By Jeremy Walsh
The presence of day laborers at a Woodside park has sparked a war of words as angry neighbors have begun actively protesting to the city, the community board and a food-pantry service run by nuns.
Many men, mostly Hispanic, congregate at Hart Playground at 37th Avenue and 69th Street every day, hoping to find work with contractors who pull off the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway looking for laborers.
Though many say the laborers have been using the park for years, some neighbors have apparently had enough, calling 311 and the police in attempts to disperse them under the claim that the playground is only for children and their guardians.
Community Board 2 Chairman Joseph Conley told the board last week about complaints the district office received of men in the playground area without children, and laborers washing their clothes in the public bathrooms at the park.
“We really need to step up efforts because people are frustrated,” Conley said, noting he had asked the mayor’s office to intervene in outreach efforts to the population. “Police have tried their best, but there are these advocates for the rights of day laborers. %u2026 All we want is to have a playground.”
Neighbors appear to be stepping up the pressure. Immigrant advocates and city officials confirmed a small group of them showed up at a meeting of agency staff and food-pantry workers held at the playground last Thursday and exchanged some harsh words with the nuns who run a soup truck.
A contingent of Community Affairs police officers was dispatched to oversee the weekly visit from the St. John’s Bread and Life mobile soup kitchen Tuesday morning after the city got word neighbors may have been planning a protest. That rumored protest never materialized, police said.
One recent police sweep resulted in several people getting summonses for being in the park, said Valeria Treves, executive director of New Immigrant Community Empowerment. Her Jackson Heights-based organization works with undocumented immigrants, including day laborers.
“Couples in the park without children, people in suits — they got summonsed by the police as well,” she said.
The fact that the park includes handball courts and a public restroom further confuses matters. A city Parks Department spokeswoman confirmed the restrooms are open to the general public, but said the playground is off-limits to adults without children.
“We’re trying to see how we can resolve the concerns of a few neighbors,” said Sister Kathryn Byrnes, who runs the mobile soup kitchen. “We’re not talking about 50 or 100 here. It seems to be three people or four if you want to include the super of the building across the street.”
Byrnes said the pantry, which currently serves around 250 people at the park on its weekly visits, is willing to consider moving to another spot, but noted the playground is ideal because of its public restroom. Proposed alternate locations are either too far from the BQE or have no restroom, she said.
Not all neighbors were as furious with the day laborers, though.
Gop Virk, 28, who spends a good deal of time at his mother-in-law’s house across the street from the park, said he had never had any trouble with the men, but thought the complaining neighbors had a point.
“I see where they’re coming from,” he said.
Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e-mail at jewalsh@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
