LIC group wants to rename Hunter’s Point South Park to make it more recognizable citywide
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A Long Island City parks group wants to change the name of Hunter’s Point South Park, a waterfront green space in the Queens neighborhood, the LIC Post reported on Thursday. The Hunters Point Parks Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that manages the 11-acre park, says despite being a “gem of Queens,” the park does not have “the city-wide recognition it deserves.”
According to the Conservancy, the name is too long for visitors to remember and is also confused with other places with similar names, including nearby housing developments and the Bronx neighborhood of Hunts Point. And there’s a smaller park in LIC called Hunters Point Community Park, confusing park-goers further.
The group launched last month an online survey to gather ideas from the community for a new name. One idea that seems to be sticking is “Queens Landing Park,” with the park serving as the opening to the World’s Borough. “We want something inclusive, more majestic,” Rob Basch, president of the Conservancy, told the LIC Post.
The push for a name change comes just a few months after the park’s 5.5-mile extension opened at the site, which now measures 11 acres from 50th Avenue to Newton Creek on the East River. In addition to the basketball court and dog runs of the existing park, the new section of the park features a very green landscape surrounded by a salt marsh. There is a 30-foot cantilevered overlook with steel formwork, an ode to the site’s industrial past. And curving pathways lead visitors through grasslands and a picnic area.
According to the Conservancy, the history behind the name ‘Hunters Point’ is “quite insignificant” because residents had rebranded the area Long Island City as early as 1855. After formally petitioning the state to change the name, Long Island City was officially approved in 1870, which included Hunters Point, Astoria, Sunnyside, Ravenswood, Bowery Bay, and others.
In order for the park to be renamed, it must undergo a public review process and approval from the local community board and the City Council.
[Via LIC Post]
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