities — the nonprofit arm of the Diocese of Brooklyn — which operated a summer camp and country club there for nearly four decades.
But ever since 1988, when the camp closed amid declining membership, it has sat unused, overgrown with tall grasses and empty except for a couple of cement foundations left over from the days when it hosted area children as a camp with a pool, hiking, playgrounds and other offerings.
Centola sees the site, bounded by Powells Cove Boulevard, 6th Avenue, 150th Street and the homes of Waterside Estates, as a rare chance for the community to come together to create something to benefit local residents.
“It would be ideal if you could take the remaining 6 acres and turn it into something for the kids,” Centola said while gazing out over the neglected lot. “The options are open right now. This is just an idea and a seedling. This is a concept that can grow and help the community.”
So he and Malba Gardens Civic member Dan Barton are looking into how best to pursue such a plan. The site was approved for construction of 55 homes before the economic downturn, so Centola and Barton want to work fast to purchase the property before the market rebounds. Barton said a real estate firm estimated last year that the land was worth $25 million. He and Centola say they hope it could sell for 50 percent to 70 percent less than what it was once worth.
A coalition will be needed to support such an effort and outlay of funds, they say, so the civic is working with elected officials, local sports leagues and private companies to try to build a coalition to bring it to fruition.
“There’s no reason why the residents of a place like Whitestone can’t come together and preserve a piece of property for the youth in the community rather than build more houses and cause more traffic,” Barton said. “We’re going to contact corporations, we’re going to get together with people who’ve done this before, whether colleges or the YMCA or other groups, plus we could collect some private donations.”
Avella said this may be the time to revisit his plan and that he will direct his office to research possibilities for the site. “There aren’t enough sports fields in northeast Queens for all the teams and kids who want to play,” Avella said. “I’ll have my staff start to look into it, and if theres an opportunity here, I’ll set up a meeting with [area civics] and see where we can go from here.”
But City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) said the plan may be hard to pull off.
“The Council member is concerned about costs,” Halloran spokesman Steve Stites said via e-mail. “The city just saved 20 firehouses and many teachers’ jobs, and we are still in a recession. Six privately owned acres in Whitestone won’t come cheap.”
Devon O’Connor, founding president of the Welcome to Whitestone Commercial and Residential Civic Association, said he is willing to pursue the project anyway.
“It’s a nice, open field, it’s about 6 acres and it’s a great spot,” O’Connor said. “Whatever I can do to get something like that going, I’d love to help, whether it be fund-raising or getting grants from the city, whatever I can do. I’d love to see something like that.”
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
Here you have it, the last piece of land in Whitestone. Fitting that it once belonged to the Children and the Community. Developers came, and made a profit, leaving nothing for the community. If this were Manhattan, they would have been required to incorporate Community accessible space.
Whitestone may get a new place to play ball if some community leaders have their way.
Alfredo Centola, president of the Malba Gardens Civic Association, has floated the idea of converting 6 vacant acres next to the Waterside Estates at the Cresthaven development into a community space featuring possible amenities such as sports fields, a clubhouse and more.
The site, with a sweeping view of the Throgs Neck Bridge, was formerly owned by Catholic Charities — the nonprofit arm of the Diocese of Brooklyn — which operated a summer camp and country club there for nearly four decades.
But ever since 1988, when the camp closed amid declining membership, it has sat unused, overgrown with tall grasses and empty except for a couple of cement foundations left over from the days when it hosted area children as a camp with a pool, hiking, playgrounds and other offerings.
Centola sees the site, bounded by Powells Cove Boulevard, 6th Avenue, 150th Street and the homes of Waterside Estates, as a rare chance for the community to come together to create something to benefit local residents.
“It would be ideal if you could take the remaining 6 acres and turn it into something for the kids,” Centola said while gazing out over the neglected lot. “The options are open right now. This is just an idea and a seedling. This is a concept that can grow and help the community.”
So he and Malba Gardens Civic member Dan Barton are looking into how best to pursue such a plan. The site was approved for construction of 55 homes before the economic downturn, so Centola and Barton want to work fast to purchase the property before the market rebounds. Barton said a real estate firm estimated last year that the land was worth $25 million. He and Centola say they hope it could sell for 50 percent to 70 percent less than what it was once worth.
A coalition will be needed to support such an effort and outlay of funds, they say, so the civic is working with elected officials, local sports leagues and private companies to try to build a coalition to bring it to fruition.
“There’s no reason why the residents of a place like Whitestone can’t come together and preserve a piece of property for the youth in the community rather than build more houses and cause more traffic,” Barton said. “We’re going to contact corporations, we’re going to get together with people who’ve done this before, whether colleges or the YMCA or other groups, plus we could collect some private donations.”
Avella said this may be the time to revisit his plan and that he will direct his office to research possibilities for the site. “There aren’t enough sports fields in northeast Queens for all the teams and kids who want to play,” Avella said. “I’ll have my staff start to look into it, and if theres an opportunity here, I’ll set up a meeting with [area civics] and see where we can go from here.”
But City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) said the plan may be hard to pull off.
“The Council member is concerned about costs,” Halloran spokesman Steve Stites said via e-mail. “The city just saved 20 firehouses and many teachers’ jobs, and we are still in a recession. Six privately owned acres in Whitestone won’t come cheap.”
Devon O’Connor, founding president of the Welcome to Whitestone Commercial and Residential Civic Association, said he is willing to pursue the project anyway.
“It’s a nice, open field, it’s about 6 acres and it’s a great spot,” O’Connor said. “Whatever I can do to get something like that going, I’d love to help, whether it be fund-raising or getting grants from the city, whatever I can do. I’d love to see something like that.”
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
Here you have it, the last piece of land in Whitestone. Fitting that it once belonged to the Children and the Community. Developers came, and made a profit, leaving nothing for the community. If this were Manhattan, they would have been required to incorporate Community accessible space.
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