By Bob Harris
A group of activists from groups concerned with the health of the parks in Queens have been meeting at the Queens Parks Headquarters in The Overlook in Forest Park. Similar groups have been meeting in the other boroughs. In Brooklyn they have made a presentation to the Brooklyn delegate of the City Council. A Bronx group is working on writing a parks “Bill of Rights” that will list the minimum standard of resources that should be available in every park.
Representative of 20 Queens organizations agreed that they wanted to participate in a Queens group — so they formed the Queens Coalition for Parks. Some of these groups included the Friends of Baisley Pond, Friends of Cunningham Park, the Cornucopia Society, 149th Avenue Block Association, Partnerships for Parks, Alley Pond Environmental Association, Douglaston Civic Association, Udall’s Cove Preservation Coalition, Douglaston Garden Club, Auburndale Soccer League, Rosedale Civic Association, and the Concerned Citizens of Laurelton.
The reason these groups decided to form the QCP is that the Parks Department receives only a fraction of 1 percent of the city's expense budget, and even that small amount has been cut by some 40 percent over the past 15 years, and the parks workforce has been trimmed by nearly three-quarters. Even now, the West Cunningham Park Civic Association and the Friends of Cunningham Park are pressuring for money to renovate the very heavily used and badly decayed Cunningham Park.
The problem which Cunningham Park and others in the borough and the rest of the city face, is that any revenue generated by park activities, like the Tennis Center in Cunningham Park, goes into the general coffers of the New York City government and not for needed renovations in the particular park.
The Queens Coalition for Parks wants to establish a minimum standard of resources for every park: (1) regular cleaning and recreation staff for parks; (2) increased park enforcement and more park rangers; (3) increased volunteer programs in every district; (4) staff and resources to provide horticultural and forestry services to every park; (5) Money generated in parks should stay in parks.
The QCP is reaching out to top Queens organizations to get them to join and help in their mission. Also involved is the Partnership for Parks, an initiative of the City Parks Foundation and the city’s parks and Recreation Department. The Partnership for Parks operates out of the Arsenal in Central Park; the phone number is (212) 360-8154. Tom Panzone is a contact person.
When I board the F Train at 179th Street 1 am impressed with the crews of workers who wash the floors of the trains while they wait for their long trip back into Manhattan. While a ride on a subway or a bus, with a free transfer, may be a good bargain there are some problems. There are still homeless people sleeping across the seats on some F or E trains. Many of these people are the mentally ill put out of our huge mental hospitals and supposedly placed into small residential facilities. They are unable to care for themselves and often don’t take their necessary medication. Why can’t something be done?
Another problem I find on the # 7 Line is that when I Iook out the windows to enjoy the view of Queens I find the windows are covered with scratched-on letters. I find less “scratch-fitti” on the E and F Line Trains but there is some. Isn’t there some way to stop this? The spray-can graffiti on trains seems to have been ended. Isn’t there some way to paint over the scratched windows so we can have a nicer quality of life?
