Local elected officials and city representatives presided over a groundbreaking ceremony for an interim track-and-field facility on December 16. The interim track, just west of the existing Yankee Stadium, will serve as a replacement for Joseph J. Yancey Track and Field , which was torn down to pave way for construction of a new stadium. The city has said the temporary track will be ready next spring, and that the permanent track, to be built between the current stadium site and Jerome Avenue, will be ready in 2010.

The groundbreaking ceremony, attended by student-athletes of nearby Cardinal Hayes and All Hallows High Schools, came at a time when the city had come under fire because of a delay in providing the community with a replacement track.

At the ceremony, Carrión said he actually appreciated the pressure from community activists to increase the speed of parks construction, and also said that the groundbreaking ceremony was part of an overall package of major parks overhaul in the borough,   echoing the pledge of city parks commissioner Adrian Benepe that the city will spend $450 million to renovate parks in the Bronx.

The optimism projected at the groundbreaking stood in contrast to the concern, skepticism, and even anger some South Bronx residents expressed at a public meeting after the ceremony.

At Mullaly Recreation Center, city officials including parks department chief of design Charles McKinney, and Dmitri V. Konon, vice-president for capital programs for the New York City Economic Development Corporation, answered questions from the public regarding construction of tennis courts, ball fields, and additional parkland whose use is as yet undetermined along the Harlem River Waterfront.

As reported in the November issue of the Highbridge Horizon, construction of waterfront facilities has been delayed following the announcement by the parks department that oil tanks were discovered on the future construction site.

Konon acknowledged that there is toxic material on the site, including petroleum, but said he did not know specific information about the contaminants.
Parks department officials have promised to remove pollutants in accordance with state and federal laws.

Konon said clean-up crews are in the process of completing “phase one” of site remediation, which includes removing petroleum from the soil, removing the underground oil tanks, and clearing asbestos from buildings. He said the next phase is to demolish structures previously part of the Bronx Terminal Market, which Konon projected would happen in January.

Several residents expressed concern that the new waterfront facilities would be very difficult to access, since they are located along the edge of the Harlem River rather than in a heavily-populated area like the parkland that was destroyed.

Audience suggestions for resources the city should provide in the new waterfront park included a school, a new recreation center, and a free indoor skate park.
Some questioned the sincerity of the city presenters.

“I have a gut feeling that these suggestions we are making today don’t amount to a hill of beans,” one audience member said.

Hector Aponte, Bronx commissioner for the parks department, said that the city was planning to hire a person whose sole responsibility was to listen to concerns from community residents.