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Flushing Meadows-Corona Park tops all NYC green spaces in total recorded crimes from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016.
By Michael V. Cusenza
Violent crime in city parks and recreational facilities has recently become an urgent issue, with reported offenses jumping 25 percent over the past year, according to a troubling new report compiled by NYC Park Advocates.
Geoffrey Croft, founder and president of NYCPA, noted that 612 people reported being the victims of violent crimes in city parks during the period of July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016, compared to 488 over the previous 12-month period.
Flushing Meadows-Corona Park leads all city green spaces with 65 total crimes reported over the past year. Riverside Park came in a distant second: 41 crimes were logged in the Manhattan space during the same 12 months, the data indicated.
And, as Croft pointed out, numbers are up significantly in all four violent crime categories – murder, rape, felony assault, and robbery. Flushing Meadows finds itself at the top of several dubious lists, according to Croft’s analysis: the 897-acre green space has clocked the most felony assaults, robberies, burglaries, and car thefts of all Big Apple parks July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016.
In March, State Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst), U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Queens and Bronx), Assemblyman Francisco Moya (D-Jackson Heights) sent letters to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, encouraging them to support funding for the construction of a 110th Precinct Satellite Station in FMCP.
“For several years, neighbors and park-goers have been complaining about an uptick in crime and gang activity in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. This park is our particular jewel, but if we don’t put the necessary resources into place to keep it safe, we are going to end up losing it,” Peralta told The Forum on Tuesday. “The statistics in the report are frightening, and the public’s perception that the park is a safe place can be derailed. This park is the home of Citi Field, the New York Hall of Science, the U.S. Open, the Queens Museum and more. I think it is time to make my proposal to build a police substation in the park a reality, especially from a logistics perspective, considering that police response time form the 110th Police Precinct to the park is at least ten minutes without traffic. Delays in responding to emergencies can put residents and visitors in harm’s way.”
In March, Crowley said, “We owe it to the men and women who we entrust to keep us safe, to provide them with the proper resources to effectively carry out their jobs. For the officers of the NYPD’s 110th Precinct in Corona, that means being able to work out of a facility that’s up to standards as well as from a strategically placed substation to better fight crime within their jurisdiction, which includes the second-largest park in the city.”
Croft went on to note that park crime for the first six months of 2016 skyrocketed some 39 percent, compared to the same period the previous year.
“Protecting parks is simply not a priority,” Croft said of the de Blasio administration.
