By Bob Harris
The toilets here were so old that they were not handicapped accessible. There were too few stalls for women to use during big events. I remember during a Philharmonic Concert, the biggest event of the year, park workers had to open their own toilet inside the building to decrease the size of the lines.One problem is that the current toilets will not be accessible for the 1 1/2 years it will take to renovate the property and add handicapped accessible stalls. At the last meeting of the Friends of Cunningham Park, Parks Department representatives agreed for the need to place porta potties in the park, especially during big events.There is no movement on the request of the West Cunningham Park Civic Association for the re-seeding of the great oval lawn in the western part of the park. Much of the grass has been worn away, so dirt shows. There had been some discussion in the past on either putting in sprinklers or using artificial grass. Nothing has been done about this issue.Another issue is the problem of park users who picnic near the fence along 193rd Street, sometimes parking illegally along the park side of 193rd Street on weekends, and causing noise with loud radios or games and cooking creating smells which bother the homeowners from the West Cunningham Park Civic Association. The new park manager, Gabriel Echevarria, had talked about addressing these concerns.The grant, from City Councilman David Weprin, which is modernizing the comfort station, is also renovating the play school in the upper parking lot near 193rd Street. They are removing asbestos. Hopefully the proposed 18 months for the jobs can be cut and not extended like the comfort station on 73rd Avenue east of Francis Lewis Boulevard which seems to take decades. Cunningham Park is very heavily used by both the local community and Queens at large and should be kept in as good a shape as possible, considering the amount of money brought in from the tennis concession.Many things have been done in the park due to the activities of the volunteers of the Friends of Cunningham Park. Money has been provided by Weprin, Councilman Jim Gennaro, Assemblyman Mark Weprin, Con Edison, the Kaplan Fund grant and New York State Department of Conservation Grant for Forestry.Various groups have volunteered their time to fix up the park. Sororities and fraternities from St. John's University and Boy Scout groups are some which have helped maintain Cunningham Park plus a number of the Friends of Cunningham Park. Pat Torro Jr., president of the Vietnam Veterans Association (VVA), Chapter 32, was so pleased with the assistance given in having the Moving Vietnam Wall in Cunningham Park last year that he wants to place a marker in the park and present a plaque to the group.Some things done in the park over the past few years have been the maintaining of the walking trails in the park, signage, information kiosks, tree planting, benches along the oval, renovation of the park entrance on Union Turnpike and 196th Place, attaching picnic tables toward the center of the park near the parking lots and the creation of a butterfly garden with a sprinkler so the flowers do not wilt in the summer heat. Future additions are planting of trees along 193rd Street so they act as a buffer and a bicycle path from Forest Park to Alley Pond Park and lighting for the information kiosks.Even if the city keeps cutting park funds, the people who use the park have worked hard to maintain the park. Another very active group is the Queens Coalition for Parks and Green Spaces. Each borough has such a group. They currently have 411 groups that care about parks. The Queens group is headed by Fredrick Kress, who is also an active civic association leader in southeast Queens.Good and bad news of the weekIt seems that more students are passing the state Regents exams but half of the students are still failing them. The pressure is on for all students to take the Regents but about 1/3 of state students don't even bother to take them because they are failing and know they probably just can't pass them, although some could pass if given individual help. But some are not academic students. Some just will not study and do homework and some parents just don't care.The “no student left behind” policy sounds fine, but about 40 percent of high school students just can't do the high school academic work for a number of reasons. Many of these students could do manual work and could do vocational work, but the current educational philosophy is that all students should take academic level work.I remember my father-in-law, who taught vocational training in a Harlem junior high school among other things, told about one of his students who obtained a contract to plow the runways at JFK. I also remember auto repair students at Edison Vocational & Technical HS who won the city and state auto repair contests and some were in the special education program. They will probably win again this year. Think about it. The system will change again in a few years when the current policy doesn't work.
