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THERE'S BEEN A great deal of talk about diversity at national political conventions this month. But you won't find as many cultures represented at either Democratic or Republican conventions as you'll find every day at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
"You name the country and we probably have a festival to match," says Estelle Cooper, administrator for the 1,247-acre park nestled among the neighborhoods of Flushing, Corona and Fresh Meadows in Queens. Counting attendance at Mets games in Shea Stadium and the U.S. Open at Arthur Ashe Stadium and surrounding U.S. Tennis Center courts, an estimated 15 million people come to the park each year. What draws them, says Cooper, is not just open space or major-league baseball and world-class tennis, but a sense of community and something else that both Republicans and Democrats say they believe in: families.
"It's a family park," Cooper says. With the New York Hall of Science, Queens Wildlife Center, Queens Museum of Art, Queens Theatre in the Park and nearby Queens Botanical Garden-all connected by trolley-there are more diverse attractions here for kids, parents and grandparents than in any park in the borough or on Long Island.
And that's not even taking into account the parkland itself, which on any sunny summer weekend resembles the United Nations on holiday. First, there are celebrations ranging from the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Races on the lake or the conclusion of the Latino Arts Festival at Queens Theatre -both last weekend-to the Russian- Jewish and Dominican Festivals this Sunday.
"We may get half a million people in the park in one day," says Miguel Cuellar, a native of Colombia who lives in Maspeth. On warm- weather weekends, Cuellar, sports coordinator for the park, plays soccer with Cali Balle, a team of fellow Colombian- Americans. "It's amazing what happens" on the park's seven official soccer fields, plus ad-hoc fields, says Cuellar. About 200 youth and adult teams compete in 32 leagues (not to mention uncounted pickup shirts-and- skins games).
"This is the only country where you can put an Indian team on the same field as a Pakistani team and not have a fight," says Cuellar, who rattled off several more examples of sportsmanship and American...