Newsday from New York, New York • 217

Site for this Facelift 11 Roosevelt Ave. 15 8 8 5 10. Point 2 1 Grand 3 14 6 4 12 9 Island 16 13 Long Flushing Meadows-Corona Park 1. New York Hall of Science 10. Swedish Playground 2.

Queens Botanical Garden 11. Marina 3. The Queens Museum 12. Carousel 4. Theatre in the Park 13.

Sailing 5. United States Tennis Assn. 14. Ice Skating 6. Queens Zoo 15.

Bike Rental 7. Shea Stadium 16. Amphitheater 8. Pitch and Putt Golf 17. Terrace on the Park 9.

Playground for All Children Opening date 1992 Newsday Tom Redmond dent Claire Shulman. That plan will include a grand entrance stairway and a garden where there is now asphalt, and new path systems and parking for the zoo area. Abramowitz said the boat house will be restored by next summer, with several millions of dollars invested by a URBAN PARK RANGERS WALKS AND WORKSHOPS All events are free unless noted. For more information, call 699-4204. The Road Less Traveled: A nature walk and lecture on spring's wildflowers.

May 10, 2 p.m., Alley Pond Park, upper parking lot at Winchester Boulevard, north of the Grand Central Parkway. Family Volunteer Weekend: The Charlie Emerson Nature Trail at Kissena Park needs your help. Join your neighbors and learn about the special urban forestry and education program by planting native species along the trail. Children 8 and up are welcomed with adults. Reservations are required.

May 16 and 17, 10 a.m. or 2 p.m., Kissena Park. Members of the Mob: Learn all about crows and their lifestyles. May 23, 2 p.m., Cunningham Park, parking lot, Union Turnpike and 196th Street. Made in the Shade: Nature walk under the canopies of Crocheron Park.

May 24, 2 p.m., 215th Place and 33rd Road. Hedging Their Bets: Learn how plants guarantee their lineage. May 30, 2 p.m., Kissena Park Nature Center, Rose Avenue five-year plan slated to be completed in 1995. The $10-million promenade plan, now in the final phase of design, calls for the total reconstruction of the pedestrian walk on Flushing Bay from the College Point area to Pier 1, past the 1964 Marina along the Grand Central Parkway up to the edge of LaGuardia Airport. Projected to begin sometime between 1993 and 1994, it will feature a paved terrace, with seven or eight overlooks at the edge of the bay.

"We're really trying to make it as green as possible," Smith said. "That's very exciting because they're a big draw," Abramowitz said. In addition, he said the National Tennis Center has plans for a $180-million expansion within the next few years, intended to make it the most prestigious tennis center in the world. Dan Andrews, a spokesman for Shulman, said while Shulman who has allocated millions in discretionary dollars to the park over the years is delighted with the park's progress, "its renaissance was long He said Flushing Meadows is not given the same support by private donors as other flagship parks. He cited a chart, prepared by the Parks Department, indicating that Central Park received $3.75 million in private funding last year, while Flushing Meadow and Van Cortlandt and Pelham Bay Parks in the Bronx received nothing.

Prospect Park brought in $483,000 and the Greenbelt, in Staten Island, raised $36,000, according to the Parks Department figures. Not included in the department figures, however, was $100,000 raised by Abramowitz for Flushing Meadow last year. He said the money was used for recreation programs, new equipment and to retain personnel. Andrews also pointed to a disparity in staffing. According to the Parks Department figures, Central Park, with 840 acres, has 100 park service workers, compared to 53 at Flushing Meadows, which has 1,255 acres, 1,192 which are maintained.

a And Abramowitz said that even with RECREATION AND ACTIVITIES Alley Pond Park: Grand Cental Parkway, Union Turnpike, Winchester Boulevard (624 acres). Cycling; Bird watching; Environmental Center, 228-06 Northern golf driving range; Northern Boulevard and 231st Street; nature trail; picnic area, (barbecuing permitted) at Springfield Boulevard and 76th Avenue; running track; soccer and softball fields and tennis courts; Winchester Boulevard and Grand Central Parkway. Baisley Pond Park: North Conduit Avenue, Baisley Boulevard South, Lakeview Boulevard East (110 acres). Soccer field, 116th Avenue and Baisley Boulevard; tennis courts. Bayside Marina: Cross Island Parkway and 28th Avenue.

Bayside Running Cycling Track: West side of Little Neck Bay from Fort Totten to Northern Boulevard. Cunningham Park: Long Island Expressway to Grand Central Parkway, 193rd to 210th Streets (350 acres). Boccie court; cycling; two-mile nature trail; picnic area, barbecuing permitted, at 193rd Street and Union Turnpike; running track; tennis courts. Douglaston Golf Course: 244th and 242nd Streets, 61st Avenue, Commonwealth Boulevard, 72nd Avenue (104 acres). Flushing Meadows-Corona Park: Grand Central Parkway, Flushing Bay, Van Wyck Expressway, 111th to 134th Streets, Queens Boulevard (1,255 acres).

Bird watching; boating, Meadow Lake and World's Fair Marina, Flushing Bay; cycling; cricket field, Meadow Lake and Long Island Expressway; pitch-and-putt golf course; Passarelle Lawn; Ice skating; World's Fair the park's resurgence, the budget cuts have taken their toll at Flushing Meadows. Layoffs have reduced the staff, which now stands at 40, by 35 percent. "Some days we have five people working in the whole park," he said. They are supplemented with volunteer workers, and those in programs like Second Chance, a program for youth with minor offenses, and the Summer Youth Employment Program. "We make do because we don't have a choice, but morale is bad and people are really demoralized," he said.

David Stark, the chief fiscal officer for the Parks Department, said the department's staff was cut from 4,241 workers in 1991-92 to 2,972 in fiscal year 1992-93. In addition, salaries have been frozen for two years, and 1,400 park workers citywide are being forced to take a fiveday, unpaid furlough. "It's overwhelming, that kind of cut," he said, noting that the department's forestry program was virtually eliminated with no tree pruning other than emergencies. Many recreation programs also have been eliminated. Commissioner Betsy Gotbaum said while the city's five flagship parks were hard-hit by the cuts, the smaller neighborhood parks were devastated.

"We're only getting to the parks twice a week which means more litter, more garbage, more rats, more glass," she said. iven ing ticularly this Abramowitz Meadows' dire significant. said situation, revival is Flushing Flush- par- private concessionaire who has plans for an Italian restaurant, snack bar, public restrooms and boat and bike rental stand. Another concessionaire is investing $5 million and is in the process of rebuilding the entire marina, expanding the boat capacity from 400 to 800, a and Parsons Boulevard. Breakfast With The Birds Part Learn about the migrating songbirds that congregate at the waterhole in Forest Park.

May 31, 9 a.m., Metropolitan Avenue and Forest Park Drive. Nature's Peeper Show: Learn about Spring Peepers, the tiny birds that make a huge noise. June 6, 8 p.m., Alley Pond Park, parking lot, Winchester Boulevard, north of the Grand Central Parkway. Copy Cats: Learn how animals in the wild survive by deceit, camouflage and mimicry. June 7, 2 p.m., Kissena Park Nature Center, Rose Ave.

and Parsons Blvd. A Day in the Country: Nature walk of Udalls Cove. Bring binoculars and insect repellent. June 13, 7 p.m., 37th Avenue and 255th Street. What's in 1 Learn how the wetlands formed and why they are so important to us.

June 14, 2 p.m., Alley Pond Park, Northern Boulevard east of the Cross Island Expressway. Toadstools and Mushrooms: Learn the difference between them. June 20, 2 p.m., Cunningham Park, Union Turnpike and 196th Street. The Hives A-Buzz: Learn facts about the bees. June 21, 2 p.m., Kissena Park Nature Center, Rose Avenue and Parsons Boulevard.

Meadows is already the cultural and recreational center for Queens. But he sees an even brighter future for the park. "By the year 2000, it will be the central park of the metropolitan region," Abramowitz said. By then, he said, the park and the institutions within it would have completed many of the projects now on the drawing board. "When we put back the spine of the park, which are the fountains," said Abramowitz, "there'll be nothing like it in New York City." Rink; model ing way; Street uled Lane, acres).

vard ing, Riding 3500); Park 80th nue tory model ough sena Bird nue rial center, course, model mile running from acres). kite flying; model airplane field, Meadow Lake; boat pond, Meadow Lake; picnic area, barbecupermitted, at Jewel Avenue and Van Wyck Expresssoccer fields, Fountain of the Planets; zoo, 111th and 48th Avenue, Closed for renovation, schedto reopen in this summer. Forest Park: Myrtle Avenue, Union Turnpike, Park Park Lane South, Cypress Hills Cemetery (538 Bandshell, Music Grove, off Woodhaven Bouleand Myrtle Avenue; basketball court; bird watchBlue Trail through Oak Forest, Victory Field and Woodhaven Boulevard; boating; bridle paths, Lynne's School (261-7679) or Dixie Dew Stables (263- carousel, Woodhaven Boulevard and Forest Drive; cycling; golf course, Forest Park Drive and Street; handball court, Victory Field at Myrtle Aveand Woodhaven Boulevard; horseshoe pitch, VicField, Myrtle Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard; airplane field, Forest Park Drive near InterborParkway; four- nature trail; picnic area, barbecuing permitted, Forest Park Drive and Interborough Parkway; running track. Kissena Park: Oak to Booth Memorial Avenues, KisBoulevard to Fresh Meadow Lane (235 acres). watching, trail begins at Nature Center, Rose Aveand Parsons Boulevard; cricket field, Booth MemoAvenue and 150th Street; cycling; environmental Rose Avenue and Parsons Boulevard; golf Booth Memorial Avenue and 164th Street; boat pond, 164th Street near Oak Avenue; halfnature trail; picnic area, Oak and Rose Avenues; track.

Rockaway Beach and Boardwalk: Atlantic Ocean Beach First Street to Beach 149th Street (68 Cycling; picnic area; swimming..