Flushing Meadows Corona Park was the 5th largest park in New York City. It has systematically been de-funded to prime it to be sold off to mega-developers. Elon Musk’s DOGE is now doing to the Federal Government what New York Democrat Politicians are doing to Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The most recent excuse to give away our public land for a private casino is to “get more cycling access”…to the place we just gave away. We’ll explain a lot more of the details later; this is just the first in a series of articles we’ve written about the parkland theft by local politicians which will make billionaires richer.

A History of Abuse

Flushing is a salt marsh. In its natural state, the marsh survived through cycles of flooding, erosion, and nutrient deposition, its flora adapting to oxygen-starved conditions and brackish waters. It has always been a hard place to live.

Over time the Lenape were pushed off the land by the Dutch, who were pushed off the land by the English. This land has a history of violence perpetrated by the economic exploitation by those who don’t live here.

The early 1900s saw Flushing Bay’s natural expanse reduced to a grotesque symbol of industrial ambition. Contractor Michael Degnon, alongside the Brooklyn Ash Removal Company and the Department of Sanitation, buried the land under 50 million cubic yards of coal ash and trash, earning it the grim moniker “Corona Dump.” Author F. Scott Fitzgerald immortalized this desolation in The Great Gatsby, describing it as “a valley of ashes,” a surreal wasteland where ashes grew like grotesque crops.

The trash heaps, towering as high as 90 feet, choked the landscape with noxious fumes and persistent smoke, inciting public outrage and legal battles. The environmental desecration serves as a stark reminder of the ecological and community costs exacted by unchecked urban capitalism.

To clean up this business mess, New York City tax payers had to spend the $50-million for 450 men, working three shifts a day, just to level the space for the 1939 World’s Fair.

Next week we’ll discuss the Worlds Fairs and the Iron Triangle. To stay up to date with this and other community stories, enter your email address and click the “FOLLOW” button or connect with us @queensgreenway on bluesky. As always, call your politicians and tell them to stop giving our public good to personally enrich greedy capitalists.