Closure of NYS Parks

Much is being written about the New York State Administration seeking to close state parks including up to 10 on Long Island. Although PARCnassau concerns itself primarily with county parks, we will weigh in on this foolishness. A park or a park system is not nor should they ever be a political football. They are too important to the health and well being of our citizenry especially in bad economic times such as these.
Parks in reality and despite the rhetoric of our political establishment do not close. What is done is to bar the lawful citizens and patrons of the park or parks from access and recreational use. The miscreants, homeless, feral youth, drug users and other undesirables have no problem walking past the “closed” signs or leaping over a fence to engage in anti-social conduct out of sight of public and police. This turns a community asset into a community liability.
Once a park is destroyed by vandalism or worse, it costs more to restore it than to maintain it all along. What usually happens is the park is lost when government will not invest in it's continuance. The ultimate loser is the taxpaying citizen that counts on the park systems for their recreational needs and community enhancement.
So, New York State, leave the park system alone. Save taxpayer money by eliminating undeserved political appointments, pork barrel funding and other institutional misconduct that pass as “normal business in Albany”.

New Commissioner for Nassau County Prks

We are disappointed and saddened to learn of the appointment of former Family Court Judge Carnell Fosky as the new Nassau County parks Commissioner by County Executive Edward Mangano. This is political patronage at its worst and of the type we have decried in both parties. Current Commissioner Jose Lopez, a patronage appointee of former County Executive Thomas Suozzi is being demoted to Deputy Commissioner with no loss of pay and marginalized by being sent to the Muttontown Preserve office and put in charge of “Special Events” (ala Doreen Banks).
The politicians of Nassau County really don’t get it. Unwarranted and unjustifiable patronage appointments to any public office or employment are unacceptable at any time. In economic times such as these, they should rise to an impeachable offense. As we’ve stated before, patronage can only be tolerated under the following rules: The position being filled is a real job, not an imaginary one, and there is no current employee available to fill it and the new appointee must be uniquely qualified for the position. Obviously that is not the case here.
Whatever qualifications Judge Fosky and Jose Lopez had or have, they are not administering a critical department such as Parks and Recreation and restoring it to some semblance of its former glory. We can only hope that the county legislature will withhold its approval, but we are not holding our breath.
When will public needs supersede political expediency in Nassau County? When will Nassau Parks get a park professional to lead it, albeit slowly, out of the neglect it has suffered starting in 1992 and until now? More than ever, Nassau residents need their parks and they need them clean, crime free and accessible. That means they need a real commissioner that knows how to manage them and they need that now.