2012: The Olympic Odyssey

By NICK ABADJIAN

The U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), which decides which U.S. city will host the 2012 summer Olympics, is eyeing New York as a possible site for the ultimate sports event. A 10-member Site Evaluation Team from the committee touched down in Queens while on a three-day tour this week, to discuss what the borough has to offer for the global sports extravaganza.

On Tuesday, July 25, the USOC symbolically kicked off its tour at the Queens Museum of Art in Flushing Meadow Corona Park, home to the first United Nations General Assembly meeting in 1946. The park also hosted two World’s Fair in 1939 and 1964.

Daniel Doctoroff, president of NYC 2012 and Mayor Rudy Giuliani visited Queens this week to talk about the borough’s role in the proposed Olympics of 2012. Tribune Photo By Dee Richard

The committee, along with city officials, watched a presentation at the museum given by NYC 2012, the official bid committee, showing a transformed New York that would city accommodate every event from archery to judo. The tour gives the USOC an opportunity to see 36 of 40 venues in the city for the sporting events.

“The overriding theme of our bid is New York as the world’s second home,” said Daniel Doctoroff president of the NYC 2012. “Today, children from no fewer than 188 of the 199 nations represented in the 2000 Olympic games attend New York City schools. Athletes from virtually every country in the world would find their own local cheering sections at a New York Olympic Games– something that can only happen here.”

Mayor Rudy Giuliani joined the committee in the park and showed his support for the future. NYC 2012 plan backs the mayor’s hopes of erecting a stadium on the West side in Manhattan, getting the Jets back from New Jersey. The mayor also hosted luncheon for USOC and NYC1012 the next day at Gracie Mansion.

“This would be wonderful for the city. New York City is the capital of the world,” said Giuliani.

NYC 2012 has been making presentations throughout the city getting their message across to community boards.

“The Olympics would bring in a lot of revenue to the city,” said Chris Glaisek of  NYC 2012 at a Community Board 1 meeting back in April.

Glaciek explained that with selling rights, sponsorship, and sales, the Olympics is estimated to pull in $3.3 billion in revenue. A surplus of $1.3 billion would be used to renovate existing parks, and the sports infrastructure for the ailing public schools of the City.

Among the numerous proposals slated for the Olympics, is a $45 million makeover for Astoria Pool for swimming, diving, and synchronized swimming.

Three pools would be built and placed closer to the East River. Under the plan, the now derelict diving boards would be returned to the pool and there would be new locker rooms added and seating for 15,000 people.

In addition, an indoor multi-sports center would be built at the Terra Cotta side, just south of the Queensboro Bridge. The center would feature a running track along with a badminton court.

Though New York Power Authority’s (NYPA) new 79.9-megawatt plant stands in the way at this site, NYPA contends that it should be leaving the site in 2004, when bigger power plants come online.

Under the plan, tennis would take place at the current USTA Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Corona.

For the white water canoeing events, a man-made c-shaped course would be where the Fountain of the Planets in the park now sits.

It would be 2,000 feet in length with a 20-foot drop and contain different obstacles including varying speeds of water. NYC 2012 also plans to make four new soccer fields adjacent to canoeing for the community should New York be selected as the Olympic venue.

For the 2000-meter flat water-rowing event, NYC 2012 proposes making a grand Regatta Center in the park by joining both manmade Willow and Meadow Lakes in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. 

The Jewel Avenue overpass will be replaced by a bridge which will serve as an overpass. Six new boathouses would spring up by the former site of the Aquacade.

According to NYC 2012, some of the best sailing conditions exist off the Rockaway peninsula and Gateway National Park in Jamaica Bay. The sailing events would take place off those areas, with people watching for free off the docks.

Another major change in Queens would be the transformation of Hunter’s Point along the waterfront into an Olympic Village to house the athletes.

Eight to 10 residential towers would sprout up, providing 4,400 apartments for 16,000 athletes, coaches and officials. Plans call for high-rise apartment buildings, townhouses, and retail and commercial space.

Under the plan, the location of the new Olympic Village is centrally located between all the games. The esplanade alongside would be transformed into a running track, and a practice soccer field would be added.

Councilman Walter McCaffrey, whose district includes the area, said, “It would be a major contribution to the waterfront.”

NYC 2012 claims that its Olympic Village is consistent with the Queens West project to build mixed-use development.

The big question in all this is how would New York deal with mass transit for the three-weeks of Olympic glory?

That is where project Olympic X comes into play, according to NYC 2012. The X stands for travel routes marked along the East River and from Long Island to New Jersey. Olympians, their trainers, and the media would get to their sporting events by special ferries that cruise along the East River from the Olympic Village. In addition, special trains would run on the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit, to go from Flushing Meadows to the Meadowlands. Access to a new stadium on the West Side of Manhattan would involve an extention to the # 7 subway line.

NYC 2012 board member Wellington Chen, of Little Neck, went along for the bus tour that gave the USOC a chance to look at the city and its legacy.

“What better place to showcase the Olympics than a real global village,” said Chen. He pointed out that Queens was the most diverse county in the country a place where you can see Indians, Pakistanis, Jews and Arabs shopping in the same store.

Chen is a true New Yorker, who can name dozens of celebrities, from Louis Armstrong to Tony Bennett, that claimed Queens as their home. He goes by Sinatra’s mantra, “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere,” which he explained goes hand in glove for New York City.

The Olympics, according to him would give a fresh coat of paint to Queens and the rest of the city by upgrading the park facilities, transportation, and a huge morale boost.

Though the city stands to reap benefits years after the Olympics there are others who don’t look forward to having their parks taken over.

“This is another long history of proposals for this park [Flushing Meadow-Corona Park] for private commercial use,” said Pat Dolan, vice president of the Queens Civic Congress. “These are huge open spaces in an urban environment where millions of people depend on the parks for relaxation. They don’t have backyards, they use parks.”

Although the Queens Civic Congress is not opposed to a New York Olympics, it is opposed to the water events that would close the parks for construction. The joining of Willow and Meadow Lakes could possibly hurt its ecosystem. Willow Lake, a New York Class One protected wetland, is supplied by a spring and is bordered by marshes inhabited by small mammals and wild flowers.

Yet NYC 2012 contends that the lakes water quality will improve with the projects. The lakes will be dredged to remove heavy metal sediment.

Another concern of the Queens Civic Congress is the building of a bridge that would disrupt the current traffic on Jewel Avenue, which traverses the park.

“Have you ever been on Jewel Avenue at 8 o’clock in the morning?,” asked Dolan, who explained that car traffic can reaches as far down as Kissena Boulevard. “Jewel Avenue is the only east-west connector besides Union Turnpike and the LIE.”

Yet others are as enthusiastic as the people of Beijing, China, which is has recently become the 2008 host city.

“It would be good for the economy. It would also upgrade Astoria pool back to its Olympic history,” Vinicio Donato, chairman to Community Board 1. He pointed out that the Astoria Pool is where two Olympic trials – 1936 and 1964 – took place. But since then, the diving boards stopped being functional only waiting for the 2012 upgrade.

Chuck Apelian, who co-chairs the Land Use Committee for Community Board 7 for the Flushing area, remembers the excitement of being at the Super Bowl and looks forward to the Olympics.

“New York has an excellent chance,” said Apelian. He said that the Olympics would do for Queens what the Tennis Center has done for the area. “You mention Flushing, New York and everyone across the world knows about it.” 

New York must compete with eight other cities in the country, including Los Angeles, for the 2012 US spot. The USOC will narrow down the decision to three cities by October, and then by the fall of 2002, the USCOC will pick a city.

Caring For Queens Kids:
Debating A Future Home For Children’s Psychiatric Services

By ARLENE LEWIS

A passionate debate is underway in Albany over the 84 children between the ages of 7 and 18 who live and learn to cope with life in a low-lying, Bellerose building just a short walk from the Creedmoor mental health facility.

Governor George Pataki believes that those children, and the 160 others who visit for day treatment, should be treated under expert care at the Creedmoor site. But Senator Frank Padavan is standing firm that Creedmoor is no place to send a child.

The proposal to relocate the existing separate children’s center into the facility’s main building, which houses an adult population, came about when Pataki included the item in his January budget.

But in March, the Senate and Assembly — in separate budget proposals — rejected the plan claiming relocation was not in the best interest of the children due to the threat of co-mingling and undesirability as a treatment alternative.

However, State Office of Mental Health (OMH) spokesman Roger Klingman disagrees with the legislators’ evaluation. According to Klingman, the proposal will “co-locate” QCPC in Creedmoor’s main building, but it will remain a separate entity, with the same staff and treatment availability.

The proposed new children’s facility will co-exist with the adult population, and will be housed in a new addition to building #40 on the grounds of Creedmoor.   It will include a separate entrance for children and visitors, a separate outdoor space, clinical offices, and a school.  Appropriate steps will be taken to insure the safety of the children and the prohibition of co-mingling will be strictly enforced.

“We’ve had other children’s units at psychiatric centers for years,” Klingman continued.  “There have been no incidents of inappropriate contact—not one.  We have experience in doing this.”

“The minute I heard about the State Office of Mental Health’s proposal to move the children from QCPC into the Creedmoor facility, I knew it was a bad idea,” Padavan said.  “QCPC is a welcoming campus setting, with ball fields and playgrounds.  Creedmoor is a secure facility...with barbed wire and chain link fences and a high rise structure.”

The proposal to relocate the Queens Children’s Center was included in Gov. Pataki’s January budget. Tribune Photo By  Ira Cohen

The Senator has announced the formation of the Children’s Mental Health Partnership, an alliance of organizations and individuals dedicated to promoting the delivery of quality mental health services to children and adolescents at QCPC in Bellerose.

He added, “I have worked to defeat this proposal and was successful in convincing my Senate Majority colleagues to reject it as part of our budget resolution.

“To pretend that sending children there won’t be traumatic for them, is abolutely ludicrous,” added Padavan.  “These kids are already dealing with fear, difficult emotions, and stereotypes.”

Klingman countered by explaining that the change was proposed because the role of treatment centers has changed. He said that 30 years ago children were kept in hospitals for 180 days or more, but in recent years the stay is 180 days or less. Smaller numbers of children are treated for shorter periods of time.

“The Governor and the OMH believe the emphasis is now on community and home based treatment,” he maintained.  “We are not going to emphasize in-patient treatment unless it is absolutely necesssary.”

“In addition, we now have a 30-year old center in need of expensive renovation,” he added. “High capital expeditures are needed in order to keep it accredited.”  

He concluded the reported savings for the project, expected to be completed between 2003 and 2004, will be $1.7 million in operating expenses and $11.8 mllion in capital expenses.

The Senator maintained that there is no clinical justification for this proposal, but charged that it is based entirely on budgetary concerns.

“All leading clinicians and experts believe that keeping separate facilities for children and adults is essential, and that should be our first priority.”

He added, “I hope my colleagues will remain opposed to the closure and relocation proposal of QCPC, especially as we are expecting to do a contingency budget in the near future.  It’s now a waiting game.”

Borough President Claire Shulman supports Padavan and said, “He’s right on target.”

The psychiatric treatment of children in Queens took place in the children’s unit of Creedmore until 1969, when the QCPC was created and opened in the building where it is housed today.

The center services children from 7 to 18 years of age. There are approximately 84 residential patients and approximately 160 children and families receiving day care treatment.

Education for day care patients is provided through the city Board of Education and operates on their school calendar. Theapeutic services are provided by Creedmoor’s clinical staff.

Education for residential patients is provided by New York State.  Teachers are hired by QCPC education director, and must meet NYS Department of Education standards.

Recreation programs for in-patients are strictly coordinated with individual treatment plans, and may include psychomotor skill therapy, art, music, dance, and physical education.