If we had not seen this happen before, we might have thought it was a skit from “The Tonight Show” or “Saturday Night Live.” But our reporter says it really happened. He wrote that at last week’s Community Board 11 meeting, “Bedlam broke out” over a proposal to install bleachers at the Little League field in Crocheron Park.
The Bayside Little League wanted to install three aluminum bleachers at its baseball fields in the park. You might think that no one could object to that, but this is the same board where years ago a handful of Bayside homeowners opposed the expansion of St. Mary’s Hospital, a facility that provides care for ill children, because of construction noise.
In the current heated debate, Frank Skala, president of the East Bayside Homeowners Association and a member of the board’s Parks Committee, claimed the bleachers will be used by “feral teenagers, for drinking, drugging, and partying” and “homeless people for beds and/or occupation a-la Zuccotti Park.”
It is not the first time Skala’s civic fervor has outweighed his sense of balance. Fortunately, the board voted 19-12 to approve the plan.
According to Bob Reid, president of the Bayside Little League, the plan is to install three three-tiered bleachers on concrete slabs. It was prompted by parents who asked him why their field did not have bleachers like almost all other Little League fields.
If Skala et al. remain concerned, we suggest they take turns sitting on the bleachers in the off-season to scare away those “feral teenagers.”
QCC Reaches Out
Congratulations to Queensborough Community College, which recently announced plans to form a partnership among other community colleges in the CUNY system and with area museums to teach English and critical thinking skills to adult immigrants and their families through art.
The program provides a creative way to help those who are new to this country to learn English. At the same time it will help the museums and colleges to broaden their outreach into the city’s immigrant community.
If it succeeds, the initiative will serve as a model that can be replicated by museums and community colleges across the country.
