From The New York Shitty Inbox: Locked Out

T (who sent the above image) writes:

Attached you’ll find a pic of our lovely new park at the end west end of Greenpoint Ave.  I have no idea what this park is called, so I can’t be more specific but I’m pretty sure you know the park pictured.  I’m sure you’ll also note that the gate to this public park is padlocked and that the sun is still shining. What you might not know is that this gate has been padlocked for three days straight with no notice as to why.  I have been by this park with my lovely canine companion Kenneth twice a day for the last three days – morning around 6:30 and evening around 6:30 and never has it been accessible.  Is there something I don’t know about the park schedule that would cause it to be closed?  Also, if it should in fact be open, do you have any idea who I should complain to?  I called 311, but as I mentioned this park is not marked with any name from without and the 311 operator had no record of a park at the location so did not know who to call.  I filed a general complaint.  Is this something I can send on to our assemblyman friend?  Thoughts?  As this is pretty much the only unpaved park in my area, it’s pretty friggin annoying that I can’t get into it.

This public space is called WNYC Transmitter Interim Park— or something to that effect. Of course this information is not of much use if the 311 operator has no idea this park (if you can call it that) exists. But I’ll leave the semantics and philosophical stuff to the city. Here are four people/entities I would recommend T contact about this (or any other neighborhood) problem (in order of relevance):

• The New York City Parks Department
• Community Board 1 (I go into more detail about how to go about this here)
• Our City Councilman: Steve Levin
• Our State Assemblyman: Joseph Lentol

I hope this has been helpful, T!

Miss Heather

UPDATE, March 18, 2010; T has some exciting news to relay! He/she writes:

I am extremely pleased to report some actual good news on this.  This morning, as a result of my 311 call, the District Manager responsible for this park called me back.  We were both on cell phones so I did not 100% catch his name but I believe it was Harmon or Carmen.  First, how’s that for promptness?!?  Awesome!  Second, he was not only beyond polite but also clearly interested in this and concerned.  We spoke for about ten minutes, the result being that he had already spoken to the employee responsible for that park who reported he had been closing it at 5:15 every day.  Harmon/Carmen explained to me that their employees are still on winter hours and that within a month, as dusk officially becomes 7 or 8 o’clock, they will switch to summer hours.

I feel it’s important to commend our public servants in this or at least note that everything functioned exactly as it should in this case.  There was the kind of promptness, concern, respect and knowledge on display that should characterize every interaction between citizens and the city apparatus.

Thanks Harmon/Carmen!!