Friday, April 17, 2015

Parks can't keep kids out of FMCP towers

From A Walk in the Park:

Four more teens were caught sneaking up into the Worlds Fair towers NYC Park Advocates has learned.

When Park Enforcement officers arrived this time they found the gate wide-open and the flimsy lock missing. The rusted metal door that leads to the deteriorated staircase was also wide open and the small lock was nowhere to be found.

"The locks magically disappeared," said an officer at the scene.

The kids from nearby Bowne High School made it as far as the first observation deck - 126 feet in the air - Tuesday afternoon at 3:00pm when officers surprised them.

PEP officers detain four teens 126 feet in the air one of the three Worlds Fair Astro Towers observational platforms.

"It's very dangerous up there," an officer said.

"One slip and it's all over.

The officer said one teen mentioned he saw photos people had taken on instagram from the site.

Two 15-year olds and 16-year old were given trespassing summons.

Another 16-year old, who had multiple ID's belonging to other people and a bank card belong to someone else, was arrested.


34 comments:

Anonymous said...

Razor wire the area. That should keep trespassers out.

Anonymous said...

Fine upstanding teens.

T.Edison said...

American ingenuity.

Anonymous said...

Melinda Katz spent pittance to light up the towers. It was all show and no blow. What about security Ms. Alley Katz?
Burro hall's idea of preservation is to put Priscilla curtains on a decaying house make it look all pretty and nice. Meanwhile the structure is corrupt with rot.
Hmmmmmmm, just like borough government which looks OK from the outside but is rotten crooked inside.

JQ said...

I don't see the point in preserving these towers any longer, especially the views from the inside. The absurd attempts by the queens steamer to make this structure relevant is to give light shows to pretty it up as if to put frosting on elephant feces.

Why not demolish it? It will free up a lot of park space and can replaced with trees or even a ball field. Maybe another velodrome, there are a lot bikers out there and the one in kissena is lousy with asphalt cracks.

Back on topic, here's another collection of the worst generation of youth in history. Willfully stupid followers thanks to social networking.

O. von Bismarck said...

Old German proverb:

Oben . . . hui!

Unten . . . pfui!!

Anonymous said...

I have been up in the towers in the towers a few timea during the 80s, fun dumb kid stuff!
The columns have the stairs, you sneaak in from the mezzanine.this is dangerous, you can get seriously injured, its probably in worse consition than in 85'. Its incredible none of these punks are able to get a visible tag from the top.
Restore the structure and create a deck opened to the public, for a donation/fee. Rent out space for a special occassion. With the freshly remodeled queens museum, and the theatre in the park looking nice, when will they get to the observation decks?

Anonymous said...

The intentional neglect is building a case for their removal.

Stadiums need space.

Anonymous said...

Pro tip: when you do these stunts, don't carry stuff in your pockets that can get you arrested.

Tear the towers down. They serve no purpose.

GaryW said...

Good for those kids, at least someone is putting them to use.

Anonymously Grey Gardens said...

Yet another languishing example of Queens County city government apathy, and its latest "politician du jour" to suddenly awaken from suspended animation, and spring into action that is too little---and always to late.

In fact, the same tragedy unfolded for decades, under the faulty and derelict leadership of former Borough Presidents Claire Schulman and Helen Marshall, whose collective, intentional neglect of 'Triumph Of Civic Virtue' led to the publicly unauthorized removal of a 16-ton statue (ostensibly to finally be conserved and rescued), where Marshall ordered its removal from Queens altogether---and over the border to a Brooklyn graveyard (where it remains on indefinite loan), that should not have been removed in the first place---at full taxpayer expense! Ironically, BP Melinda Katz recently stated that funding for public art in Queens was at the very bottom, during the last borough board meeting, when she herself continues to reject a democratic plan for the statue's rightful return to a working fountain base that had been capriciously evicted after more than 70 years of public display, as gifted by former Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, since 1941.

Yes, folks, the inmates are running the asylum in Queens (again and still), as we continue to lose precious, irreplaceable art that, once evicted, opens up blighted spaces for years of sight pollution, and more of the same urban decay and erosion.

Where are any examples of art, beauty and purpose left in this tonsured borough of permanently blighted landscapes? And, what is there to celebrate with a faux, 50th anniversary next year? Who would show up, and what would they see, when Civic Virtue itself has been banished to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, among the dead?

Egregious, publicly unauthorized decisions that continue to be made beyond reason (and sanity), without any due process, community board involvement and public consent. In the end, Neo-Fascism that leaves emptiness and ugliness in its wake--and the taxpaying, duped public be eternally damned!

Anonymous said...

Might be some of the millions of vistors who decided to come Queens instead of Paris.

Anonymous said...

Kids sneaking up to enjoy the view? Let's string barbed wire through our parks or just demolish it outright! Down with fun!

Anonymous said...

Thank God he is using paragraphs.

Now to practice saying the same thing with half the words.

Anonymous said...

99 cent locks, no locks, rusted doors no security. Isn't restoration work supposed to be going on at that sight? If not what was all that stuff Melinda Katz was saying, was she telling the public bullshit ?

Anonymous said...

Gifted to Queens because La Guardia didn't want it in front of City Hall, Richard (the story goes that he said that he had enough of a certain body part to look at in City Hall, but that might be an urban myth). Borough President George Harvey asked for it.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Paul Wooten said...

Two 15-year olds and 16-year old were given trespassing summons.

Another 16-year old, who had multiple ID's belonging to other people and a bank card belong to someone else, was arrested.


What? This is an outrage!!!

Send these vibrant youths to my court room!

I'll let them WALK FREE!!!!

Anonymously Grey Gardens said...

Please, Anonymous, get over your paragraph fetish, as well as your inability to distinguish the actual message from whatever annoying distraction that you find so unable to personally cope with. Not everything can be effectively summarized in 50 words or less. More in depth analyses wouldn't be necessary at all, but for the fact that Queens County offers nothing but a city and state government of never ending corruption and graft that critical thinkers like me are left to expose and explain. Therefore, it's neither my problem nor concern if your limited brain chemistry is unable to accommodate a few sentences that can be read under five minutes! But, I'll just be that you can dedicated a few hundred hours to TV programs like 'Dancing With The Stars,' no doubt.

In fact, as I previously mentioned, while you've continued to sit on your duff from the comfort of wherever, I'm actually out there doing the work, community outreach and visibility that is beyond your personal grasp, will, determination and interest to achieve.

Yet, you STILL have the temerity to make terminally galling comments about complete nonsense, thereby ignoring the real issues altogether--as you continue to hide behind the obscurity and mediocrity of a record of zero accomplishment. Maybe it's you yourself who is part of the problem---and I, as always, the solution!

Now, did you follow all of that, or was it too much pull and purpose for your addled focus?

Anonymously Grey Gardens said...

Aside from the story of Mayor LaGuardia eventually tiring from having to see a bare backed male nude statue every morning (which is rampantly regarded as either myth or hearsay), Triumph Of Civic Virtue was, in fact actually gifted to Queens County as a clear message to then BP George Harvey (and his henchmen), to clean up entrenched levels of bottomless corruption and graft in Queens that was never ending, and still hasn't ended to date!

That's why my organization, Civic Virtue Task Force, continues to strenuously fight for the statue's rightful return to a working fountain base (which is what the people, and Community Board 9 always wanted and advocated for), as a constant, vigilant reminder of how much more work and vision are desperately needed in order to restore a completely broken system of rogue government, that abuses all voter and citizen authority with impunity, as well as operating under Neo-Fascist rule!

Unless, of course, you like being told what to do by empowered idiots and unresponsive tyrants, who view freedom, public referendum and democracy as archaic governing bodies that no longer mean anything, and carry no heft. Remember World War II? Anyone?

Anonymous said...

51 year old crap (that didn't used to be crap, mind you). Left to decay, it's time to tear them down. Problem solved.

The guy who commented about the statue said...

I'm not the guy with the paragraph fetish, Richard. You can write whatever you want, in whatever form you want, for all I care. I was just stating something about the circumstances under which Queens received the statue. I didn't say anything about your style of writing. So cool it with the insults.

By the way, I share your feelings over its removal.

Anonymous said...

Nobody did dick to fix these things until Katz. She got $5.8M allocated to start the restoration. You want it done all overnight, to the neglect of everything else? And you want her running the parks police agency too? Why?

Richard, this story is not about that fucking statue.

Joe said...

""You want it done all overnight, to the neglect of everything else""

Neglect of everything else as in what illegal immigrants and building more babysitting for their countless offspring ?
YES, SCREW THEM THEY ALREADY RECEIVE MORE THEN ENOUGH, FIX OUR HISTORIC STUFF !! These new people will never have the skills to do it in the future. Restoration needs to be done now wile we still have the talent and skilled people to do it. --I know what the Asians would do to it when they own 1/2 of Queens in 10 years. PREFAB BLAND COOKIE CUTTER CHEAP CRAP designed on computers to use maximum use of every scrap and cut of building material possible. That's why new buildings all look the same.
"One" valid reason the NYS Pavilion needs to be restored & preserved is because its part of our heritage of art & engineering milestones that will cease to exist in 20 years. There is a reason this structure has defied death and survived on its own for over 50 years.

50-50 said...

Tear 'em down and relocate Fat Boy there.

Anonymous said...

Joe, who said anything about the illegals? Though coddling them is a city priority, it still other parks, streets, schools etc. to maintain. I'd bet that's the kind of thing the other poster meant. If you really think the mayor and council would ok $80 million or so in capital funds in one year to fix the pavilion, you are incorrect. They'd laugh Katz right back over the bridge if she asked for that.

Anonymous said...

50-50 - please don't give iritano any new ideas.

Anonymous said...

Parks should make money from this. Sign a waiver, go up at your own risk. $500 a head. You'll have long lines to get in, more than enough to pay for a watchman at night.

The stairs up aren't half as bad as they make it sound, and only an idiot would fall off the side.

Anonymous said...

I like Richard writings on Queens Crap.
They are very informative and to the point.

Anonymously Grey Gardens said...

Also, Anonymous, "...that f***ing statue," that you so eloquently referred to in this thread, is the very reason and existence that allowed you the freedom to dishonor it (and yourself) on this thread!

Imagine then, if you made a disparaging comment about a beloved work of art in China, or some other Third World country of Communist rule that severely punishes free speech. Not a pretty outcome!

Joe said...

The stairs are good but still need replacing, a couple million would go a long way to fix up the towers and do some painting.
The towers were built on steel pyles. All that is good and rock stable.
Stabilizing and re-doing the tent, mezzanine and elevators & escalators is the EXPENSIVE story because its all sitting on wooden pyles atop mud ash. The ash actually preserves the wooden pyles but the caps & tent collums still need stabilizing with backfill.
This means means the wall, mezzanine and map will all need to go should be rebuilt as stadium seating IMO, have concerts, NY Pops and summer things like Lincoln center and Central Park have that always sell out in hours.

Anonymous said...

Electrified barbed wire. That will fix 'em.

Anonymous said...

A small concert venue for public private use is a great idea. 1500-2500 ppl max. The acoustics would be intresting.
The redesign can include removing the long cables, and replacing with something less dangerous, longer lasting. Redo the tile floors and cover in hi tech materials, or just lay grass or turf.
This can be rented out for car shows, special events, recording musical performances, evening open air movie nights, etc... , an extension of whats there already.
Outdoor ice skating, the options are endless.

If politicians that be would/ have spent their family weekends in the park, maybe they would have a better understanding of the needs.
Forbid anymore usta work! F/m! Those folks need to build a multi level parking garage on existing property already, and leave the community alone. Those b.s. , short term, low pay jobs arent helping anyone ,really.

Anonymous said...

Cant do electrical fence, most these illegal immigrant kids in Queens cant read or understand the warnings.
--That means big lawsuits !!

Anonymous said...

Great memories of seeing Led Zepplin playing there circa 1967. At the New York State Pavilion. As other posters have said....Great workmanship went into building these towers. They would cost 50 times more to duplicate today and partly due to the old timers with the skills fading away.