FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM AUGUST 17, 2017 • THE QUEENS COURIER 29
oped
A LOOK BACK
This classic photo from the Ridgewood Times archives shows the 1976 Oktoberfest parade along Myrtle Avenue in Ridgewood. The beer
and food festival with the German fl air was held for many years by the Greater Ridgewood Historical Society as a fundraiser to restore the
Onderdonk House, the colonial Dutch farmhouse on Flushing Avenue that is now a landmark. Send us your historic photos of Queens by
email to editorial@qns.com (subject: A Look Back) or mail printed pictures to A Look Back, The Queens Courier, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside,
NY 11361. All mailed pictures will be carefully returned to you.
letters & comments
Remembering the
Karina Vetrano
murder a year later
BY GEOFFREY CROFT
Aug. 2 marked the one-year anniversary of the
senseless murder of Karina Vetrano, a woman
who lost her life doing what she loved, enjoying
nature and jogging in Spring Creek Park.
Th e killing, and the seemingly random nature
and brutality of the crime, shocked the Howard
Beach community and reverberated throughout
the city.
Th e killing brought the management policy
of natural areas as well as how these areas are
policed sharply into public focus.
For more than fi ve decades, area residents
have complained about the impenetrable weeds
that cover most of the park. Some of these weeds
grow as high as 12 feet, not only creating a dangerous
environment for wildfi res, ticks and
mosquitos, but also providing cover for humans
who intend to do harm.
Th ose complaints have fallen on deaf ears.
Most parkland in the city is made up of natural
areas. Th e government’s policy toward these
areas for the most part has been do minimal
maintenance if anything at all. Proper natural
area management is an integral part of the success
and sustainability of our park system.
Can a park be an accessory to murder? Th e
majority of Spring Creek Park is dominated by
highly invasive, non-native vegetation. Th ere is
no doubt that the lack of maintenance contributed,
either directly or indirectly, to the killing.
When is a park a liability? When a community
does not feel safe and scarcely utilizes it. For
decades, many residents have complained about
the deplorable conditions found in this severely
neglected and overgrown park in what could
be an oasis.
During the investigation, all of the law enforcement
agencies involved acknowledged that the
out-of-control vegetation was a concern.
A visit a year aft er the murder to the crime
scene provides a chilling reminder of the conditions
she faced that day. Th e highly aggressive
phragmites, weeds that provided cover for the
crime, have grown back even stronger. Invasive
plants, vegetation that grows upwards of 12 feet
high has completely enveloped the area.
Th ere are plans to change that.
A large-scale, $69 million park restoration
project has been in the planning stages for several
years, a plan the National Parks Service says
will dramatically alter the landscape by providing
enhanced security improvements through
improved sight lines and access points.
Th e two-year construction project was expected
to begin in 2017, but that has been pushed
back to 2019. In the meantime, the community
has to make due with the annual NPS fi re prevention
maintenance work.
Phil Vetrano, Karina’s father, created a loving
memorial to his daughter out of the jungle near
where she was found. On the anniversary of her
death, the Vetrano family were joined by family
and friends who walked to St. Helen’s Church
for a moment of silence and prayer to honor
“Our Angel, Karina.”
It was a walk no family should have to make.
Croft is head of NYC Park Advocates, a
non-profi t, non-partisan watchdog group dedicated
to improving NYC’s public parks.
TRUMP’S TOO AFRAID OF
RACISTS, READER SAYS
Hundreds of alt-right activists,
neo-Nazis and white nationalist
extremists descended on the
small community of Charlottesville,
Va., last Saturday in what may have
been the largest hate-gathering of its
kind in decades in the United States.
One neo-Nazi plowed his car into
a crowd of counter-protesters, killing
one woman and seriously injuring
many others, fi ve critically. Th at
day, Republicans and Democrats alike
called it what it was: domestic terrorism
by white supremacists. Everyone
agreed that the blame belonged to
the anti-Semitic, racist, neo-Nazis.
Everyone except Trump.
Th e mayor of Charlottesville, Mike
Signer, said it best: “I’m not going to
make any bones about it. I place the
blame for a lot of what you’re seeing in
America today at the doorstep of the
White House and the people around
this president.”
What we have is a president who is
wholly unsuited to hold the position. A
president that is afraid to lose the support
of neo-Nazis and racists. A president
that, prior to the election, was
despised by countless GOP offi cials
who now praise his every disgraceful
action. Th e words “President Trump”
are equally terrifying and sickening.
Robert LaRosa, Whitestone
Editor’s note: President Trump
did condemn white supremacists,
the KKK and neo-Nazis in an
Aug. 14 speech, two days aft er the
Charlottesville incident.
PUT AN END TO
THE THREAT OF
NUCLEAR WAR
Th e hateful rhetoric between the
leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-
Un and President Donald Trump
has many worried around the world
and that includes myself. Nuclear war
is not the answer to solve problems
between nations, for there can be no
winners.
Th e U.S. needs a strong stand against
a military dictatorship that cares little
for human life and that President
Trump has done. Trump should have,
though, follow the advice that Teddy
Roosevelt had once given: “Speak soft -
ly and carry a big stick.”
Common sense must prevail. It is
time for both nations to realize what is
at stake and make an attempt to negotiate
a peace before things get out of
hand and millions lose their lives. As
President John F. Kennedy once had
said, “Mankind must put an end to war
before war puts an end to mankind.”
Now that is a most poignant statement
of truth.
Frederick R. Bedell Jr.,
Glen Oaks Village
LANDLORDTENANT
DISPUTES MUST
MOVE FASTER
Regarding the new city law guaranteeing
lawyers for low-income tenants
in disputes with their landlord:
While it’s a step in a right direction, it’s
a small step. Th e entire city and state
administration of tenant/landlord
cases needs to be drastically changed.
It’s still the landlords who have a very
signifi cant upper hand, and the backlog
of cases is horrifi c.
Tenants could wait years to have
their cases plod through the state
Division of Housing and Community
Renewal (DHCR). It’s a major travesty
of justice and a gross abuse of the
system.
QNS member Steven Katz