2015/16 REVIEW Letter from the Co-Chairs
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2015/16 REVIEW Letter from the Co-Chairs THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST IN OUR 2015-2016 REVIEW! In the following pages, you will find a summary of the Randall’s Island Park Alliance’s most recent accomplishments, and the culmination of the work of the Alliance at the brink of our 25th anniversary – a milestone which fills us with gratitude, amazement, and pride. If you are one of the millions of New Yorkers and others who visit the Island, year after year, you know that recent years have been transformative in terms of its fields, facilities, and scenic waterfront. In turn, we hope you may also have noted the joyful proliferation of Park programs. On most days in season, RIPA now offers something new for you to discover, from festivals at the Urban Farm to yoga along the waterfront, wetland activities at the Salt Marsh, fun runs at Icahn Stadium, garden tours, and more. Should you prefer to explore on your own, RIPA offers maps for walking and running, and field guides for touring the tidal wetlands, waterfront gardens, or Urban Farm. We continue to add visitor amenities, from Park basics like bicycle racks and picnic tables to innovations such as self-guided tours and free sunscreen dispensers. Whatever your interest, the Island welcomes you. In the meantime, the Park’s beloved, renovated fields now require our careful attention once again: after years of enthusiastic play, they are beginning to show wear and tear. Among other efforts, in 2015-2016 we resurfaced three synthetic turf fields, including the premier Field 10, which also received upgraded team seating with covered benches. If you play on the Island, we hope you have had the chance to give these new surfaces a try. We must continue to invest in sustaining the excellent standards we have set, and herein lies our mission for the coming years. If you play, ride, walk, run, explore, or simply relax at Randall’s Island, we hope you will support us – by contributing, by volunteering, or by doing your part however you can – as we work to preserve what the Alliance has built over the past 25 years. We thank you, our friends and supporters, for helping us to make Randall’s Island the backyard where so many New Yorkers come to play. We hope you love the Park, and treasure as do we its great beauty and huge capacity to welcome our diverse city to its shores. In the midst of three boroughs, beneath a much-traveled bridge, with views in all directions, Randall’s Island Park draws our city together and expands our horizons. As RIPA enters its next quarter century, please join us in stewardship of Randall’s Island Park. JERRY GOLDMAN NANCY NEFF RANDALL’S ISLAND PARK ALLIANCE ANNUAL REVIEW 2015/16 LETTER FROM THE CO-CHAIRS 1 Table of Contents 1 Letter from the Co-Chairs 3 Board of Trustees 4 Senior Staff 5 President’s Introduction 6 Improved Park Access and Visitor Amenities 8 Increased and Diversified Public Programming and Community Outreach 31 Expanded Capacity and Careful Stewardship 61 Financial Reports 18 Supporters RANDALL’S ISLAND PARK ALLIANCE ANNUAL REVIEW 2015/16 2 Board of Trustees AS OF SEPTEMBER 2017 Jerome L. Goldman Co-Chairs Nancy F. Neff Aimee Boden** President Gale Brewer** Manhattan Borough President Karen Cohen President Emerita & Founder Richard Davis Chair Emeritus Andrea K. Feirstein Treasurer Richard B. Gross Secretary Mitchell Silver** Commissioner, NYC Parks & Recreation Timothy Barefield Karim Hutson* Michael Boxer Jennifer James* Michael Chang Dean Landis Rodney Cohen Richard J. Mack Susan Danilow Jon May* Brenda DiLuigi Leslie Myers David Dishy Bradford R. Peck Lucy Fato Carol Perry Ramon Gonzalez Bimla Picot Justin H. Green Dana Reed Mark I. Greene Stephen Rich Sunil Gulati Patricia W. Shifke Courtney C. Hall* Sherri Williams Justin G. Hamill* *Mayoral Appointee **Ex Officio RANDALL’S ISLAND PARK ALLIANCE ANNUAL REVIEW 2015/16 BOARD OF TRUSTEES 3 Senior Staff AS OF SEPTEMBER 2017 Aimee Boden* RIPA President & Park Administrator Anny Amores Human Resources Manager Andrew Brogan** Park Supervisor Daeman Di Stefano Chief Financial Officer Christopher Girgenti Natural Areas Manager Peter Hunter Sports Field Director Lori Knowles** Park Supervisor Deborah Maher Vice President & General Counsel Ellen McCarthy Public Programs Manager Phyllis Odessey Director of Horticulture Eric Peterson** Deputy Park Administrator David Salerno** Concession & Event Manger EunYoung Sebazco Horticulture Manager Paula Stein Director of Development Nicholas Storrs Urban Farm Manager Gregory Tuba Icahn Stadium Manager Louis Vazquez Director of Icahn Stadium Jennifer Wainwright Communications Manager Anne Wilson Senior Director of Planning *Joint RIPA and NYC Parks & Recreation Department Staff **NYC Parks & Recreation Staff RANDALL’S ISLAND PARK ALLIANCE ANNUAL REVIEW 2015/16 SENIOR STAFF 4 President’s Introduction This 2015-2016 Review is focused on the expansion of the activities RIPA provides at Randall’s Island Park, following a period of particularly rapid programmatic development. If you are a regular visitor, I hope you will recognize herein some of the new resources and amenities you have enjoyed over the past couple of years. Annual offerings now range from school-based programs at the Little Hell Gate Salt Marsh and the Urban Farm to drop-in fun runs at Icahn Stadium, guided tours, free fitness programs and outdoor movie nights. Our neighbors know to expect nearly daily offerings, as well as our free weekend signature events beginning with RIPA’s spring Cherry Blossom Festival at the Urban Farm and followed by our Birding Bonanza, Great Randall’s Island Treasure Hunt, Harvest Festival, and Get Hooked! family fishing day along the Island’s southern shoreline, looking down the Manhattan waterfront. All of these make for a great Park experience. Furthermore, it is very satisfying, as President of RIPA, to look back and note that much careful planning, and a strong collective vision, has brought us to this point. RIPA’s original Management, Restoration & Development Plan guided the successful development of the IAAF-certified Icahn Stadium, the 20-court Sportime Tennis Center; the renovated golf center; an Urban Farm; 20 acres of renovated natural areas and wetlands; nine miles of waterfront pathways; and dozens of irrigated and turf playing fields. By 2012, with these capital goals largely realized, the RIPA Board and staff undertook and adopted a 3-5 Year Strategic Plan for the renovated Park; key goals included improved access, capacity-building, and increased programming to make the most of the Island’s transformed resources. This brings us to January of 2015, when RIPA issued our Programming Plan, geared toward ensuring that the Park’s newly-transformed resources were used well, in response to community needs and interests. The Plan called for increasingly site-specific, environmentally-responsive programs, as well as more drop- in events, especially on the weekends, to foster increased access, exercise, and healthier living for all New Yorkers, and especially for residents in adjacent neighborhoods. We also sought to identify ways the Island might welcome and encourage a range of unstructured uses, fostering visitor exploration through good wayfinding and responsive visitor amenities. This Review, then, tells the story of RIPA’s enormous programmatic growth over the past two years. But it is also the story of more than two decades of planning and development. The more than 150 free programs offered in 2016 are both a testament to all that the Alliance has achieved together, and a celebration of the Island’s role as a unique and increasingly beloved oasis for all New Yorkers. Please join us, and if you have a moment please don’t hesitate to tell us: what is your favorite thing to do at Randall’s Island Park, these days, and what would you like to see next? AIMEE BODEN RANDALL’S ISLAND PARK ALLIANCE ANNUAL REVIEW 2015/16 PRESIDENT’S INTRODUCTION 5 Improved Park Access and Visitor Amenities Two years ago, as RIPA laid out goals for expanded outreach and drop-in activities, we also outlined our commitment to increase opportunities for “unstructured recreation.” Many activities fall under this umbrella – from strolling to jogging, picnicking to fishing – but the central premise is that if RIPA lays out the access, provides visitor amenities, and keeps the Island beautiful, more and more of our neighbors will discover their own ways to enjoy the Park. We created 3 new bus stops improving access to our Urban Farm and to the Park’s southern fields Simply getting to and around the Island, easily, safely and appealingly, is of course the first step. In 2015, after years of work together, RIPA joined NYCEDC and NYC Parks to open – and to celebrate! – the first at-grade crossing from the Bronx, the “Randall’s Island Connector.” By 2016, RIPA had constructed and opened a new middle section of the Hell Gate Pathway, under the railroad trestle arches along the Park’s central spine and freshwater wetlands. Working with the Manhattan Borough President and MTA NYC Transit, we created three new bus stops, creating much-improved access to our Urban Farm and to the Park’s southern fields. We installed over 30 maps RIPA also worked with City agencies, elected officials and local advocates and destination signs and to develop improved signage and striping guiding Park visitors through 60 location banners adjacent neighborhoods in East Harlem and the South Bronx. Finally, in aimed at non-vehicular 2015 under the leadership of a dedicated group of Board Members, RIPA travelers completed installation of our comprehensive Park system of over 30 maps and destination signs and 60 location banners aimed at non-vehicular travelers; RIPA’s maps and signage also now welcome visitors approaching the Island from access points on all three surrounding boroughs.