Secretary of Interior Kenneth Salazar called Jamaica Bay “one of the great urban parks of America,” but asked caretakers to think creatively about the parkland’s future.
Salazar made the statements during a July 26 harbor summit, hosted by National Parks Service and the Harbor Conservancy. Regional leaders gathered to discuss how government, nonprofit and industry can work together to achieve the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Hudson-Raritan Estuary Comprehensive Restoration Plan, which includes Jamaica Bay.
“I believe that America is at a time when we can embark and embrace a new agenda for conservation for America,” Salazar told the audince. “And I think that here in New York and New York Harbor we can move forward and create what will be a star relative to the great urban parks of America in the 21st century. I think the assets are here, I think the vision is here I think the New York Harbor Conservancy has done a lot to move us all forward.” Keep reading about Salazar’s statements.
In comments to Courier-Life reporters, a spokesperson for Gateway National Park said that the United Stated Park Police did not arrest anywhere near the number alleged by a law student working on the case. According to the student’s allegations, 76 arrests were made on Plumb Beach in August 2009 as part of sting operations to net perpetrators of supposed illicit sexual behavior. But reports in GerritsenBeach.net and from Gene Berardelli during a Sheepshead Bay/Plumb Beach Civic Association meeting suggested that the stings became increasingly messy with fishermen and others being swept up. According to a Courier-Life report, only around 17 arrests were made by the Park Police during August in plainclothes operations. “They (USPP) do standard undercover operations, but there was no massive stings or anything like that,” Gateway National Park spokesperson Jane Ahern told Courier-Life. “We do close the rest area at 10 p.m. and open at 6 a.m., and everybody after those hours would be loitering, but there was no sting operation.”
GerritsenBeach.net is reporting that there were approximately 80 arrests in August 2009 at Plumb Beach as part of an undercover sting operation. Agents of the National Parks Service charged suspects with sex-related crimes, including propositioning or “in the act.” The number of arrests is higher than any whole year in the National Parks’ history at Plumb Beach
We’re told by sources that the arrests were made as part of an operation spearheaded by a new unit commander who sought to halt anonymous homosexual meetups at Plumb Beach. We’re told that the operation “got sloppy,” and fishermen and other innocent visitors to the beach were snared in broad roundups by the National Parks patrols.
GerritsenBeach.net writes, “The arrests may have something to do with the threat that the National Parks Service would lose its funding in our area. So to justify their existence they arrested more people in on month than they did all of the previous year.”
Many of those captured paid fines and/or accepted deals, while others are currently defending themselves in court.
The silver lining in the recent devastation of Plumb Beach is that community leaders, and city, state, and federal agencies are finally considering long term solutions to erosion issues at Plumb Beach.
Congressman Anthony Weiner once again brought together officials from Department of Transportation, Parks Department, National Parks Service, Community Board 15, and Sheepshead Bay/Plumb Beach Civic on Tuesday, December 1, to survey erosion’s threat to the important ecological zone and the Belt Parkway.
After surveying the damage, all came to a consensus: more needs to be done to protect the beach and highway. Continue Reading »
The devastation caused to Plumb Beach this weekend by the remnants of Hurricane Ida was “No surprise,” according to members of Sheepshead Bay/Plumb Beach Civic Association and experts. As recently as January, officials from the community, city, state, and federal agencies convened at the Plumb Beach bathhouse to discuss protection of the increasingly dangerous bike path and the threatened Belt Parkway. The problem is greater, though, affecting the ecology and wildlife of the entire area.
The meeting, called by Congressman Anthony Weiner to survey nature’s threat, ended with calls for solutions. At the time, the surging waters appeared to be passing underneath the bike path. Water soaked the grass adjacent to the highway, suggesting that erosion was occurring beneath the Belt Parkway as well, undermining its stability. While SBPB Civic proposed a plan to shore up the coast and add more sand and rocks underneath the bike path to strengthen it, nothing has happened. Continue Reading »
This weekend’s storms sparked by Hurricane Ida battered the Plumb Beach coastline, leaving a trail of destruction and providing fuel for a new wave of jurisdictional battles between NYC Parks Department and the U.S. National Parks Service.
The tale of devastation was drawn in the sand, as rubble from the bike path dotted the shore, carving lines to the water. Trees lay like fallen solders, their sides partially submerged and their roots reaching into the air. The water clawed sand out from under roots and rock, leaving everything without ground to stand on. In all, as the hurricane swept up the northeastern coast, it pushed back Plumb Beach’s protective break-line several feet, felling dozens of trees, and crumbling about 100 yards of the bike path. Continue Reading »
