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"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.
Gaps that may remain between physics and biology are closed in the couple of hundred yards separating the Hall of Science and the Queens zoo, officially the Wildlife Center. While concentrating largely on animals native to North America, the zoo has recently expanded its population to include South American mountain species adaptable to the cold New York winters. Complementing the alligators and bison, sea lions and coyotes, the zoo has added spectacled bears from the Andes. "They look like they're wearing glasses," says animal curator Scott Silver.
Caption: CHART - It's in the Park. A sampling of attractions at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. (SEE END OF TEXT); THE GOLBAL VILLAGE OF QUEENS. Flushing Meadows-Corona Park stays true to its World's Fair roots. Newsday Cover Photo / Bill Davis - Flushing Meadows- Corona Park.
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 citizenship that override old national rivalries and even hate. "We have players from different parts of what used to be Yugoslavia playing against each other. Peruvians vs. Ecuadoreans, too. And if they fight, if they punch a referee," says Cuellar, "they're suspended from the park for two years. People come here to the States for a better life and to forget about old conflicts."
While soccer-football to everyone outside the United States-is usually the most international sport in the park, there also are softball and baseball diamonds, cricket, flag football, hiking, biking, boating, pitch-and-putt golf and miniature golf, as well as tennis.
"We have 10 courts of our own in the park," says Cooper, "but people ask all the time about playing at the U.S. Tennis Center."
Court time is available, by appointment, on the same courts where tennis greats from around the world have won or lost U.S. Open matches. But with the tournament coming up, you'll have to wait until the blimp leaves the skies overhead before you can buy such court time. And with the Mets looking good for the playoffs, the park may be a focus of worldwide TV coverage for the next two months.
But for the most part, Flushing Meadows is vast enough to absorb these mega-distractions and still draw its usual rainbow assortment of families toting picnic baskets and hibachis.
Most people come from nearby polyglot neighborhoods teeming with Asian and Hispanic enclaves. They walk to the park or take the No. 7 subway, which stops between Shea and the tennis center. There's also plenty of peripheral parking away from the stadia, especially near the zoo and Hall of Science along 111th Street, west of the Grand Central Parkway. From there, footbridges over the Grand Central connect to the main expanses of the park, landmarked by the Unisphere, plainly visible from the Long Island Expressway. The Unisphere towers emblematically over the park's fairground roots.
The park hosted the 1939 and '64 World's Fairs. Buildings that are now home to family-oriented attractions were constructed for the '64 fair, as was the Unisphere. Among them are the Queens Museum of Art, which still houses that fair's scale model of New York City, most recently updated in 1992.
Currently on exhibit at the museum is "Forty Years of the Chase Manhattan Collection: Art at Work," a modern-art display of works from that bank's collection. From Nam June Paik's "Video Flag" to Romare Bearden's "Blue Interior, Morning" collage to Chuck Close's "Phil, Fingerprint" (a portrait of Philip Glass), the show is as representative of contemporary art as it is of multicultural Queens. But besides the art and the cityscape panorama, the museum also offers hands-on children's workshops, as well as a bird's-eye view of the Unisphere and bathers romping in the fountain beneath the open- air globe.
From the museum, it's a short walk across the footbridge to the Hall of Science, near the north bridge, or to the zoo, closer to the south bridge spanning the Grand Central.
The first thing you'll notice outside the Hall of Science is its colorful playground demonstrating principles of physics through waterworks, child-propelled energy and ingenious solar-powered games of aiming skill. Inside are dozens of hands-on devices creating optical illusions, sonar medleys and energy sparks. While it lasts, don't miss the traveling "Reptiles Real and Robotic" exhibit in the Great Hall, the curved-glass illuminated space from the World's Fair that is itself a marvel.
Gaps that may remain between physics and biology are closed in the couple of hundred yards separating the Hall of Science and the Queens zoo, officially the Wildlife Center. While concentrating largely on animals native to North America, the zoo has recently expanded its population to include South American mountain species adaptable to the cold New York winters. Complementing the alligators and bison, sea lions and coyotes, the zoo has added spectacled bears from the Andes. "They look like they're wearing glasses," says animal curator Scott Silver.
The zoo's aviary collection also is evolving. In the triangulated dome constructed by Buckminster Fuller for the '64 fair, Silver is introducing more birds of prey that will be easier to spot. And next spring the zoo will open a display of thick-billed parrots, the last species of its kind native to the United States.
From the barnyard petting zoo, near the main entrance to the Wildlife Center, you'll hear Disneyfied recorded music of the carousel, where hot dog, pretzel and ice cream vendors cluster year- round.
But on most summer weekends, you don't have to walk far to taste more exotic cuisine. For instance, Sunday you might sample blintzes or rum bananas at the Russian-Jewish or Dominican Festivals. In the international spirit, bon apptit.
It's in the Park
A sampling of attractions at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park:
Events: Dominican and Russian-Jewish Festivals, Sunday, 718-760- 6565.
Queens Theatre in the Park: Fall season opens
in October; 718-760-0064.
Shea Stadium: Mets box office, 718-507- METS.
U.S. Tennis Center: Court time $11 to $23 an
hour outdoors; $26 to $44 indoors. U.S. Open tournament, Aug. 28- Sept. 10; 718-760-6200.
New York Hall of Science: Playground, temp-orary exhibits and permanent hands-on exhibits, Tuesdays-Sundays 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Mondays, 9:30 a.m.- 2 p.m.; admission $7.50, children 4-17, seniors, $5, kids 4 and under free; 718-699-0005, www.nyhallsci.org.
Queens Museum of Art: Exhibits and summer
workshops for kids by registration; admission $4, seniors and children, $2, kids younger than 5 free; 718-592-9700, www.queensmuse.org.
Queens Wildlife Center: More than 200
animals, mostly native to North America; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays- Fridays, 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. weekends; $2.50, seniors $1.50, children younger than 16 accompanied by adult, 50 cents, kids younger than 3 free; 718-271-1500, www.wcs.org.
Queens Botanical Garden: 43-50 Main St.,
Flushing. Tuesdays-Fridays 8 a.m.-6 p.m., weekends 8 a.m.-7 p.m.; admission free; 718-886-3800.
How to Get There: By car-Grand Central
Parkway and LIE, Flushing. By subway-No. 7 train to Willets Point.
Flushing Meadows-Corona Park Trolley:
Operates 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Fridays-Sundays only. All-day fare $1; 50 cents for children.
Caption: CHART - It's in the Park. A sampling of attractions at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. (SEE END OF TEXT); THE GOLBAL VILLAGE OF QUEENS. Flushing Meadows-Corona Park stays true to its World's Fair roots. Newsday Cover Photo / Bill Davis - Flushing Meadows- Corona Park.
(Copyright Newsday Inc., 2000)