Kids have been hanging out and drinking late at night on the bleachers in Juniper, leaving the Parks Department with a mess to clean. Forum Newsgroup photo by Natalia Kozikowska.
For years, neighbors have witnessed teens gathering at Juniper Valley Park on warm summer nights to indulge in underage drinking. Although some have dismissed the drinking as typical teen behavior and turned a blind eye, Bob Holden, President of the Juniper Park Civic Association, is taking a stand saying it is not only illegal, but it leads to more serious problems like vandalism.
On multiple occasions, Holden said he has driven by the park late at night and noticed groups of teenagers drinking beer. The children are not only violating the 9:00 p.m. curfew, they are also leaving behind a mess for the Parks Department to clean.
“I see the evidence the following day. There are beer bottles and broken bottles all over the ball fields and by the hockey ring,” he said. “The Parks Department and volunteers are the ones who clean up and they’re constantly picking the garbage up,” he added.
Holden attributes most of the vandalism at Juniper Park to teens hanging out in the park and drinking. “When you have underage kids drinking in the park unsupervised, it can lead to crazy things. A lot of what we get is vandalism,” he said.
Although Middle Village residents have reported kids drinking at Juniper for years, Holden expressed concern that this summer they are drinking in much larger crowds. “I mean we used to have drinking and it would be a group of four or five but now, about three weeks ago, I saw about twenty kids,” he said.
Neighbors have also noticed this year’s spike. Greg Lu, who lives just three blocks away from Juniper, said he sometimes sees multiple groups of kids at the park.
“For as long as I can remember, kids have been coming to Juniper to drink beer, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many at once before,” he said. “Sometimes there’s a group here and a group there – it’s like thirty kids,” he added.
The Juniper Civic Park Association has been trying to address the underage drinking, and consequently, vandalism, for years.
“The worst was two years ago when we had a lot of vandalism. We had a lot of trees cut and we had vandalism on a nightly basis. The bleachers were all torn up…so many things destroyed,” said Holden.
In an effort to remedy the problem, the Juniper Civic has been working closely with the officers at the 104th Precinct. Captain Michael Cody said that police are well aware of the problem and have responded to the scene multiple times. “We do regular sweeps in the area,” he said. “It’s one of our precinct initiatives and we’ve had successful operations,” he added.
Middle Village residents hope that when the school year starts, there will be fewer kids drinking at the park after hours. Captain Cody assured that the problem will eventually die down within the next few weeks. “It’s the summer so kids tend to go out. When it’s colder outside, the kids aren’t drinking at the park as much,” he said.
By Natalia Kozikowska
