From the Times Ledger:
For the last two months, Ridgewood residents and mothers Cristina Shonk and Dorota Czyzewska have been trying to get conditions improved at Rosemary’s Playground, a public park between Woodward and Fairview avenues and Woodbine and Madison streets, but they said the city Parks Department has not helped them in their efforts.
“You don’t even know what’s going on here,” Czyzewska said.
Czyzewska, who has lived in the area for five years and has two children — 3-year-old Bruno and 3-month-old Adela — said there are numerous problems at the park, which has a playground for younger children. She said the park has had problems with people who come in and sleep on the benches, smoke pot on the basketball courts or publicly urinate in the park. She said she also found condoms in the raised patch of grass.
Czyzewska said she continues to go to the park because she knows most of the mothers who go there and they are able to help her watch Bruno when she is caring for her baby and also because there are few places for children in her son’s age group to play.
“Young kids, they have nothing to do here,” she said.
I'm really sick of the "kids have nothing to do here" line. You live in NYC. There are programs and activities up the wazoo.
Now as for the other problems, welcome to the 1970s.
16 comments:
You must not have children, Crappy. It would be nice for these women to have a clean park close to their home, instead of having to drag a toddler and a baby around to programs and activities. Babies need to eat often, sleep often, and be changed often. It's hard to go far from home to "activities" with one.
The city needs to get and keep the homeless, drunks, and pot smokers out of the park, and keep it clean. I don't want my kid picking up condoms in the park, or breathing in piss fumes, nor do I want to get in the car to one of those "programs and activities out the wazoo", nor do I want to take my kid on a bus or train to get to them.
Seriously, Crappy, what the hell is wrong with wanting clean playgrounds? WTF?
I didn't say the playground shouldn't be clean. I said the line that kids have nothing to do is bogus, which it is.
Vere's der Wazoo? I vant to go dere on my vay-cay-sun.
It's where the sun don't shine! Not good for a vacation.
Thats been a dope smoking and "dust head" park since I went to JHS 93 in the 70's.
(About as long as the 104 pct has been a retirement home)
Ladies, get on the broom.
make complaints to 911, then 311, give complaint numbers to local community board, harangue the politicians. go to the boro president's office. call Child Protective Services and Adult Protective Services.
make it uncomfortable for any one urinating or defecating openly . make it uncomfortable for the ho's and crack heads to do business there.
if you don't make noise the situation will remain the same.
maybe organize a protest with mothers armed with brooms that would make good press. let the crackheads run for cover.
I didn't say the playground shouldn't be clean. I said the line that kids have nothing to do is bogus, which it is.
How about reading the rest of what it says there, Crappy, about not wanting to tramp all over creation with a baby?
How about if you're going to schlep your kid to the playground, you can just as easily schlep him to one of the many community programs offered, in many cases free?
every nab needs a good park for the children to play in with other children and family.
I give these women a lot of credit for trying to clean it up. The homeless of course are a problem everywhere - they cannot force anyone into a shelter no matter how deranged or filthy.
The druggies though pose a different problem - does the park have a bocce court for the adults? this was a definitely a deterrent in my nab park years ago and continues to be. The more adults that are there - the more uncomfortable druggies feel - they especially don't like MALE adults.
Playgrounds are an important part of any community - it brings neighbors together and teaches tolerance to the young who play together.
Good luck girls - you're doing good.
Clearly Crappy either doesn't have kids, or isn't the primary caretaker who is schlepping kids around. Or else he just completely misses the point.
Benninger Playground is 3 blocks away. Take them there instead.
(About as long as the 104 pct has been a retirement home)
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The group of about 10 cops from the 104 who I saw arresting two guys on Myrtle Avenue about a week or two ago didn't look to be eligible to retire anytime soon.
maybe they should do exactly what they did over in aStoria/ditmars-31st. REMOVE the benches and let them continue to loiter - got rid of the problem of them drinking and sleeping there 24/7 on those benches. gawd forbid the law to be enforced.
then the mothers who watch their children for hours while they play have no place to sit... nice piece of advice there buddy...
next move- stop allowing people to enter the park for fear of peeing or smoking...
Four generations of my family is from Bushwick/Ridgewood. I lived in Ridgewood off and on for half of my life until 3 weeks ago. Now, I want no part of it. Ridgewood has historically been a safe haven for working class Europeans, but a number of factors are contributing to, in my opinion, its decline. Particularly what I would refer to as "Lower Ridgewood, or, the avenues south of Woodward Avenue
1. Parts of Bushwick are gentrifying and becoming more expensive than Ridgewood, which, through the 1960's-2000's was generally more expensive than Bushwick. Many poor families from Bushwick are now fleeing to nearby Ridgewood.
2. Item #1 is contributing to OVERCROWDING. The indigent tend to breed, breed early, and breed prolifically. These poor, and often disenfranchised and/or unproductive people are all on top of each other and creating an unprecedented amount of quality-of-life issues, crime and general filth. The streets are filthy compared to just the early 90's. Civic pride is not as common as it once was. Where Hausfraus would once commit to vigilantly sweeping stoops and gutters, the unsupervised bastard children of Carribean Latinos and Eastern European outcast gypsies are content with throwing their junk food wrappers, drug paraphenelia, and used condoms anywhere and everywhere. Public urination and illegal dumping are also more the rule than the exception with these feral and often nocturnal lycanthropes. My advice for those living in Ridgewood in the apocalypse: Stock up on silver bullets. Shoot towards the Reggaeton.
3. For every new business or building going up, another private house or building is becoming increasingly decrepit. I know the writer of this blog froths about "unsightly McMansions" or "Fedders buildings" or whatever, but those are certainly more aesthetically pleasing and practical than many of Ridgewood's attached, tinderbox rowhouses where all one degenerate shytbird has to do is leave his marijuana blunt lit in his bed and the whole damned block goes up in flames. Look: leave the crown molding, tin ceilings, and rustic trappings to some "This Old House" nerd. These buildings average 105-110 years old and probably half of the landlords in Ridgewood could care less about restoring them to their former glory, anyway. Old houses like these are impractical havens for filth and vermin and the myriad 3rd world immigrants/ ex-con,alcoholic,crack baby degenerates who are prolifically seeding the neighborhood these days with their own ilk are not exactly hip to basic fire and safety issues that could potentially endanger many adjacent units. Give me a nice new Fedders house with a 2 hour firewall, sprinklers, post-Woodrow Wilson era electrical wiring, etc.
Ouch... a bit harsh seeing as how Im a hispanic living in that area that came from East NY, Brooklyn and in no way contribute to that degenerate nature you are describing... at the same time however I can understand where you are coming from and cant really play the prejudice/racist card that many try to claim when the proof is in the pudding. When you take a look at the blocks south of woodward as you mentioned you see the change. I think even on Grandview ave and fairview ave its looking more and more like Brooklyn as the years pass. The things that my family escaped Brooklyn to run away from are slowly but surely creeping their way into this once decent working class neighborhood...
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