Crapper:Just wanted to let you in on a planned, and practically approved, Parks Department project in Bowne Park.
It seems that the Parks people and community board 7 are approving the addition of a second bocce court in Bowne Park at an estimate cost of.....ONE MILLION DOLLARS!
That's right ONE MILLION! A one and six zeros.
This court will serve one constituency of North Flushing and that is the local Bocce players. These players ignore the park closing time of 9 PM and play their games until 2 - 3 AM while using lights hooked up to a light pole for their night games. They are constantly smoking (Yeah, that is a small complaint but the courts are right by a kids playground and the smoke constantly wafts over the playground) which is against city laws. They are gambling BIG TIME on games. They are also sitting on chairs at card and picnic tables they bring into the park and leave there for their gambling purposes. The local players refuse to let anyone other than their friends play on the courts. And lastly, one of the players was involved in the Mr. Softee drug bust at the park several years ago.
A hearing will be held on Monday, Feb. 13th, at Community Board 7 which is located at 133-32 41st Road by Union St.
If possible, you might want to publicize this atrocious use of tax payer money on a single bocce court. I mean, a million bucks is more than 99% of the houses in North Flushing and its surrounds sell for.
Thanks,
Phil
Photo from Queens Tribune
33 comments:
The bocce players are already making life unpleasant for folks up in College Point, with an indoor court built (probably illegally) in the backyard behind a Dentist Office and private homes on 132 St.It's lit up like the mothership from Close Encounters and noisy with all the clacking balls and accompanying chatter most nights until midnight or 1 AM, and the players, including one with vanity plates reading "Bocce 1" hog up a significan number of parking spots, making it difficult for actual residents to find parking.And you thought "Spaghetti Park" had it bad!
Dear Phil,
You are a moron. Either learn to play bocce or thank them for keeping a presence in the park after dark and thus discouraging real criminals like vandals, rapists, and turtle eaters.
One million sounds high but "I'll "Bet You Big Time Phil" that includes other improvements to the park. They are currently replacing the metal roof on the park house.
As for the smoking near the kids I agree with you that should stop.
Other than some small friendly wagering and what's wrong with a few card games ? When I see the bocce players in Bowne Park I feel safe knowing some people with "balls" are watching the neighborhood.
I'll bet that CM Dan Halloran approves it.
Doesn't he owe the Gambino family a favor for supporting his election bid?
Uh...and who else but the "goombahs" will be playing there?
Then there's always Joey "d'or" Franco who might put together a "White House" team from his restaurant employees.
But let's look on the bright side BP users...with the "goombahs' playing their night games in an added facility...the park will be doubly safe!
What mugger would dare to mess with "La Famiglia's" old soldieri?
It's really a win win situation.
NYC saves money on police protection by privatizing security in this manner.
So a one time expenditure of million bucks is a pittance
compared to officers salaries, etc.
over the years.
Capeesh?
"Bocc...bocc...bocce me bambino...babba-lo...bella picolino...
you squeeza me....then I'ma squeeza you....babba, babba, babba....babbaloo"!
Did I get that right?
They're discouraging turtle thieves? Then why did all the turtles disappear?
Plenty of bocce players at Juniper and plenty of crime there, too. Someone needs a better rationale for this.
Ask them if their nephews are in construction.
Life is so magical in Queens if you go along with all this mindless development.
Yet another example of 'honest graft'
Now if you could get them to live around St Saviours ....
Now if you could get them to live around St Saviours....
Hey, how about million dollar soccer fields at Randalls Island and Con Ed and Elm Jack while the Steinway Mansion rots?
The court is only costing $30K to build - the rest is going towards kickbacks.
And BTW - most of the players are Croatian these days.
How about making them offer bocce lessons to kids two afternoons a week to justify this expenditure? That way there might be someone left to play in 5 years!
Screw bocce - give us a dog park! Dogs don't smoke, gamble or swear!
Dogs swear. I'm pretty sure of that. We just don't have the best translators yet.
"Plenty of bocce players at Juniper and plenty of crime there, too. Someone needs a better rationale for this."
Those bocce players at Juniper are a
rough bunch. What crimes are you referring to?
Vandalism, public drinking, throwing garbage on the sidewalk, I once saw people having sex on Brennan Field in broad daylight.
"if youth only knew and old age only could"...in my late seventies, i walk the local park sidewalks surrounding Bowne, Bayside, and Crocheran, as much as possible.
the orderly group of elderly men and women playing and exercising at the BOCCE facility is an interesting event to watch.
the children and teen facilities cannot be effected by smoking at the bocce courts. the distance is to great.
the lavatory building has been under refurbishing for a while . it is a needed addition for ALL the park users.
this site is what the taxpayers CHOOSE to pay for.all age levels are having fun and relaxation.
in the past, i wondered why sports cars would park across the park on the avenue,with high heeled girls walking to the MR.FROSTIE truck. the truck owner was arrested for dealing drugs.
insinuating blame for this on the park users is just nuts.
btw ,the N.W. corner at the sidewalk ,was used for a TEA PARTY( TAX ENOUGH ALREADY) public gathering ,in 2009. the message was heard and a few local G.O.P./Conservatives were elected in 2010. (1 has become a turncoat since).
but ,61 liberal/rino U.S.Congressmen were replaced at that time,in the U.S.
a park is a place for re-energizing ......
Last year vandals cut down 20 recently planted trees in Juniper Park .
They were immediately replaced . I like this park, it has a lot offer and is always busy and I always feel safe irregardless of the bocce presence.
one wonders what the cost for converting the playgrounds at P.S.159 Q (Bayside) and I.S.25Q(Auburndale) (no one uses the two spaces @ I.S.25 ),to parks with many trees and benches.
the Planyc estimate is $3 to $4 million each, in 2009-10.
many similar projects were planned for nyc playgrounds ,but they went broke. except for two recent announcements in Jackson Hgts. playgrounds.
during WWll, the Allied airman from U.K.and the U.S were shot down by Nazi/germans, while bombing the oil refineries in Romania.
the Tito Croatians and Mihailovich Serbs guided over 600 airman through the Balkan mountains to reach submarines crossing the Adriatic Sea to Bari ,Italy.
the U.S.Office of Strategic Services (later C.I.A.), was based there.
many U.S.Serb and Croatian speaking military heros were parachuted into the Balkans to assist with the recovery.
it is possible that some of the elderly bocce patrons and ancestors of these heros enjoy Bowne Park. use some common sense for a change.if both ethnic groups co-mingle at the courts, that is good.
in 1939 -45, the Mihailovich anti- communists were at war with the Tito communists in Yugoslavia.
they both fought bravely in the mountains ,holding the Nazi's for six months, till the Nazi's bypassed them and went on to U.S.S.R. the Russians were prepared by then for fighting.
Adam, the idiot (and certainly not a cervante) dares to call Phil a moron?
LOL!
Crawl back up your pol-handler's ass and smell the roses!
It sounds like "Steve P." has an IQ of about 74.
Croatian nationalism now rears it's head at Bowne Park...BAH!
LOL!
"Croats 'n groats" playin' bocce ball.
Send 'em off to Kellogg
'n pack 'em into a cereal box.
What a racist thug that "Steve P" sounds like...and a true legend in his own mind if he's got any left.
But aren't Juniper and Brennan Field low class parks?
They'd screw a goose in broad daylight there too.
LOL!
This is "upscale" northeast Queens where shady unhinged pols like Halloran screw us every minute of the day in style...one million dollars worth in this case.
Who else do you think got La Famiglia its bocce court money?
How long will it take for you to pay back all the Gambino favors Dan?
One million bucks...enough to gold plate all of the the park's facilities!
Drunken College Point residents make life unpleasant for themselves.
Friday night is known as "bar fight night" in CP.
Steinway Mansion sits in the middle of a "have nothing" forgotten nabe.
Bowne Park is situated in the center of a "have got plenty" politically connected neighborhood.
Get the picture?
The "HAVE" nabes always get more.
The "HAVE-NOTS" get stuff taken away from them for the benefit of the well connected nabes.
It's been this way for thousands of years and it wont change tomorrow.
MOVE the landmark granite tomb if you don't like it.
Or let GAHS take a stand oin the issue if they care to jeopardize their funding.
Adam's usually an ass but he's right on this one!
Thank you Adam !
You are right on the mark.
Obviously someone petitioned the pols for a new Bocce court. I hear all these complaints from y'all, but have you even tried to get funding for a neighborhood improvement? They did.
Are these Bocce guys the nicest? Probably not. Did they teach me to play about 10 years after I asked nicely? They certainly did.
Karnac time....
The answer is: ...About 10 years...
The question: How long does it take an outsider to get into a Bocce game at Bowne.
Anonymous #19:
Where do you get your info re:"drunken C.P. residents" and "bar fight night"? You got lost looking for Target or BJs and that suddenly gives you great insight?That's an ancient canard against Pointers going back to the 19th century when it was a resort area full of beer gardens, yet is totally irrelevant to our current population.
Bayside's Bell Blvd.,with all the bars full of boozy young folks is probably a more apt target of your insults. Get a life and get out more often- you might learn something!
There was an article in the Whitestone times about a very volatile exchange between councilman Halloran and Al Centola. In this argument our councilman made a comment about paying for police and firemen instead of a pipe dream field (paraphrasing here) for children of the community. Councilman Halloran how cops and firemen can't be hired now because of the Million dollar bocce courts? Inquiring minds want to know.
The councilman can't get a million dollars or so to redo Little Bay fields for the CYO aka children, yet he finds the money for bocce courts. Children might not vote, but their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles etc DO VOTE!
Councilman Halloran has agreed to look into public private partnerships for our field proposal and has held meetings with us and CYO representatives along with the owners of local gardening and landscaping businesses about Little Bay fields and how to get them repaired if even for an interim basis while monies for a capital project are secured.
Hey "dizzy" Lizzy Crowley...
see what kind of money northeast Queens gets for just one lousy bocce lane?
So, what's holding up that St. Saviour's Park money you promised to get for your constituents?
Oops, I guess you lied about it.
Oops, Maspeth voters aren't gonna like that very much.
Councilman Halloran has agreed to look into public private partnerships for our field proposal and has held meetings with us and CYO representatives along with the owners of local gardening and landscaping businesses about Little Bay fields and how to get them repaired if even for an interim basis while monies for a capital project are secured.
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Al how many times do I have to tell you that he is a liar
Has he or his "staff" gotten back to you on any of this? No?
You know this Al I understand you wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt but we need to keep the pressure on otherwhise they will try to ignore the issues the way they always do!
Al Centola for City Council.
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