Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Dirtbike track of Yes

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLadKTCX0AArxmS?format=png&name=smallNY Post

Hundreds of freshly-planted trees have been ripped out of a Queens park by vandals to clear the greenspace for their DIY dirt bike track — and angry locals are calling on authorities to track down the “very selfish” bikers.

Some 300 shrubs and saplings, planted by volunteers last year not far from a cycling velodrome, were reported to have been uprooted at Kissena Park in Flushing on April 7, the Parks Department said.

“It makes me angry because I love this park. I have been living here for many years. It’s very selfish because this is for the public. They’re only thinking about their own pleasure,” Jane, a Flushing substitute teacher who declined to give her last name, told The Post.

The teacher, who has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years, said she was worried that reckless off-road bikers could potentially hurt her dog, who she regularly walks in the park.“It can be dangerous if they’re going to be riding their dirt bikes here. They usually ride fast. They could run over my dog,” she added.

Photos of the destruction, which will cost the city approximately $15,000 to fix, show overturned soil near paths filled with deep tire tracks. The paths, which appear to have been used by off-road bikes, are littered with broken branches from trees above and plant roots.

Officials said the vandals dug up recently planted trees and cut down portions of other, more mature trees that were part of a larger reforestation effort across 5,000 square feet of the park.

The city’s parks department is working with the NYPD to investigate the crime, Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue said in a statement.

“Trees are so essential to our city – not just for beautifying our neighborhoods but also for cleaning our air, providing much-needed shade, and absorbing stormwater. That’s why it’s so unthinkable that someone would do this,” Donoghue said.

Gobind Singh Negi, 55, a former cab driver who takes daily walks through the park, was also angered by the destruction and slammed it as selfish.

 https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/qchron.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/a8/aa80c4be-9661-51c7-abe6-c10bf2017aad/66213d4d0626e.image.jpg

Update by Queens Chronicle

Volunteers planting trees last Wednesday, April 10, in Flushing’s Kissena Park for a reforestation project were shocked to discover that 300 others they had put in the ground over the last two years, worth almost $15,000 according to the Department of Parks and Recreation, had been pulled out, tossed aside and clipped to make way for a new dirt trail.

Members of the volunteer group Kissena Synergy were joined at the same spot by Parks officials, NYPD officers and area elected officials Monday to denounce the vandalism and ask for help in finding those responsible. Leona Chin, a community activist leading efforts to plant more trees in the park, said the arborcide felt like “a betrayal.”

“It was devastating, it’s personal; our investment is our time,” Chin said at the event.

The trail cuts through land where 2,000 new trees had been planted as a part of a reforestation effort in the park by the Parks Department and Kissena Synergy that began in 2022. Though the purpose of the trail is unconfirmed, it appears to have been made to accommodate ATVs, dirt bikes or mountain bikes, as the path features a jump and a U-shaped turn common on bike trails. Tire marks could be found in the dirt on Monday.

Volunteers with Kissena Synergy, founded by Chin, work in the area five days a week, between Tuesday and Saturday. NYPD Assistant Chief Christine Bastedenbeck, the Queens Patrol Borough North commander, said at Monday’s press conference that the incident most likely happened sometime over the previous weekend. Chin said she believes the vandalism occurred sometime on Sunday, April 7, when the volunteers weren’t there.

Chin said volunteers had added branches, logs, rocks and other debris across the trail on Wednesday, April 10, to deter riders from using it. However, the debris was cleared up overnight when the volunteers returned to the site last Thursday to discover fresh bike tracks and a cleared trail. Chin said this felt particularly insulting.

“We’re just angry they thought it was their property to destroy,” she said in an interview. “And then, like I said, to come back and re-clear trails again ... We’re just pleading with the community [to report any new vandalism] because they were the ones that actually noticed, and we’ve had community members reach out to us to tell us things that they have seen.”

Bastedenbeck said law enforcement is looking into the incident. Specifically, she said, additional officers were deployed to the area and detectives were interviewing people in the park and the surrounding perimeter to gather more information on the incident. Bastedenbeck urged Kissena Park visitors and community members to report any illegal motor vehicles in the area.

“We were alerted to the damage in this park on Wednesday, this past week, and believe that the destruction may have happened the prior weekend. Our detectives are currently investigating this incident,” Bastedenbeck said. She encouraged residents to contact the police if they see anyone operating an ATV, dirt bike or moped in city parks.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Keep Voting Blue !

Anonymous said...

Windmills killing the Whales and now ATVer riding punks killing our trees...

Joe said...

This can only be fixed at the voting booth.

Things that were once crimes are now ignored so the jackass mayor can say "crime is way down"
It seems the cops & prosecutors are being forced to not put any new cases on the books unless its murder or other serious felony.
The cops make a telephone call and are told "Cut them loose" or stand down (especially if the perps are black).
Then all these bastards claim pat each other backs "good job, crime is way down!"
Its bullshit!!
Another big problem is the mayor, lawmakers and DAs are taking there orders directly from the Black Live Matter activists who raise hall whenever a black is arrested, even if killed wile shooting at cops.
And that's thats bad for re-election.

In the old days when dirtbikes went in the cematarys and Forest park the police would block the streets, go in an arrest the scumbags, confiscate the dirt bikes, mini bikes, go carts etc.
What you have now is "Mad Max" criminal free for all across the whole city.

Again the only way of fixing this is at the voting booth, throw all the democrat lawmakers in Albany out !! That's another problem, voters have become so stupid, they don't understand civics or really how state government works.

Fact is most citizens (and all under age 40) complain about lawmakers in Albany would fail the immigration test on civics.
Most don't vote is the small local elections. Result:Blacks lives matter sympathizers who have criminals in their own family's becoming NYC council members and Albany lawmakers.
That's why the cops, local Pct.Captains, DAs, Judges, Prosecutors are neutered, tied up in boxes, in handcuffs and the whole the city's been destroyed.

The theme seems to be:
"Do not pursue, stand down if they are black" "blacks fight back if you try and stop or arrest them, the mess or shots fired looks bad"

-Joe

Anonymous said...

Should the sheeple blame Trump or Biden ?

Anonymous said...

If voting made any difference, they wouldn't let us do it. - Mark Twain

Anonymous said...

There will be no consequences, just a few hours in a holding pen and a desk appearance ticket.

Anonymous said...

And maybe a couple of free Met tickets.


Anonymous said...

Liberal city will drop all charges. Then it all happens again. Life in Utopia. Own it.

Anonymous said...

Just when the local right wing nuts were telling us that that bicycles are the biggest problem in New York, here we see more destruction, compliments of the internal combustion engine.
NYPD caught napping and staring at their phones, again.

Anonymous said...

It had to take a long time to do this, all the noisy illegal, no papers, unlicensed let alone non EPA compliant 2 stroke quads and dirt bikes and nobody saw or heard anything?
Unless these are special dirtbikes's and Quads can fly silently, the vandals also had to use the streets to even GET TO and INSIDE the park.

Is it possible the cops new, got calls, even saw and knew and were ordered to "look the other way and lay off" by some higher up?
This reeks of something fishy, investigation by the feds is needed. Due to mass corruption and special interest this city can not be allowed to investigate itself.

It would have been impossible for the cops or anybody not to know when it comes to motor hooligans.

Anonymous said...

No consequences for our actions has made this country a joke. When I was growing up if you did something wrong at school or home you were punished sometimes physically.
No consequences at home.
No consequences for criminals.
And it goes on.

Anonymous said...

Let the 3rd world in, become the 3rd world. Thank you Democrats.

georgetheatheist said...

-Joe. In the "old days" they rode in the cemeteries?!?! I never knew this. Thanx for the info.

Anonymous said...

@-joe
The far left woke activists all reject the very concept of truth.

Anonymous said...

"Let the 3rd world in, become the 3rd world"

Where you been that's already here and way past that?
What we have going on in NYC is WORSE and more lawless then most all of your 3rd word shitholes, California and Washington state, Seattle put together.

3rd world country's like Vietnam, some dump in the Philippines or Beirut and push an rob and old lady down steps. ...You get arrested, beaten and executed.
(in that order)
In Beirut they still have hanging and stoning where the public and family's of the victims get a crack at them. They will even feed the bodys to dogs, drag through the town, up mountains and lay out for vultures in some cases.
Hard and violent crime per capita is near zero when compared to New York

Anonymous said...

Good thing we got rid of all those DANGEROUS statues.


Anonymous said...

Those Nordic people are out of control.


Joe said...

"-Joe. In the "old days" they rode in the cemeteries?"

----------------------------------------------
Oh hell yea George, in the cemetery's off Cypress ave all the way down to Broadway junction, Forest Park behind where they flew airplanes was a path (still there) to access the same cemetery as well. Go all the way down the hill to Broadway junction, Jamaica avenue Franklyn K Lane school, back up, sideways.
Was another spot to go in by Metro and Union Turnpike, ride along the defunct horse trails (at the time) rockaway train tracks (now trees have grown in)
I had a Honda 70, they pinched me as an extra for the movie "The Wanderers" I had Karen Allen on the back.
It was the scene at the end in a bar on Myrtle ave near Forest park. What was it? Cobblers pub, Potters I forgot, I kind of remember big wooden booths and barrels. I don't remember the 1970s that well.

-Joe

Anonymous said...

Went today to see the damage for myself and some people were caught using shovels planting corn and peas.

Urban Mole said...

The restoration effort as it was described is very likely to be unsuccessful, because there is no planning behind it. Its a knee jerk lets plant trees and feel good about it project by novices.

The reality is this area in the rear neglected section of Kissena Park is a weed lot of very aggressive invasive species such as mugwort, ragweed and of course fragmites. If you wish to re-establish a woodlot you will need to hit this area very hard and over many seasons with powerful herbicides, before any young vulnerable trees will ever become established. But NYC Parks now prohibits the use of herbicides for weed control in parkland and other jurisdictions. And then there is the annual summer burns where during a mid summer dry period, a flicked cigarette will see the entire area burn as it has for the past 50 years. Its why there are few to none naturalized trees established there.

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