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Read the press release here.

Return Upper East Side Park to Community as Dirt Lot, Residents Say

By Shaye Weaver | January 16, 2017 1:08pm
 Queensboro Oval park without the tennis bubble. Residents want a turf field on the lot but they want the access to the park immediately.
Queensboro Oval park without the tennis bubble. Residents want a turf field on the lot but they want the access to the park immediately.
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Bradley Cohen

UPPER EAST SIDE — Residents are demanding the city let the community back into the Queensboro Oval Park by September — even if it's just an empty plot of dirt.

After a recent push from residents to open access to the green space, the Parks Department presented three options to convert the one-acre park under the Queensboro bridge at East 59th Street — which for decades has been privately operated by the Sutton East Tennis Club, which charged players for court time.

One option is to shorten the time period the tennis club uses the space, the second is to divide up the space between a turf field and permanent tennis courts, and the last is to turn the entire lot into one large turf field.

► SEE ALL THREE OPTIONS IN MORE DETAIL: Turf Field Could Replace Queensboro Oval Tennis Bubble

The latter option received the most support from residents during a Community Board 8 Parks Committee meeting on Jan. 12. It would take three to five years to convert the space into a turf field, and residents asked that the lot be vacated for public use in the interim and not leased to a private company.

Locals made it clear to parks department spokesmen that the park must be empty and open to them on Sept. 1, after Sutton East's contract with the city expires. Since 1997, the tennis company has been using the entire park nine months out of the year.

"The community wants it back as dirt," said Susan Evans, co-chair of the committee. "It is a public space. In my estimation, Sutton East Tennis has no right to be there. They have been there too long. End of story. We want it back and if it’s dirt that we get, it's dirt we will work with."

Fellow board member Rita Popper agreed and said ending the concessionaire for good in the fall makes the most sense.

"This is a natural ending to this concessionaire," she said. "It ends and we begin."

Even though it would be just a dirt plot, the public could use it for baseball, walking and running, and other activities, members said.

In addition to requesting 100-percent access to the space, residents want the Parks Department to simultaneously work on plans for a multi-use turf field with a running track, benches and landscaping.

"I’ve run in the rec center and it has a nice indoor track, but it's like running in a parakeet cage, and you have to run around it 28 times to make one mile," said Fred Bondy, adding that he previous used the Oval to run before the city began leasing it out.

"If we would also put a little running track [on the Queensboro Oval space], you would only need to run five laps to make a mile. It would serve an additional use for running for the running community, instead of having to hassle with traffic."

The committee agreed on a resolution stating that the park should no longer be leased out to a concessionaire starting Sept. 1, and to support the concept of a multi-use field.

The resolution will be voted on during Community Board 8's full board meeting on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Ramaz School.