Juniper Valley bocce courts are a soggy mess

From CBS:

Bocce ball players in Queens say a city redesign ruined their courts at a park in Middle Village.

The Parks Department spent $850,000 to renovate Juniper Valley Park — but the canopies above the courts, which were designed to block out the sun, funnel rainwater onto the courts, creating holes in the playing field and flooding which takes days to dry out.

Stop posting illegal signs!

We were walking around Juniper Park in Middle Village yesterday (9/27/15) and noticed multiple postings of flyers on the lamp posts and utility poles. There were ones for puppy sales, free chinchillas, yard sales and OctoberFest.

They are littering (illegally by the way) with these postings. The attached was for an Octoberfest at a nearby Church. There were literally over 20 of these flyers posted around the park. We noticed a few concerned people taking some down, but shouldn’t the Parks Department be on top of this?

I understand the need to promote these type of events, but there are neighborhood community bulletin boards (Silverbarn, Artis Pharmacy, Met Foods). Why litter our neighborhoods, especially an event that’s 2 weeks away!

If people continue to post these flyers, our street lamp posts will look like the attached image!

Signed,
ANONYMOUS

Juniper Valley Park playgrounds are hazardous

From the Queens Courier:

Juniper Valley Park in Middle Village has cost taxpayers at least about $300,000 over the last decade due to personal injuries claims, according to a new report.

The green space tied for second place for playground-related personal injury claims filed against the city from 2005 to 2014, which citywide cost more than $20.6 million, City Comptroller Scott Stringer said.

Stringer’s analysis also found that annual claims in the city rose 53 percent from just 45 incidents in 2005 to 69 last year.

Of the 577 park- and playground-related injury claims over the decade, 111 accidents occurred in Queens. That number is much less than city leader Brooklyn, which set the bar at 209.

Juniper Valley Park had six injury claims filed against the city over the decade for accidents related to missing matting, holes and defective swings. Five of those claims recorded a combined $297,500, according to Stringer’s analysis. The amount of one was not given in the report.

Local residents say Juniper has a numerous issues, including holes, defective equipment, cracks and other trip hazards, and that the Parks Department neglects to take action and fix the park, even though problems have been reported.

Juniper Park area tagged with graffiti

Recently, there has been graffiti painted around Juniper Park. There are instances on the sidewalks and in the street around the park and just within the last 24 hours, someone sprayed graffiti (with explicatives) on the fence of a well kept private home. We need more police presence, especially at night, to catch these vandals! There is a curfew around the park starting at 9PM but often into the wee hours of the night there are juveniles hanging around. This will only get worse if nothing is done! Graffiti is a NYC crime. Our local precincts (104th for Middle Village) need to be constantly made aware of what's going on so they can (hopefully) take action. NYC offers rewards (up to $500) to anyone who provides information on the graffiti vandal.

I trust Elizabeth Crowley, our NYC Council Member and the Juniper Park Civic Association will assist in apprehending these vandals so we can keep Middle Village a "neighborhood" and not "the hood".

Anonymous

I have been informed that the graffiti is scheduled for removal on Friday. - QC

Flyers inside Juniper Park are a bit of overkill

This past Sunday, 8/3/2014, we were walking along the sidewalk of Juniper Park in Middle Village. There are flyers taped on EVERY street lamppost surrounding the park. They were advertising a blood drive for the American Red Cross at Trinity Lutheran Church (63-70 Dry Harbor Road, Middle Village).

First, I think everyone supports the important work the American Red Cross does and know that the supply of donated blood could be a matter of life and death for many people. Keep up the great work!

Our complaint is that this effort at Juniper Park is completely unacceptable. Flyers taped on EVERY lamp post surrounding Juniper Park is illegal and disrespectful to the neighborhood and the city. There are flyers also posted along the inner walking path and on many structures within the park.

Why so many? Wouldn’t a handful at the corners and a few in between give ample notice of this blood drive? Or better still, we have community bulletin boards in the local businesses. We have numerous Queens newspapers. We have Facebook and Twitter (Troop 106’s Facebook page has this blood drive posted).

These flyers deface the neighborhood and also teach the wrong message to the kids of Troop 106 - posting illegal flyers is OK if it’s for a good cause and be disrespectful to your neighbors and the city.

We trust that those responsible for putting them up will remove them. Be respectful to the neighborhood and city and take them down (don’t forget the tape) after the expiration of the blood drive (Sunday, 8/9/2014, 3pm).

Here is the NYC law describing postings on public property:
N.Y. ADC. LAW § 10-119 : Posting

Anonmyous

Parks messes up bocce courts

From the Queens Courier:

Juniper Valley Park’s three new bocce courts opened on Wednesday with a ribbon cutting ceremony and talk of meatballs and spaghetti. But for the players, most of whom are older Italians, the new courts don’t meet their standards.

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz said that the new courts, which replaced two older ones, were “Grade-A.” But many of the players present during the ceremony weren’t such generous graders.

“It looks nice. They spent a lot of money on this,” John Pistone, 62, said. “So I give them an A for effort but for efficiency, I give them an F.”

Pistone and his fellow bocce players complained that the new $850,000 courts weren’t leveled correctly and that the design of the overhead shades didn’t prevent rain from soaking the courts. The bulk of the money came from Katz’s office and Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley allocated another $50,000.

Liz Crowley blows all over Juniper Valley Park

Hi,

I'm not sure who to contact about this, please excuse me if you're not the one I should bother about this.

At approximately 12:30 p.m. today (Thursday, November 7, 2013) I almost slipped on a dump pile of Elizabeth Crowley election pamphlets on the corner of 80th Street and Juniper Park South.

The pamphlets were dumped in the same spot her poll worker was standing at on Election Day, Tuesday, November 5, 2013.

Is Juniper Park now Elizabeth Crowley's personal garbage can?

Anonymous


Hi,

A quick follow-up on the dump pile of Elizabeth Crowley election pamphlets (corner of 80th Street and Juniper Park Boulevard South).

As of 11:30 a.m. today (Friday, November 8, 2013), the dump pile is still there, even after you called Crowley's office and they promised to take care of it. This garbage has been dumped there since Tues. Nov. 5, 2013 (Tues., Wed., Thurs., Fri).

The garbage is not strewn all over the place like it was yesterday (regrettably, I didn't get a picture of it yesterday). Someone has pushed it over to the side, possibly to prevent schoolchildren and others from slipping on it.

I'm very disappointed in Elizabeth Crowley's shocking level of disrespect to all the volunteers who work so hard to keep Juniper Vally Park clean.

I'm alarmed that Crowley does nothing when her garbage places the park at risk of a lawsuit for a potential slip and fall.

Sincerely,

Anonymous


Hi,

Crowley trash still in park on Saturday.

Crowley lawyer, Dominick Dale, was called on Wednesday to let him know that campaign trash was left on the corner of Juniper Blvd South and 80th St. He said he would take care of it. On Saturday it was still there blowing all over the neighborhood.

This is what we can expect in her second term.

Anonymous

City plans to spray pesticides on concertgoers

So the NYC Parks Dept is co-sponsoring a concert series in Juniper Valley Park. Tonight is "Classic Rock night" and starts at 7pm.

And the NYCDOH apparently doesn't care. They blindsided everyone involved by announcing that they would be spraying the area tonight beginning at 8pm and that everyone should stay indoors.

Great communication work!

Increase in vandalism at Juniper Park

From The Forum:

For years, neighbors have witnessed teens gathering at Juniper Valley Park on warm summer nights to indulge in underage drinking. Although some have dismissed the drinking as typical teen behavior and turned a blind eye, Bob Holden, President of the Juniper Park Civic Association, is taking a stand saying it is not only illegal, but it leads to more serious problems like vandalism.

On multiple occasions, Holden said he has driven by the park late at night and noticed groups of teenagers drinking beer. The children are not only violating the 9:00 p.m. curfew, they are also leaving behind a mess for the Parks Department to clean.

“I see the evidence the following day. There are beer bottles and broken bottles all over the ball fields and by the hockey ring,” he said. “The Parks Department and volunteers are the ones who clean up and they’re constantly picking the garbage up,” he added.

Holden attributes most of the vandalism at Juniper Park to teens hanging out in the park and drinking. “When you have underage kids drinking in the park unsupervised, it can lead to crazy things. A lot of what we get is vandalism,” he said.

Although Middle Village residents have reported kids drinking at Juniper for years, Holden expressed concern that this summer they are drinking in much larger crowds. “I mean we used to have drinking and it would be a group of four or five but now, about three weeks ago, I saw about twenty kids,” he said.

Amazing what embarrassing TV coverage will do

They even have to put their names on out-of-state contractors' trucks?

Still waiting...

 
 
 
From the Daily News:

The city said Thursday it won't charge tornado-battered New Yorkers to replace the ruined sidewalks outside their homes and businesses.

Just don't ask when the repairs are going to get done.

"We're just asking patience," Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said in Forest Hills, Queens. "The thing we need to do is address the hazards first."

Hundreds of workers across Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island are still clearing trees and other wreckage left after two tornados and one nasty "macroburst" blew through the city last week.

"Right now, we have hundreds of unsafe trees everywhere," said Robert Holden of the Juniper Park Civic Association in Middle Village, a Queens neighborhood hit hard by the storms.

"We have dangling branches and giant branches sitting on other branches. It's an accident waiting to happen," Holden said.

Middle Village devastation

From A Walk in the Park:

Many of the neighborhood’s majestic older trees fell victim to the storm. The center of the destruction seemed to be around Juniper Valley Park and the Furmanville Avenue area but few streets south of Eliot Avenue were spared. Juniper Valley Park lost dozens of trees particularly two 100-year old Scarlet Oaks. Several blocks from 80th street to Woodhaven Boulevard off Furmanville Avenue lost many or most of their trees.




As of Monday morning, you still don't see a force of chippers out here. At this pace it will take a very along time to clear the area. We are still discovering more devastation.

Parks denies denying permit to football team

From the Daily News:

The kids from the Queens Falcons youth football league got sacked for another loss on Tuesday.

Lawyers defending the city against a lawsuit filed by the Maspeth-based league told a Queens judge the kids were never denied a permit to use the grass fields in Juniper Valley Park.

Instead, the city says they never actually applied for the permit.

The Falcons say they did apply for a permit, but were denied because their football cleats chew up the dirt and grass on fields used for baseball in the spring.

Queens Supreme Court Justice Lawrence Cullen has given them until next week to prove the permit application was in order.

Longtime Falcons coach Tim Cavanaugh accused the city of attempting an end run to avoid telling hundreds of mostly minority kids they can't use the baseball outfields that Falcons teams have been using for two decades.

"Maybe we don't fit the profile of what they want for the community," Cavanaugh said.

That's looking like a stronger possibility since the Parks Department's own website says they do not give out permits for practices... In other words, this sounds like B.S. made up to cover someone's ass.



Adrian?

Dorothy?

Is the Irish football field going here?

Parks boots local team from Juniper Valley Park

From the Daily News:

The Queens Falcons say the Parks Department is trying to push the budding athletes out of Juniper Valley Park and onto artificial turf far from the home of 225 players.

[Coach Tim Cavanaugh] scoffed at the idea that a move to other fields is good for the kids, saying the artificial surfaces might contain toxins.

"Used tires are used to fill these fields - the same tires that gather petroleum, chemicals and toxins from the road," Cavanaugh said in a recent letter.

He also said that youth soccer programs regularly stomp across the Juniper Valley outfield grass in cleats for their matches.

Before the Parks Department rejected the Falcons' permit request last month, the program had been given permission to play at Juniper Valley for 20 years, the suit claims.

If the Falcons are banned from the dirt there, they might have to cancel the upcoming football schedule because nearby turf fields don't have lights or enough parking for games, the suit says.

The field at Juniper Valley has an emotional hold on the players and coaches.

A memorial banner there pays tribute to Greg Hoffman's brother, Stephen, who died in the Sept. 11 attacks.

"We want to play on grass fields that honor Stephen Hoffman," Cavanaugh said.