Press Release

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 16, 2006

Contact:
Frances Tejada, President of SaveOurParks! 646-260-6713
Joyce Hogi Media Committee 917-743-0865
Karen Argenti (BCEQ) 646-529-1990

MULLALY PARK USED FOR YANKEE FANFEST

MACOMBS DAM PARK WAS NOT ENOUGH

MULLALY ENDANGERED, IS FRANZ SIEGEL NEXT?

Today members of Save Our Parks announce outrage at the Yankee FanFest scheduled from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. will be held in Mullaly Park (164th Street and Jerome Avenue in the Bronx). This is the second taking of parkland, in as many months leaving the neighborhood people no where to go to recreate. WCBS radio will host the FanFest which reportedly supports local charities as it stomps on the rights of the community. Mullaly Park is adjacent to the current construction project in Macomb's Dam Park. Meanwhile, construction crews took over the site in mid-August before providing the replacement recreational facilities promised.

"We are watching the Yankees, get used to being north of 161st Street, as they take more and more of the community's parkland, stated Albertha Hunter, a resident along Jerome Avenue. "They now want to add insult to injury by hosting this event in Mullaly Park."

"This is another slap in the face to a community which has had its parks given away by the Bloomberg Parks Department, the Bronx Political Machine and the Bronx Bombers", stated Joyce Hogi, a member of Save Our Parks. "It shows that the Yankees, and all those affiliated with them, do not care about our community."

"I don't know what these people are thinking. If they want do something like this, it should be held in Yankee Stadium," said Karen Argenti of BCEQ, "This is a charity event the Yankees should welcome."

Last week, the group filed a suit in Federal Court to challenge the National Parks Service superficial review and fast approval to use a community park to build a new stadium. The Legal team believes that once the court agrees with this argument, the matter will be sent back to NPS to reconsider. Then the City can supplement the application to make it more approvable within the law, and more acceptable to the community's concerns for neighborhood parks.

Save Our Parks (www.saveourparks.info) is a local community group formed to join together residents who live in and around the Yankee Stadium area of the Bronx in order to protect their inalienable rights to clean air, clean water, as well as appropriate levels of traffic, light and noise. The Bronx Council for Environmental Quality (BCEQ), a 501c.3 organization founded in 1971, joined as plaintiffs. BCEQ (www.bceq.org) is a county-wide group of volunteers working for all Bronxites.