No Breakfast In The Park For Day Laborers in Woodside, Queens
By Jaisal NoorNovember 11, 2009 | Posted in IndyBlog , Jaisal Noor | Email this article
When Estalin Valentin arrived at Hart Park in Woodside, Queens this morning, he was in for a shock. For the first Tuesday in five years, there was no hot meal waiting for him.
The park had been the site of a weekly mobile soup kitchen visit by the St. Johns Bread and Life program. When Valentin, a day laborer and Ecuadorian immigrant, arrived this morning, the NYPD was on the scene, but there were no food being served. He told The Indypendent this was the first time he has missed the free Tuesday morning breakfast.
According to Carlos Perez, who has works for the Mobile Soup Kitchen, the police told his boss, Kathy Byrnes the director of the program, that the park was going to be a site of a demonstration against the free breakfast and the day laborers presence. To avoid a confrontation, Perez said the NYPD asked Byrnes to not serve her breakfast at its usual location.
Perez confirmed that this was the first Tuesday since the mobile soup kitchen began five years ago that it was unable to serve its Tuesday morning breakfast at the corner of 69th and Broadway. The Soup Kitchen was relocated 7 blocks away to the corner of 69th Street and Woodside Ave.
In recent months some local residents have complained to the police of the day laborers presence around the Park. On several occasions police have removed the men, who use the park’s restrooms and benches during and after their meal, from the park.
In one incident on July 17th, 2009, the NYPD removed several men eating their Tuesday morning meals from the after receiving a 911 call claiming that men were urinating in public. Brynes responded in a statement saying, “since I have been coming to this park the last two years, I have never seen anyone urinate in the park”.
Roberto Menesses, president of Day Laborers United, a day laborer advocacy group, says the day’s events were typical of a broad pattern of police harassment. He had got word of the anti-day laborer protest, and in an email blast the night before had called for a counter-rally. When asked about failure of any demonstrators to show up, Menesses gestured to the police, “Thats your anti-immigrant protest right there,” he said.
Perez he could not explain why the demonstrators chose a Tuesday morning. ” Its sad, ” he said, “we only come once a week. I could understand if we were destroying the neighborhood,” he said. “We just come for a little while, feed whoever is hungry, do some social services and we leave,” he added.
However, the demonstration failed to materialize. The NYPD officers at the scene refused to comment.
Hart Park has been a longtime flash point between some local residents who complain that large number of men gather around the park, and the day laborers who who congregate in search for a job. 17 months into the economic downturn, Byrnes says that she has seen the number of meals she serves at her only Queens stop increase by 40-45%.
The Indypendent will continue to follow this story.
For more of the Indypendent’s coverage read “Its No Walk in the Park for Day Laborers” by Karen Yi and Jaisal Noor.
8 Responses to “No Breakfast In The Park For Day Laborers in Woodside, Queens”
November 11th, 2009 at 12:46 am
I wonder if it is law and order problem, with forethought that with unemployment more than 10.2 percent (official figure) the lines to soup kitchen will run longer and longer.
November 11th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
It is sad that instead of supporting those who are trying to serve the hungry in these hard times, some people choose to hinder these efforts! thank you for the inspiring story.
November 17th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
FYI - this is NOT a park. It is a PLAYGROUND. None of these men should be in there at all.
November 19th, 2009 at 5:20 am
Unfortunately, “In woodside”, you are totally wrong.
Official park regulations, according to Phil Abramson, a spokesperson for the City Department of Parks and Recreation, state that adults without children are allowed inside Hart Park in all areas except those clearly designated playground by colored pavement around playground equipment.
“The park is open to anyone,” Abramson said, “the restrooms are open to anyone [as are] the benches.” He said that this is the first time he has heard of confusion over the posted signs.
read more: http://www.indypendent.org/2009/10/08/no-walk-in-the-park/
November 30th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Then how about changing the sign outside the playground which states that only adults with children are allowed? And if what you say is actually the case then enforce that rule. If you spent anytime in this park as I do with my toddler several times a week, you would see that there are men sitting on the benches 10 feet from the playground equipment. Always. If they stayed away from the playground equipment that would be fine with me. But after one of them said ‘come here, come here’ to my daughter as she walked by I have no patience for this anymore.
And the sign on the outside of the playground calls it ‘Hart Playground’ as does the Parks website.
Look, I feel for these men. They hang out on my corner looking for work everyday and I do not object, but I do have a right to take my daughter someplace to play safely with clean bathrooms.
December 1st, 2009 at 4:00 pm
“Official park regulations, according to Phil Abramson, a spokesperson for the City Department of Parks and Recreation, state that adults without children are allowed inside Hart Park in all areas except those clearly designated playground by colored pavement around playground equipment.”
And I double checked today - there is no ‘colored pavement’ anywhere in the playground, aside from painted games. I doubt Abramson has ever been to this playground. The only ‘confusion’ about the signs is by the people ignoring them.
December 15th, 2009 at 11:18 am
I find it interesting that once facts are brought into play you no longer answer me. It says something. It really does.
November 11th, 2009 at 12:29 am
The recession officially began in December 2007 so we are now in the 24 month of the economic downturn…Anyhow, nice article.