Feds Plan Huge Campground - in Brooklyn (camp at old airport)

NBC New York ^ | Jun 14, 2011 | Greg Wilson

[Texas Fossil]

Old airfield could host 600 sites, says National Park Service

Roasting marshmallows, telling ghost stories and sleeping under the stars - in New York City?

The National Park Service is planning a 600-site campground in Brooklyn's Floyd Bennett Field, a onetime airport used by Amelia Earhart. The campground would be the largest urban tent-pitching site in the nation, according to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

"We want to make New York the leading example of what we can do around the country with urban parks," Salazar said.

[baddog 219]

Here comes the FEMA camps.....

[elpadre]

I recall years ago on the Island of St. John in the VI the US Park service had put in several camp grounds on the island, one of which was rented hammocks. It was very nice and they provided restrooms, and other amenities for the campers. Then one year the American hippies came and destroyed it all. Some of them are probably senior professors, senators, preachers, etc. now.

[Hunton Peck]

Story doesn't say who owned the airport or how it ended up in the hands of the National Park Service, but I bet that selling the land, even in today's crappy Dodd/Frank/0bama market, could bring in enough to retire at least a little of someone's debt.

Evidently, no one considered that to be as reasonable an option as putting a campground in Brooklyn. I wouldn't be surprised if no one considered that an option at all.

[Hunton Peck]

Hey, don't knock it! After all, "Almost every weekend in May is booked up," [Park ranger John] Daskalakis said. "We've been fairly busy for a little-known gem in Brooklyn."

I wonder when poor Mr. Daskalakis sleeps, him being so busy managing those five almost-always-booked campsites!

[Texas Fossil]

Wonder what went on at Floyd Bennett Field when it was in use?

[Jack Hammer]

This is the deranged fantasy of a mentally defective idiot.

Camping in Brooklyn, with battery-powered televisions, stereos, and roving bands of gang bangers?

Insanity.

[sheik yerbouty]

Campground or compound?

[Texas Fossil]

Insanity = Central Planning (Marxism)

And each time it is tried it produces the same results. Misery, despotism, theft of others property, subjection of the human will. And many times it produces mass famine and mass death.

[JoeProBono]

camping in Brooklyn

[MinorityRepublican]

Camping in Brooklyn, with battery-powered televisions, stereos, and roving bands of gang bangers?

I wouldn't do it unless they have security on the site 24/7. And then they need to raise the "rates" in order to pay for all the security. Then the campground would become "exclusive" which is the last thing the President want to happen.

[JRandomFreeper]

Can you imagine camping on an old airfield?

In the USAF, we called those ORIs.

/johnny

[smokingfrog]

A lot!

---

Floyd Bennett Field's heritage in both civil aviation and military aviation is long and rich. However, its greatest impact on United States history took place during World War II when the "Janes who made the planes" and the men who tested and delivered the aircraft made Naval Air Station New York (Floyd Bennett Field) the busiest naval air station in the nation. By reducing the processing time for aircraft from 10 days (1941) to three days (1943) they insured that the huge number of aircraft flowing off the assembly lines reached U.S. and Allied forces.

[smokingfrog]

[Palladin]

The subway doesn’t go to Floyd Bennett Field. It would be very difficult to get into the city from there.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Camp FEMA. You check in but you don’t check out.

[married21]

I like the urban campground idea.

We had an urban campground in Redondo Beach that was built on old military land. It’s still a nice park, but they no longer have overnight individual or group camping unless you pay a big fee for a security guard. I think they still have city sponsored overnight camping scheduled a couple times a year.

Anyway, while it lasted, it was really nice to pay $10.00 to get away from it all without driving for hours. And, if you forgot your tent stakes at home, you could just go back and get them (not that I know anyone who has done that...).

If the campsites were nice, I’d camp in Brooklyn if I were to visit NY. One reason our family has never been there is that hotel rates are too high.

[Jack Hammer]

It’s going to end up looking like a vast airport waiting room, but without the muzak or the sanitation.

There WILL, of course, be excellent hunting there - but, alas, only for the gangs of roving criminals who prey on the unarmed and unprotected.

Camping? I don’t think so.

[Tigerized]

Once they find all the toxins in the ground from decades of use as an airport... the only reasonable use will be as...

An airport!

Gee! Whoda thunk?

[Texas Fossil]

OK, I am sure it is done in the military when needed.

But can you imagine a civilian choosing to camp on an old airfield?

5 camping spaces is HUGE. hee hee hee

[TwoSwords]

Sounds like a good stocked white people pond. I can see the attraction from Brooklynites. Wonder what the license will cost when they can poach for free?