Shore Park and Parkway

The Daily Plant : Friday, April 20, 2001

A NEW LIFE FOR THE PARK ON QUEENS BOULEVARD

Photo by Spencer (Flasher) Tucker

Cars and parks might seem like strange bedfellows. One stands for technology, the other for nature, one for commotion, the other for tranquility. In fact, the presence of trees mitigates the polluting effect of traffic. Trees and shrubs can slow the growth of atmospheric carbon dioxide and reduce temperature extremes by as much as 4 degrees. Trees provide shading and insulation; they cool the air and reduce wind speed. And the fruit of their bloom attracts wildlife. Inside Joe Sabba Triangle, positioned at the center of one of the city's largest and most infamous roadways, Queens Boulevard, is an ecosystem busily at work to counter the negative effects of the neighboring vehicles. It is a border where city meets country. Some might call it a battleground. For Parks, it represents an opportunity.

Yesterday, April 19, 2001 Commissioner Henry J. (StarQuest) Stern; Council Member Walter (Woodsider) L. McCaffrey; Joseph Conley; Chair, Community Board 2; Catherine (Chatty) Nolan from Council Member McCaffrey's office; and Buster Sabba threw the first shovel of dirt to make Joe Sabba Triangle more attractive, more inviting, and better suited to bringing respite to the public. Thanks to $500,000 in funds from Council Member Walter McCaffrey, Joe Sabba Triangle will receive new paving, Worlds Fair benches, and guardrail. Its .4 acres will be generously planted with trees and shrubs, arranged to facilitate crossings.

Each year, veterans and their supporters gather at Joe Sabba Triangle for the Sunnyside Flag Day Parade. Once they were led by Joe Sabba, today they are led by his memory. Joe Sabba was a war veteran and a local activist who applied the lessons of military service to the service of his community. He edited the Woodside Herald, and founded the Sunnyside Drum and Bugle Corps for children. He rallied behind the effort to install a memorial statue at Joe Sabba Triangle in honor of "Our Glorious War Heroes." At the ribbon cutting next season, Parks will unveil an historical sign that tells the biography of the parkland and the story of Joe Sabba himself. By then Joe Sabba Triangle will be a place for pedestrians to catch their breath. It will provide a moment of pause between the four-lane flanks of the Queens Boulevard, and, believe it or not, a breath of fresh air.

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO IN THE PLANT
(Friday, April 29, 1988)

LATEST "5X5" BEGINS AT
BROOKLYN'S SHORE ROAD PARK

A warm welcome was given to more than 100 Brooklyn Parks workers earlier this week by Commissioner Stern, Deputy Commissioner for Operations Robert Russo and Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Julius Spiegel at a kick-off for the newest "5x5" blitz at Shore Road Park in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Concentrating on the 14-block stretch from 79th to Oliver Streets, Parkies will paint and repair benches, fences, lampposts, playground equipment and asphalt surfaces, clear debris, cut and prune trees at the 135-acre shorefront park for a two week period.

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"The Aquarium is gone. Everywhere,
giant finned cars nose forward like fish;
a savage servility slides by on grease."

Robert Trail Spence Lowell (1917-1977)