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Oddo and Matteo Push to Clean Up Field Across from South Beach Houses

By Nicholas Rizzi | August 10, 2015 6:59pm
 Borough President James Oddo and Councilman Steven Matteo have started a push to revitalize the NYCHA owned fields across the street from the South Beach Houses.
Borough President James Oddo and Councilman Steven Matteo have started a push to revitalize the NYCHA owned fields across the street from the South Beach Houses.
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DNAinfo/Nicholas Rizzi

SOUTH BEACH — Staten Island politicians have started a push to clean up an overgrown field owned by the New York City Housing Authority across the street from the South Beach Houses they call an "eyesore."

Borough President James Oddo and Councilman Steven Matteo sent a letter to NYCHA last week asking it to let a youth sports' league clean up the field on Norway Avenue and take over maintenance of it.

"Staten Island is in desperate need of fields for its various youth sports teams to use," Oddo and Matteo wrote in the letter.

"At the same time, the NYCHA-owned fields immediately adjacent to the South Beach Houses at the intersection of Reid Avenue/McClean Avenue and Norway Avenue are in the worst condition we have ever seen," they continued. "The grass is literally up to our knees and it sits vacant, practically mocking all the young people who live in the South Beach Houses and its environs who cannot use it to play sports."

The politicians proposed letting a youth sport's league make it their home field, and they would clean it up and take care of the maintenance for it. As part of the agreement, the league would be required to actively try to get children living in the South Beach Houses to join the league.

While they find a league to take it over, the politicians asked NYCHA to remove weeds and clean litter from the fields.

A spokeswoman for NYCHA said they clean the debris and mow the lawn after complaints, and would look into Oddo and Matteo's proposal specifically after the leases for other fields end in the summer.

The last lease agreement for the field was in the summer of 2014 and ended that August, the spokeswoman said, adding that it was last mowed in July.

The politicians have previously tried to improve conditions of the field. In 2011 — when Oddo was in the council and Matteo was his chief of staff — they looked to replace the grass with artificial turf to "breathe new life into these fields."

They abandoned the plan when they found out it would be too costly for a city council member to get the funds.

In their letter, they said if their plan is successful in revitalizing the field, they would look into allocating capital money to install artificial turf on it.