Football games cause parking chaos

From DNA Info:

Residents of a Ridgewood block say their safety is being jeopardized by drivers who double park along their street, blocking driveways and access to a fire hydrant.

The dead end block on 65th Place at 68th Avenue becomes a virtual parking lot several times a week, when kids from a youth football league play at Mafera Park, locals say.

According to the 311 online map, residents of the block have placed more than a dozen calls regarding the situation in the past two months, including complaints about blocked sidewalks and a hydrant and double parking.

In two cases, the police took action, but it was not clear what was done. In one instance, the people responsible were gone and in another no action was necessary. The results in other cases were not clear.

Ridgewood is nowhere near what it's hyped to be

Hey folks, the latest neighborhood profile of Ridgewood comes courtesy of the Daily News, and it's a doozy. Have fun picking out all the mistakes. You can start with this paragraph:

Retail strips are less charming than the townhouse blocks. But Myrtle, Fresh Pond and Seneca Aves., the neighborhood’s main commercial thoroughfares, offer popular destinations including Ridgewood Eats and Mafera Park. Residents seeking more leisure options or a quick work commute can get to Midtown in a half hour on the M train or take the L train to Union Square. And the new breed of scruffy, tattooed residents displaced from Bushwick can quickly dive back into that scene with a short walk.

This could be more entertaining than the Easter egg hunt going on right now!

NYPD busts gang 3 blocks from precinct

From the Times Newsweekly:

Twenty teenagers were recently collared by officers from the 104th Precinct who put a stop to an alleged gang initiation inside Joseph Mafera Park in Ridgewood, it was reported.

Law enforcement sources said the suspects—ranging between 13 and 19 years of age—were taken into custody by members of the 104th Precinct Conditions Unit for illegally gathering inside the park located at the corner of 65th Street and 68th Avenue at 7:25 p.m. on the night of Saturday, Nov. 6.

Upon further investigation, police sources stated, the individuals appeared to be taking part in a Latin King initiation ceremony.

The 20 teenagers—all residents of Brooklyn and Queens—were formally charged with unlawful assembly. One of the 14-year-old suspects was additionally booked on criminal possession of a weapon charges.

See post from August 26.

Gangs of Glendale

From the Daily News:

A youth football league that was booted to a Maspeth Glendale-Ridgewood field last year after playing in Juniper Valley Park for more than two decades said its new turf is plagued by gangs.

The longtime coach of the Queens Falcons - who now play ball in Mafera Park after the city took the team's cleats off the grassy Middle Village field - said the dark lot is a magnet for quality-of-life crimes and makes the area unsafe for the young athletes.

"It's just a matter of time before something bad happens," said Tim Cavanaugh, 46, who has coached the team for almost 20 years. "At the end of the day, we just want our kids safe."

Since it began playing on Mafera's artificial turf last year, the team has witnessed trouble just past its sidelines, including fights, kids "throwing" gang hand signs and graffiti that seems to mark gang turf.

The Parks Department recently painted over the letters "TGWK" - which sources said stand for Together We Kill, one gang in the area - that were spray-painted on the team's storage unit on the field, Cavanaugh said.

Cuts in police staffing have made it harder to patrol the field area regularly, but officers from the 104th Precinct are always quick to respond if a call is made, Cavanaugh said.

Well they should be considering the precinct is only 3 blocks away...