Roosevelt Island FDR Four Freedoms Park Gets $300 Thousand From Queens Borough President Melinda Katz To Improve Lighting Facing Queens

Queens Crapper reports that Queens Borough President Melinda Katz allocated $300 thousand in her Fiscal Year 2016 discretionary capital funds budget to Roosevelt Island's NY State FDR Four Freedoms Park.

According to press release from Queens Borough President Katz:

... $300,000 to improve lighting along the shorefront facing Queens in Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island...

 Image Of FDR Park And Queens Waterfront via Politico and AP

Queens Crapper notes:

... Sending money across the river while Queens parks look like crap....

UPDATE 8/18 - The Long Island City Queens waterfront seen from FDR Park.

Long Island City, Queens, photographed from Roosevelt Island. #SeeYourCity: http://t.co/tR5hytewH7 (Photo: @ty__iv) pic.twitter.com/dxkcTEozDX

— nycgo (@nycgo) August 18, 2015

According to NY 1, Rosemary's Playgroung in Ridgewood:

... didn't receive any of the $32 million that Borough President Melinda Katz has set aside for park improvements. Instead, many are upset that $300,000 is being allocated for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island, which is in Manhattan.

"We probably need about $1 million to fix this place, but a lot of little things could be done with several hundred thousand," said Richard Fassett, who is part of a resident group called Let's Fix Rosemary's Playground.

According to Katz's office, the money for Roosevelt Island will be used to improve the lighting along the shorefront facing Queens to make it more attractive to people in what she likes to say is the World's Borough.

From what we saw, the best view of Four Freedoms Park is from a group of high-rise buildings, which is another point of contention.

"The city is becoming a center for the rich people, and they need to have certain places fixed," said one New Yorker....

Click here for full NY 1 story and video.

UPDATE 8/27 - FDR Four Freedoms Park Conservancy President Sally Minard responds.