NYS Supreme Court Hearing on Parkland Alienation by City and NYU

NYS Supreme Court Justice Donna Mills will hear testimony on parkland alienation by the City and NYU. The four parks in question are the Mercer Playground, LaGuardia Corner Gardens, LaGuardia Park, and the Mercer-Houston Dog Run

Tuesday, February 26th
11:30 AM
COURTROOM OF JUSTICE DONNA MILLS
New York State Supreme Court, Civil Branch
111 Centre Street, Room 574

A message from Bo Riccobono of NYUFASP:

In pushing for the Sexton Plan, NYU and the City have argued that the four park strips on the superblocks are not parkland, and that the City never has regarded them as such.

According to Henry Stern, former New York City Parks Commissioner, this claim is false. As he has now pointed out in his blockbuster affidavit, those park strips are parks, by any reasonable definition. True, they have not been mapped as parks—but then neither has Central Park; and NYU can't build there, either.

Stern has also pointed out—and he should know—that the City has consistently regarded those park strips as parks; and that the only reason why they were not mapped as parks is that NYU alone has repeatedly and vigorously blocked efforts by the Parks Department to assert formal control of those four parcels.

In court this Tuesday morning—our first day in court, before the judge—our attorneys will be asking her for discovery, to get us access to archived correspondence concerning efforts to designate those parks strips as official New York City parks, and NYU's longtime obstruction of those efforts.

We want Judge Donna Mills to understand that quite a lot of people care tremendously about this matter; and we also want the public to know that this issue has not been resolved, despite the City Council's vote last summer. We therefore want to fill the courtroom, so that Judge Mills and the press (there will be a lot of media there) know we mean business.

The proceeding is scheduled to begin at 11:30, but it may take some time to get through security. As the courtroom holds only about 50 spectators, it is possible that you may not be able to get in. If there's so large a crowd that people end up waiting in the hall, however, that too will be very good for us.

So we're asking you to be there, AND TO SPREAD THE WORD BY SENDING THIS MESSAGE TO YOUR EMAIL LISTS.

Thank you,

Bo Riccobono
NYUFASP