Adams eyes Randall’s Island kids’ soccer fields to house up to 2,000 migrants — at expense of sports leagues
Mayor Adams’ administration is eyeing heavily used kiddie soccer fields on Randall’s Island for migrant housing — less than a year after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars pitching and then taking down tents for asylum-seekers there.
The already under-fire move comes as the city’s inundated makeshift processing center for migrants at Manhattan’s iconic Roosevelt Hotel hit capacity this past weekend, forcing dozens of asylum-seekers to sleep shoulder-to-shoulder outside on the sidewalk for blocks — what a City Hall rep called Tuesday “a heartbreaking reality.”
City officials are considering Randall’s Fields 82, 83, 84 and 85, located on the south side of the island and frequently used for children’s soccer matches, noted Randall’s Island Park Alliance co-Chairs Jonathan May and Nancy Neff in a blistering letter to Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi on Monday.
“Surely a less precious space can be found, rather than alienating parkland, perhaps by using private rather than public space,” the pair wrote.
More than 3,000 hours of recreation for children from both public and private schools, as well as adult sports leagues, would be canceled because of the plan, the missive said.
“Behind every hour lost are dozens of New York City children who are denied space and time to play,” the pair wrote in the letter obtained by The Post.
“We urge you to select a site that does not mean destroying green fields, turning away young athletes and flying in the face of the many supporters who have worked for three decades to build this resource,” the letter said.
It is unclear how many tents the administration is considering erecting on the fields — but a source familiar with the city’s plan said the number of beds could hit 2,000, or quadruple what City Hall put on the island for migrants in the fall.
“The thought of [up to] four times the size of the [former] facility!? Just, wow,” the source said, adding that the fields are costly turf, which “could mean a lot of damage” to them.
“It would really cause the cancellation of probably hundreds of youth sporting events over the coming months,” the source added of the plan. “[The fields] are heavily used now.”
Some Upper East Side parents whose kids use the soccer fields were upset at the prospect.
“I know people are fleeing hard situations, but it’s making it hard for a lot of people who already live here,” said Shaun Wallace, 43, who was out walking with his 8-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son.
“It’s already difficult for kids to find areas to play,” said Wallace, whose daughter has played on Randall’s. “I appreciate there’s not enough room for migrants, but kids’ park space is not the right place for them
“The president controls the border,” the dad said. “This is his problem, and he needs to take control. There is not enough enforcement of the border.”
George Wiener, 44, who was out walking with his 9-year-old daughter, who has played on Randall’s Island, added, “They do a fantastic job on Randall’s Island providing space for kids to play.
“There has to be a better option than taking green space away from kids.”
The new initiative comes after Adams’ administration built a shelter for migrants on Randall’s Island in October — only to shut it down within a matter of weeks.
The city initially planned to open a tent city in the Orchard Beach parking lot in the Bronx, but the site was abandoned just as construction neared completion after heavy rains flooded the area.
The facility was then relocated to the parking lot at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island.
The Randall’s Island shelter had a capacity of 500 — and cost taxpayers at least $625,000 to construct.
Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol revealed a partial price tag of the change-up even just from Orchard Beach to Randall’s, saying in October, “It cost about $325,000 to demobilize from Orchard Beach and another $325,000 to set up this facility. The rest of the costs we’re still analyzing.”
But the Randall’s set-up — which garnered controversy for offering amenities to migrants such as flat-screen TVs, Xbox consoles, popcorn machines and foosball tables — only lasted till the next month because it was so sparsely used.
Advocates at the time blamed its out-of-the-way location and lack of readily available transportation and services.
Asked about the city’s new bid to pitch more tents on Randall’s, a City Hall rep told The Post on Tuesday, “As we’ve said multiple times, with more than 93,000 asylum seekers coming through our intake system since last spring, all options remain on the table.
“Our teams run out of space every single day and we do our best to offer placements wherever we have space available. Children and families continue to be prioritized and are found a bed every night.
“But we continue to do our best to at least offer adults a temporary place to wait off the sidewalks, but, in all honesty, New Yorkers may continue to see more and more migrants waiting outside as hundreds of asylum seekers continue to arrive in our city seeking shelter every day,” the representative said.
“This is the heartbreaking reality and something our teams have worked tirelessly to avoid, but while our compassion is limitless, our resources are not. We still desperately need help from our state and federal partners. In the meantime, we encourage migrants to take us up [on] placements available outside of New York City as they become available.”
Mayor Adams on Monday warned New Yorkers that the migrant crisis is coming “to a neighborhood near you.
“We need to localize this madness,” he told reporters. “We have to figure out how we’re going to locate the lives of the inevitable, that there’s no more room indoors, and we have to figure that out, and that’s what I’ve got the team working on right now.”
City Councilwoman Diana Ayala (D-Harlem), who reps Randall’s Island, told The Post on Tuesday, “The problem on Randall’s Island is identifying space that is not going to interfere with park activities.
“They have commitments that have been around for most of the year. … People submit those permits, they pay for them,” she said.
But the pol noted “the alternative, being sleeping on the sidewalks?
“I don’t know how we got here, but we are here and need to figure out that we are treating these people. … If the solution right now is tents, I am all in.
“The admin has been looking under every rock, under every stone. At some point, it was inevitable.”
The city’s makeshift processing center for asylum seekers at the Roosevelt has been groaning under the weight of the migrant influx, producing a somber sight for New Yorkers as dozens of migrants have been sleeping on the street while waiting to be processed there.
On Tuesday, there were about 120 migrants, nearly all men, who slept outside overnight, waiting in the hot summer sun to be let inside. As the sun came out in strength, many of the migrants began fashioning makeshift hats out of the cardboard they slept on the previous night.
Savi Khalil, a 31-year-old immigrant from the northwest African nation of Mauritania, said he reached the line at 6 a.m. Tuesday after being denied entry to a shelter in Bayside, Queens.
Khalil said he arrived in the Big Apple after crossing the southern border on foot three months ago because he fears police brutality back home. He originally went to Ohio but said the lack of public transportation there was too much.
“I don’t feel asylum-seekers are being looked after well enough” in the US, Khalil told The Post. “Everyone is sleeping on the street. It’s dangerous and cold at night.
“I am not safe in my country, which is why I am seeking asylum, but the US government is not helping us,” he continued, adding, “I just want to work but you can’t work without a permit, which they refuse to give me.”
Khalil says he previously worked at an engine factory in Mauritania but would take any job here, citing fears about returning home after police knocked one of his teeth out at a rally.
“Mauritania is not safe. No one can express their opinion of the government. I’ve been beaten by police at a demonstration against racism,” he said.
Another Mauritanian waiting outside the Roosevelt Hotel said he flew into New York City from California on Monday night and joined the line at 3 a.m. Tuesday after crossing the southern border 17 days ago.
“I came to America looking for safety, but it’s not good here,” said the man, who declined to give his name. “We’re sleeping on the street without blankets or pillows.”
An Azerbaijanian national who fled Russia has slept on the sidewalk outside the processing center now for two days, after crossing over the southern border on foot 10 days ago.
“We left Moscow. Russia is not a country, it is hell,” he said.
“I went to the 30th Street shelter yesterday, and they told us to come here.”
Migrants were sitting shoulder to shoulder and in each other’s laps outside the hotel Tuesday when a bus dropped off women and children. The hotel, besides being a massive intake center, also houses some families.
Typically, a bus waits outside the hotel to shuttle off those processed to other locations. But no bus was sitting outside as of Tuesday afternoon, suggesting the men in line outside will likely continue waiting to be processed.
Abuo Ahmad, 29, of Chad said he traveled through Turkey, Colombia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico before crossing into Arizona two weeks ago. He said he fled his home country because the president is corrupt.
After sleeping on the sidewalk for the past two days, Ahmad said, he still would have come to the city even if he knew the city’s migrant processing centers were completely inundated.
“I didn’t know New York had run out of bed before I came here,” he said. “I would still come to New York, even though there’s little accommodation because New York is the zenith of America.
“New York City is the capital of the world.”
