BY ROSE ADAMS
A group of vigilante do-gooders
strong armed the Parks Department
into “allowing” them
to clean up used syringes,
glass shards, and other debris
strewn along Coney Island
Creek Park last Sunday, after
the agency wanted to charge
them a permit fee for the favor.
“You need a permit to clean
the beach!” riled Gravesend
resident Steven Patzer, 22, who
helped spearhead the cleanup
effort. “How can a beach in
Brooklyn look like this?”
Patzer said he noticed the
seaside park’s sorry state
while strolling with pal Andrew
Windsor, 22, along its
sandy shores between Seagate
Avenue and W. 33rd Street in
August.
At fi rst, the duo tried to
get the city to pitch in, but a
rep for the Parks Department
told them it didn’t have the resources
to fund a cleanup until
October.
And when the young men
offered to pull together their
own garbage-picking team,
Parks offi cials said they would
have to pay $45 and leave the
park to fester with syringes for
30 days while waiting for a permit
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“I tried to convince them
that this looks dangerous,”
Windsor said, citing the large
number of syringes on the
sand.
But the pair obstinately
reached out to Deputy Public
Advocate Kashif Hussain, who
brow beat the Parks Department
into waiving the permit
for their event, although the
agency still refused to provide
supplies for the cleanup,
and Windsor and Patzer were
forced to reach into their own
pockets for necessities including
gloves and garbage bags.
After hanging fl yers around
the neighborhood encouraging
locals to join them, the effort
quickly gained traction, inspiring
between 25 and 30 nature
loving locals to show up
for the big day on Sept. 8, when
volunteers spent three hours
cleaning about half the beach
between W. 33rd to W. 37th
streets — where they discovered
no less than 26 syringes,
according to the 22-year-olds.
“A lot of us worked together,”
Patzer said. “This was
a collaborative effort.”
The friends are now planning
a second cleanup day on
Sept. 15, and have written to
local pols urging them to implement
a permanent clean-up
plan for the fi lthy beach.
“Nothing permanent has
been done about it,” Patzer
said.
A spokesman for the Parks
Department claimed that
agency staff already maintain
the area on a regular basis, and
that natural areas like Coney
Island Creek Park aren’t typically
equipped with amenities
such as garbage cans, lights, or
benches.
“Coney Island Creek Park
is a nature area and is maintained
by staff weekly,” said
Dan Kastanis. “We will inspect
the park for cleanliness,
and address any issues
accordingly.”
FILTHY: Cleanup volunteers blasted the Parks Deptartment for failing
to clean the beach in Coney Island Creek Park, where they spent three
hours pikcing up garbage on Sept. 8. Steven Patzer
Volunteers clean up beach
despite Parks’ objection
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