Private H.S. Funding Reno of Red Hook Park
Xavier, the private Manhattan high school, has plans to build a new, all-weather baseball diamond at Red Hook Park, to the chagrin of some local residents. WPIX reports that $2.5 million will be poured into the park for renovations, a state-of-the-art synthetic field, lights and bleachers. While one local parent worries, “They write a check…
Xavier, the private Manhattan high school, has plans to build a new, all-weather baseball diamond at Red Hook Park, to the chagrin of some local residents. WPIX reports that $2.5 million will be poured into the park for renovations, a state-of-the-art synthetic field, lights and bleachers. While one local parent worries, “They write a check and they take over,” the project has the blessing of CB6’s Craig Hammerman, who looks at the renovation as “good news for everyone. The Brooklyn Paper, which first reported about the proposed overhaul a couple months ago, noted that Xavier’s teams have practiced in the park on and off for decades.
Manhattan Private School to Build Baseball Field in Brooklyn [WPIX-11]
Well, the default setting should be public funds = public park = public use, but as soon as you take somebody else’s money, that equation changes.
trust me “g man” red hook needs it. badly. I played sports there at my old school and on the soccer field was broken bottles and sharp gravel. i would have to roll up my socks to my knees so my knees wouldn’t get shred up whenever i slid. And the red hook fields aren’t really used for local use. they are constantly games being played by private schools in New York City. And questions about how safe this park is for school use is always being questioned. It’s great that Xavier is doing this.
Proud alma mater of Justice Antonin Scalia!
Definitely need to have a binding agreement as to the school’s hours of exclusive use. I wouldn’t even look at it in terms of minimum public use, but flip it around and specify the school’s maximum access. Default setting should be public park = public use.
…until the public DOES make a bigger stink…. Proofreading is fundamental.
The trick with these Faustian private funding schemes is to get minimum local community use, and not just the left-over scraps, set down in writing with an enforcement mechanism.
You know, until the public doesn’t make a bigger stink about parks department budget cuts, the agency is going to be stuck making these kinds of deals. Imagine if, say Park Slope, only got police coverage when the 7-8 was finished working security for whomever was paying most of their salaries. No one would accept that, but we do for parks, government’s step-child.
This sounds great! I have a kid who graduated from, and one about to start at Xavier, and they are wonderful people. It is a Jesuit institution, and they only have the good of the community and their students in mind.
They have played both baseball and football in Red Hook for decades, and have every right to make their mark there. And everyone can us it when it is complete, so I can’t see any problem here – it’s a win-win.