Parks Department Says “Yes, Icahn!”

Renaming the main branch of the New York Public Library was one thing — NYPL is a non-profit, after all and non-profits love to carve names all over stuff — but you might feel a little uneasy about city administrators actually spending city resources on fundraising and naming rights*:

The Wollman Rink is already taken and so is the Delacorte Theater, but if you’ve got about $5 million to spare, your name could grace Central Park’s sprawling tennis center.

Got only $2 million? How about sponsoring the Chelsea Recreation Center or the ball fields at DeWitt Clinton Park?

They’re all part of a plan to raise revenue for the city in these harsh times by convincing corporations or wealthy individuals to part with big bucks to have their names attached to selected park facilities.

The Post obtained a list of the first seven available facilities, and they include three that don’t yet exist: the restored pool in Williamsburg’s McCarren Park ($3 million); the track and field house proposed for Ocean Breeze Park on Staten Island ($2 million); and the sports facility being built at Mill Pond Park near Yankee Stadium in The Bronx ($2 million).

*Time was, an executive branch (the mayor) and the legislative branch (the city council) set budgets and allocated funds — now apparently “quasi-public” 501(c)(3)s, city employees raising money for pet projects and shadow budgeting is the norm.

Pile On . . . The $80 Dirt

Of course it takes years to build something when you’re excavating dirt by the teaspoonful:

While the Yankees scoop teaspoonfuls of dirt from their old stadium to sell for upwards of $80 each, the community that lost its parks to the new stadium are still waiting for a ballfield of their own.

With the demolition of the House that Ruth Built expected to take nearly a year and a half, it will be late 2010 before work can even begin on Heritage Field, the park to replace most of the ballfields swallowed up three years ago to make way for the $1.5 billion new Yankee Stadium.

Location Scout: Old Yankee Stadium.

When In Doubt, Rent It Out

Manhattan as one big photo shoot, not only B-roll for major motion pictures but also fashion shows, and not just in Bryant Park, either:

Critics are calling foul on a plan to rent the fabled West Fourth Street Courts today for a private gala.

Clothing designer Joseph Abboud is paying the city $14,100 to rent the Greenwich Village playground, affectionately known as “The Cage,” for the private launch of a fashion line with JCPenney and the NBA.

. . .

The Cage is widely known for hosting hardcore playground basketball games and helping the pro games of Hall of Famer “Dr. J” Julius Erving and other NBA greats

Paul Lerner, a Joseph Abboud spokesman, said “the setting of the legendary street basketball court really helps us depict” the designer’s new JOE collection — which is tailored for the regular guy.

Wow, They’ll Really Light The Empire State Building Whatever Color You Want

Including, of course, green:

This week, the turtles are celebrating their 25th anniversary in New York City with a public “galabunga” (a play on the turtles’ “cowabunga” cry). The Empire State Building is being lit up green on Thursday

Location Scout: Empire State Building.

Finally, Some Good News

Though I’m always upset when I see anthropomorphized food demanding that they be drenched in condiments and eaten, this is hometown talent we’re talking about:

A talented artist at P.S. 20 The Bowne School in Flushing has made it past roughly 45,000 budding Rembrandts to be one of only 36 finalists in a national design contest for food giant H.J. Heinz Company, featuring cash and other prizes for the winners and their schools.

The company had a saucy idea — the “Heinz Ketchup Creativity Contest” for school kids from first grade to high school seniors to design new artwork for single-serving packets of Heinz Ketchup.

Of the multitude of entries just from New York, Melissa Rueda, a student at the school located at 142-30 Barclay Avenue in Flushing, is one of three fifth-grade finalists.

Her proposed product art shows a smiling bottle of the name-brand ketchup, being held aloft by a crowd of happy french fries.