06/26/08 Yankee Outreach Meeting Minutes

New York City Parks – Frank McCue

Macomb’s Dam Park Interim Track & Field park

PS 29 – created new ballfield

West Bronx Recreation Center – added new ballfield

Mullaly Park – not part of the Yankee program but because so close to the stadium thought it would be wroth an update – added 2 synthetic soccer fields, 2 ballfields, and community garden in the center

Mullaly Park South – upgrading the fields but no work being done to pool

Bronx Terminal Market Waterfront Park:

Includes piers 1, 2, 3, & 4 (pier 5 is not being developed at this time) and runs along Exterior Street
Rehabilitating the “Powerhouse building”

Currently putting out bids for the building that will house the concessions and the NYC Parks District Offices – will be a LEEDS certified building – goal is 25 points which is a silver grade. It will be two stories with new elevator
Will have 16 tennis courts – 12 will be in bubble for year around use
The Esplanade connects all features including the ferry landing
Beach area is wheelchair accessible (it does not lead into the river – separate)
Ampetheater has plenty of lawn space
Outdoor classrooms provided – they are wheelchair accessible – slides show stairs but they have been replaced with ramps.
Seating will be wheelchair accessible
Completed by spring 2009

River Avenue Pocket Parks:
2 smaller parks which will be located in what are now parking lots 5 & 6, accessible via the #4 train and the noise and vibrations from the train have been incorporated into the park, including triggering the spray showers
Skate Park will begin construction late July/early August and end fall 2009

Heritage Field:
A total of 8000 trees will be planted

Train Stations:
Same location as current station but will be 25 ft. wider
Current station is open only for games; new station will be open 24/7 and will be accessible
People will be able to catch the Harlem, Hudson and New Haven line via new station
Elevators will be on both sides of station

How will those of low vision and hard of hearing be able to know where they are?
There will be a PA system and signage both in large print and brail to indicate where you are/going. There will also be kiosk for way finding.

How far will you have to travel from train to new stadium?
New pedestrian overpass is 450 feet long and then 1600feet on sidewalk for a total travel distance of approximately 2000 feet

Garages – George Hibbs (Clarke, Caton, Hintz) Garage Design Team
There are 3 parking structures

Garage A – 3 levels – 1500 spaces – 7.2 acres
It is 700 feet from the closest accessible parking space to the 1st base entrance and 1200 feet from farthest accessible parking space
NW corner can be used as additional path to park/Stadium
There are 23 van spaces located centrally on level 1 between garage A and C under Macomb’s Dam Bridge
2nd level has 58 accessible parking spaces on the outside face of the garage to keep them closest to daylight
3rd level is rooftop park – 100% accessible sloping side walk connects to Rupert Place
Park included running track, multipurpose playing field, 600 seat bleacher area with accessible seating locations, 10 handball courts, 4 basketball courts, comfort station

Garage C – 4 levels – 950 spaces – 500 feet to stadium entrance
3rd level is the main path to the Stadium

Garage B – 5 levels – 600 spaces – 450 to 650 feet to stadium entrance
Stadium is located to the south of garage

Total parking is greater the number of current parking spaces and the number of accessible spaces is over the amount of required accessible spaces

Q – What about people who abuse the handicap spaces?
A-The Commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, Mathew Sapolin was in the audience and indicated that he would be reaching out to NYCPD on this issue (enforcement of accessible parking spaces) which always generates a strong reaction from the disabled community.

Q – How will people know where to park so close to entrance that serves their seats?
A –This type of info will be included in a guide on the accessibility features of the new Yankee Stadium that will be available on the team’s web-site.

Q – How will we know where we parked?
A –The graphics package which is being developed by Garage Design Team (George Hibbs, Clarke, Caton, Hintz) – will have large scale identifiers both by name and color.

Q – What about emergency evacuation?
A – Police are being consulted – Fran Segor Park is where people will be told to gather in an emergency

Alan Olmstead, DOT (Private Ferries)

Ferry Dock is located adjacent to lot 13a Harlem River and was built in 1996

NY Waterway currently operates there for every Yankee Home game
Any private ferry company can use the dock to operate from
The City contracts for ambulette service to take people with disabilities from the dock to the stadium. There are 2 Dot agents at the dock to help guide people with disabilities to the ambulette service
New esplanade allows people to walk on a pedestrian walkway from the ferry to the stadium – it is a little further but better access

Brad Crowley HOK – TV monitors

TV monitors are located where there are overhangs – 100 level and 150 level each have about 30 TV monitors with 46 inch screens

Q – How will you deal with glare?
A – Monitors are out of the sun as under the overhangs so should not have any glare

Q – Will the information be captioned?
A – Due to technology used captioning will be readily available

Q – Are the existence of monitors going to effect the captioning of the scoreboards previously discussed?
A – No

Q – Are some of the monitors serving accessible seating locations?
A – Yes

Q – If there are no assurances that people who need the accommodations can sit there then what good are they?
A – This will be addressed by the ticket policy. Tickets are being sold in premium locations but no accessible seats have been sold. Relocation Guide for season ticket holders is going out in a few weeks.

Kleo King, Ticket Policy

DOJ has put out a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) which includes 8 pages of ticket policy information and questions in the supplementary section

They say venue has to deal with any fraud issues but do not give any guidelines on how to do so.

DOJ discusses the methods of tickets sales, when to release tickets, and number of companion locations. There is no discussion of accommodating people with low vision or hard of hearing in the NPRM.

Individuals and venue operators should submit comments to DOJ.

Also, the NPRM deals with captioning of emergency announcements – comments should be submitted that all announcements should be captioned as the technology exists.

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