City Council candidate and local realtor Jason L. Mehler issued a news release attacking the Sustainable Playland Inc. plan and saying it will send 1,878 people looking for parking outside Playland gates in residential neighborhoods during peak times.
What do you think? Leave a comment below.
Here is the Mehler missive:
Rye City Council Candidate Jason L. Mehler speaks out against the SPI plan along with more than a dozen concerned Rye City residents.
My position on Sustainable Playland Inc. (SPI) – The plan has many positive features but I am completely against the 95,000 sq ft field house and I DO NOT SUPPORT THE PLAN as it currently stands. I do not agree that having such a large structure adjacent to a residential neighborhood in Rye is beneficial in any way to the residents of Rye.
A Playland parking lot car space inventory was undertaken to assess the total lost spaces which will be removed if the (2) artificial regulation soccer fields and 95,000 sq. ft. Sports Field House are built.
The count was factored on Sustainable Playland's Field Zone Project orientation rendering.
The total number is 939 car parking (handicap and regular) spaces lost.
939 spaces exceeds Rye's Central Business district parking lot capacity.
Assume the average visiting car occupancy is (2) people 1878 people will be looking to park outside the Park's borders if the remaining large lot is at capacity.
Reiterating my endorsement of Jason Mehler: He has no agenda of his own and is not beholden to County government, he can’t be bought in fact he runs his campaign without contributions which he refuses to accept when offered, and he bows to no God but his own. A vote for Jason Mehler is a vote for VALUES. On November 5, values will win and I hope the whole City of Rye listens.
…and he doesn’t cheat much like the Jovanovich and Killian campaigns.
Jason’s point about parking for Playland is a good one. Let’s be optimistic and assume that the park’s regeneration will be a success, attracting at least as many visitors as before, possibly — with the much-anticipated Children’s Museum — a great many more. Is every weekend going to see the traffic chaos we now get on July 4, when a lot of hopeful kids from around the county have to watch the fireworks through the steamed-up windows of an idling minivan, still stuck on the Playland Parkway because their parents didn’t abandon the barbecues three hours earlier?
Generally, none of the proposals for Playland’s redevelopment gave enough attention to broader issues of transportation to and from the park. All we have is the County’s frankly ludicrous plan for a Playland Parkway Route, which stretches the current two-mile hike from Rye Station into a nearly three-mile detour through the less-populated areas of our fair city.
I hate voicing my criticism of this venture, because the improvements it proposes will greatly benefit our community; but as a solution to Playland’s problems, it’s a non-starter. Unless, of course, it’s a cunning albeit expensive plan to get ALL of Playland’s public-transportation-using visitors out of central Rye, since the amazing new pedestrian/cycling route from Rye station to the park is a (literally) staggering 2.65 miles, while the distance from Harrison station to the Playland entrance is only 2.3 miles! (Am I the only person to have spotted that?)
Here’s the Rye Record’s article about the original proposal:
http://www.ryerecord.com/features/playland-bikepedestrian-trail-blazes-forward.html
Here’s my letter to the Record pointing out that it just won’t work (scroll to the end of the page):
http://www.ryerecord.com/homepage-eight/letterscomment-5-25-12.html
Here’s a more recent progress report:
http://www.ryerecord.com/news/whatever-happened-to-that-playland-parkway-bikepedestrian-trail-project.html
My suggestion for a seasonal Playland station on Metro-North was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, even though it has its appeal. (Not least because it’s a minute’s walk from where I live.) But surely there’s a much easier, cheaper, and obvious solution. Take a lesson from the Mouse — free, frequent shuttle buses to and from one of the stations, operating during the park opening hours. You could get a lot of those, just for the $2 million that would otherwise be spent on sprucing up a pathway that adds nearly 20 minutes of foot-slogging for the tired, home-going family compared with the shortest walking route along Forest Avenue that they already know about because they already use it. And who knows how many non-car-owning high-spenders we could entice up from the City, if new publicity blanketing New York’s subways and buses made it clear that the conveniently combined delights of Playland, the Children’s Museum, the Edith Read Sanctuary, the Park, and the shore were quicker and easier for them to get to than Coney Island?
That still doesn’t solve the serious reduction in parking spaces threatened by this sports field “behemoth.” But it might well boost a revived Playland’s attendance figures without spilling beyond the currently available parking areas.
Consider this, and the logic of it all. If you are an Independent, you follow your party line and vote for Jason Mehler. If you are a Republican, you vote for Mehler rather than Kristin Bucci, a registered Democrat (lovely woman, but what she is doing on that Rye Dis-United ticket is beyond me). Lastly, if you are a Democrat, you vote for Mehler as their third candidate. I firmly believe in and support Jason Mehler. A vote for Jason Mehler is a vote for VALUES. On November 5, values will win and I hope the whole City of Rye listens.
Jove to explain massive proposed Playland erection to impacted residents – on short notice – at 1PM today. LD has the location and the story.
http://www.lausdeo10580.com/lausdeo10580/2013/10/jovanovich-quietly-asks-resisents-to-voice-concerns-on-spis-95000-sf-sports-depot-today-at-100pm-at-.html