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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, OCTOBER 27, 2019
Coach William Greggs points to a small sink hole that has been fi lled with trash at Canarsie’s Monroe
Cohen park. Photo by Derrick Watterson
FRIDAY NIGHT BLIGHT
Canarsie football team’s practice fi eld
plagued by garbage, pipes, human feces
BY JESSICA PARKS
The city has left a small Canarsie green
space to rot, forcing youngsters on a local
football team to practice around broken
pipes, mounds of trash, and literal piles of
crap, according to locals.
“In terms of maintenance, it feels we
aren’t seen as a good community investment
— we are an organization that has been
around for 30 years,” said Mitchell Greggs,
assistant principal of Park Place Academy,
whose husband William Greggs coaches the
team.
Monroe Cohen Park located at Seaview
Avenue and 108th Street is home to the
Brooklyn Renegades, a youth football and
cheer leading organization serving kids ages
5–14, which seeks to “mold tomorrow’s leaders”
through hard work and rigorous training,
according to the team’s website.
But the youngsters’ development is stymied
by the fi lth clogging up their rutty practice
fi eld, which looks bad, smells worse, and
poses a hazard to the kids. The team is prevented
from hosting home games there due
to broken pipes hidden in the grass, forcing
them to compete for time at Canarsie High
School’s football fi eld, said the team’s coach.
“We know where the stuff is, but we can’t
hold any home games,” said William Greggs.
The practice fi eld also suffers from lack of
proper facilities. Inadequate lighting leaves
kids in the dark after daylight savings time,
forcing coaches and parents to use their cars’
headlights to illuminate the fi eld.
“After daylight saving time, kids will
be completely in the dark,” said William
Greggs. “We use cars to light the fi eld and
do whatever we can to get them ready for the
playoffs.”
But the worst part is the dearth of bathrooms,
and kids are forced to run to McDonalds
or head behind some trees whenever nature
calls. The organization bought its own
portable toilet for the fi eld, but some lowlife
set it on fi re, according to the coach.
Trash lays out on the fi eld for weeks at a time before
sanitation collects it.
Photo by Derrick Watterson
Locals fed up with the fi lth organized to
clean up the park over the summer, where
one woman was shocked to fi nd human feces
strewn throughout the greenspace.
“While we were cleaning, there were children
who went behind the tree to use the
bathroom,” said Ketsie, a Canarsie resident
who complained about the park to Community
Board 18 at a meeting on Oct. 16. “And
one of the kids actually said ’how come our
neighborhood doesn’t have bathrooms.’”
William Greggs claims some parents
have reached out to their representatives
about the practice fi eld, but couldn’t say who
specifi cally, claiming they never received
any response.
“We get no help or anything from our
Congresspeople, it is unacceptable,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the Parks Department
claimed the park is cleaned as much as
seven times a week, and applauded locals for
taking the matter into their own hands.
“We always welcome and encourage volunteers
to help maintain and beautify our
parks, and invite any of our permitted sports
leagues to help set up clean-up days at this
park,” said Anessa Hodgson.
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