Catalyst for Change

While ultimately New York City’s bid to host the 2012 Summer Games did not come through, some of the city’s initial plans to remediate and redevelop brownfield sites have progressed.

Robert Kulikowski, director of the New York City Office of Environmental Coordination, said, “What the bid really forced us to do was to look at a scarce resource and try to maximize its use.”

Kulikowski served as an advisor on the NYC2012 environmental committee during the last two years of the bid’s formation. The entire bid process was nearly 10 years in the making.

Pelham Bay Park, Fresh Kills, Flushing Meadows Corona Park and Williamsburg Waterfront Park were some of the brownfields the city hoped to clean up and build Olympic facilities on. Fresh Kills, a former landfill, was to become a state-of-the-art cycling center. Flushing Meadows Corona Park, where two World Fairs were once held, was to undergo significant restoration of its wetlands to site Olympic regatta. Pelham Bay Park, the city’s largest park and home to the police firing range, was going to be remediated to include a new shooting facility. And, just as Vancouver has done, an Olympic Village was going to be built on a brownfield (Queens West) and later converted into residential spaces suitable for different incomes.

A spectacular Olympic Aquatic Center for swimming, diving and beach volleyball was planned on the site of Williamsburg Waterfront in Brooklyn. The site is rather heavily contaminated, as its past included oil refineries and gas plants. Currently, it’s primarily underused/vacant land. The city’s Department of Sanitation garage is located there, along with an oil/gas depot, record storage facility and automotive facility. The area overlooks the East River and the lower Manhattan skyline.

“You can see all the way from the Brooklyn Bridge to the United Nations,” Kulikowski noted.

Currently, Williamsburg Waterfront Park is in the process of conceptual design. The plan for the 2012 games spurred major rezoning in the area. Greenpoint-Williamsburg allowed for 180 city blocks to be rezoned, including the area where the park will be built. Furthermore, the city now has the $100 million in its capital budget for the park. Kulikowski said, “[The city is] proceeding down two parallel paths: approaching land owners and pursuing eminent domain/condemnation proceedings  attempting to acquire the property.”

Fresh Kills is also undergoing master planning. Once completed, it will be nearly three times the size of Central Park.

Kulikowski said, overall, the Olympic bid helped guide the city into looking at sustainable development. He contended, “The process created synergy, which is contributing to the revitalization of the area.” BFN