Daily News from New York, New York • 49

By KEITH MOORE WW JSS There is more to be said about the things that never happened to Morningside Park than about the things that have happened. There is the controversial gymnasium that Columbia University never built in the park. There are the rumors about how crime-ridden the park is yet the figures don't seem to jibe with the complaints. There are the lavish plans for rehabilitating the park that have never gotten off the ground and probably never will. There is the question of its landmark status: Morningside Park may be the only major park in the city built by Frederick Law Olmstead that has not achieved landmark status.

Morningside Park has been on hold for 15 years. It seems to be both wanted and unwanted. The park cuts a broad swath across the upper West Side, bounded by 123d St, 110th Morningside Drive and Morningside Ave. Some consider the park to be a kind of demilitarized zone, cutting off Harlem from Columbia and Morningside Heights. It was in 1968 that Columbia disclosed a plan to build a gym in the park.

The announcement set off student riots, leading to the occupation of five buildings on campus before the university abandoned the plan the next year. THE PARK SEEMS NEVER to have recovered. Indeed, some of the fencing erected in 1969 by the university still stands. To be sure, there have been efforts to resurrect the park. After more than a decade of infighting, Harlem and Morningside Heights residents, through groups like the West Harlem Community WILLIE ANDERSON OAILY NEWS no action.

Morningside Park there are lots of plans but was so pleased to see the two communities getting together that he had an architect brought in. Columbia also came up with $250,000 and promised $250,000 more. Then two things happened. First, Davis resigned earlier this year and was replaced by former Councilman Henry Stern. Second, a group called the Friends of Morningside Park had been formed earlier and now was bent on preserving the park as it was when built in 1887.

They opposed tampering with the original design. THE "BORN-AGAIN PARKEES," as Suki Ports, a member of the Morningside Park Coalition, jcalls them, have done what the Parks Department didn't or couldn't do. They conducted cleanups, trimmed hedges, cleared away underbrush and encouraged others to take advantage of the park. "The Friends" are mostly Columbia students led by a former student, Thomas Kiel, who is now in medical school at New York University. "We started before we even knew there was any controversy because we saw a park in need of maintenance," Kiel said.

But Ports and others view Kiel and "The Friends" as "arrogant young kids" who feel "they have the last word on the parks and they are going to pass it on to all of us." "We've done more in the past 15 months than all the groups have done in 15 years," Kiel countered, noting the park had become safer because drug addicts are unable to lurk in the shadows anymore. Statistics tend to bear him out. But there is a perception that Morningside Park is not a safe place after dark or in broad daylight. Police figures show 10 robberies, one rape, one drug arrest but no homicides for the park in 1982. The fear persists, and few people venture into the park.

"It's more imagined than real," said Matt Turner, a planning board member from central Harlem. OF THE PROPOSALS, Stern said: "They're good, but there were problems." There is the waterfall that was supposed to be carved from the rock that Columbia had partially blasted away. Stern said he is concerned that the Landmarks Preservation Commission "might balk at the redesign." The new parks commissioner said he will sit down with community residents next week and review plans. Stern, the department's executive director under former Commissioner Thomas Hoving in 1966, is the eighth commissioner to tackle Morningside Park's revised schemes. When asked if he expected the work to be done during his tenure, Stern smiled and said: "If we wait another 17 years it will be the year 2000, won't it?" Next: Jogging Rats.

How's your park? Are you satisfied with it? Tell us what's wrong and how it can be made better. Write: Parks, Box 1406, Grand Central Station, New York, N.Y. 10163. organization and the Morningside Park Coalition, drew up plans they hoped would bring the two communities together. They envisioned waterfalls.

They had plans to install new basketball courts, rebuild the pathways, lights, stairs and benches the works at an estimated cost of $5 million to $7 million. Former Parks Commissioner Gordon Davis apparently By BERNARD RABIN and LARRY SUTTON A 'broad' admission in TV fern's suit Kansas City, Mo. (AP) A consultant whose surveys helped lead to the demotion of TV news anchor Christine. Craft admitted yesterday he referred to anchor women as "broads" and asked viewers, "Is she a mutt?" Consultant Steve Meacham, when questioned by Craft's lawyer in her $1.2 million sex discrimination suit in U.S. District Court, admitted that he urged his interview subjects to "get" TV newscasters because they were making $100,000.

Meacham acknowledged making the remarks during the focus sessions, in-, formal surveys in which people in a given age group watch videotapes and discuss their impressions. Meacham was called as a defense witness for Metromedia former owner of KMBC. Meacham said he made the comments because people are reluctant to say negative things about others and must be drawn out through humor. today. The 59th St Bridge is.

Peg Swezey, president of the Queens chamber, thinks the song should be retitled "The Queensboro Bridge Song." After all, she reasons, that is the proper name of the span that links Queens and Manhattan. AND SINCE SIMON and Garfunkel will be singing at Shea Stadium this Saturday, Swezey said yesterday, now would be a perfect time to rename that tune. Swezey sent a telegram to the duo yesterday and asked for the up in Queens and attended Forest Hills High School. "After all," she wroter "Brooklyn has its bridge, and Manhattan has its span, and it would be a great gesture of hometown pride if at your Saturday concert in Queens you could officially rectify this error and rename your song the 'Queensboro Bridge Swezey emphasized that the Chamber of Commerce was very proud of twc local boys who made good. What happens if they don't agree to her request? il Swezey tross tht hf iJgewhen she comes to it.

The Queens Chamber of Commerce is not feeling very groovy these days about a 15-year-old Simon and Gar-funkel song. The tune in question is "The 59th St Bridge Song," also known as "Feeling Groovy," a nifty little ditty that the folksinging duo recorded in the 1960s. For those of you not old enough to remember, the '60s were a time when people used words like groovy to de- She appealed t. their sensg.jbf home-3 town pride, noting that the pair grew' Anyway, groovy is not the issue.