Daily News from New York, New York • 318

DAILY NEWS 1 I Sunday. September 20. 190 jyjjiy-j, --FLUSHING MEATOWsN l- (CORONA PARK-Yr' 1 1 1 'I JflytrTS 1 UNISPHERE at Rushing Meadows-Corona Park is the area's most familiar landmark. sfasa Oft maw Id te owl 1 vpaiiPi dsd eifisf para I 3 13 fC-i I By WILLIAM NEUSEBAUER I I A If yyJS)f 1 Daily News Staff Writer Flushing Meadows-Corona Park the organization that promotes the park and seeks to enhance its functions and development The collaborative effort also involves Parks Commissioner Henry Stern and the office of Queens Borough President Claire Shulman. "The reason for coming out with an overall concept and a plan is so we can anticipate where we are going to be, what the demographics of the area are, and if we are really a.

gateway community, considering our proximity to La-Guardia and Kennedy International Airports," Joan Firestone, the corporation's executive director, told the gathering. "We're all going to be looking at that, and thinking in that kind of conceptual framework together," she said. Arne Abramowitz, the park's administrator, said that more than 20 years have elapsed since "any real attention' has been focused on the park, adding, "We're now doing that" 4 working areas Redevelopment concepts now under consideration, Abramowitz said, call for dividing the park into four "working" areas, the first of which would focus on Flushing Bay and provide its waterfront with a promenade that would rival that in Battery City Park in Manhattan. The second area, called the professional sports area, would encompass Shea Stadium and the National Tennis Center which, he said, account for half the use made of the park. Citing the recent U.S.

Open, Abramowitz said a daily average of 40,000 people attended the tennis tournament, while at the same time See PARK Page 2 Flushing Meadows-Corona Park may emerge in the 21st century as the gem of the city's park system, under tentative plans for major capital projects totaling more than $100 million. The comprehensive overhaul will be undertaken in stages, starting in the fall of 1988. Among top projects en visioned are a promenade that would snake along the entire length of the Flushing Bay waterfront, concessions at its marinas, restoration of the lake areas and the Queens Zoo, and reconstruc tion of "core" cultural and recreational areas. Concepts for mapping a master plan that could be ready by the end of this year were aired last week in Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens. Administrators of the 48-year-old park met with the County Advisory Board of ED OALLMHEN DAILY NEWS To reach Flushing Meadows-Corona Park by car, fol-low the routes to Shea Stadium on the Grand Central Parkway, then follow the signs into the park.

By subway, take the No. 7 Flushing line to 111th St. for the New York Hall of Science and the Queens Zoo. Get off at Main St, Flushing, for the Botanical Garden and at Wil-lets Point-Shea Stadium for all other sights. From the 111th St stop, walk four blocks to the park's 47th Ave.

entrance, closest to the Hall of Science and the zoo. From Main St, take a southbound Q44 bus, which will1 J. stop directlyiw frotrt.