Amid a round of mixed—at best—grades for parks around the city in a recent parks survey, Juniper Valley Park—with a little help from dedicated volunteers—stood head and shoulders above many other neighborhood green spaces.
The 56-acre Middle Village-based park, which celebrated its 70th birthday earlier this year, scored an overall grade of 93 out of 100—an ‘A’ grade—on The Report Card for Large Parks, an annual survey and grading of 45 parks, including 17 in Queens, conducted by New Yorkers For Parks, a parks and open space advocacy group.
The park finished with the second highest score on the survey, second only to Seton Falls Park in the Bronx, which finished with an overall score of 94.
In an interview on Tuesday, Robert Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association, spoke glowingly of the marks while praising the dozens of volunteers who have helped to maintain the park on a weekly basis for years.
“The reason why park looks good is because of the organized efforts and the dozens of people who volunteer,” he said.
On the survey, athletic fields, bathrooms, immediate environment, pathways, playgrounds and trees at Juniper Valley Park all received perfect scores of 100 out of 100. The park’s courts and sitting areas also scored in the high 90s, although the drinking fountains and lawns scored in the low 70s and were cited in the survey as areas in need of improvement.
Referred to as the “heart” of Middle Village by Holden, the park had started as a 100-acre swamp, then a farm during the 18th century before being purchased by Arnold Rothstein in the early 1920s. The land was acquired by the city in 1931, three years after Rothstein was murdered, before it officially opened as a city park in 1941.
However, the park fell into disrepair in the 1960s, volunteers and civic association members said, due to lack of funding from the city. As a result, the park became plagued by vandalism, all night drinking parties, drug dealing and prostitution.
“It was terrible…the park was very destroyed [around that time],” said Lorraine Sciulli, vice president of the civic association.
The park began to turn around in 1991, thanks to the efforts of the civic association and then-city Councilman Tom Ognibene. Through their combined efforts, the park managed to secure millions in funds for the new baseball fields, a roller-hockey rink, a new running track and football fields, among other improvements.
On the subject of the low-scoring water fountains, cited in the report as suffering from leaks, mold, and standing water, and the park lawns—quoted in the report as ‘impacted by excessive weeds, bare areas, and discolored grass’—Holden said that those problems were often caused by heavy rains and the lack of drainage around the park.
“Those problems have been age old in the park,” he said.
Looking ahead, Holden said that he was hopeful that the asso-ciation could secure funding to add bocce, handball and tennis courts.
“This park is an important asset of the community,” he said of the significance of the park’s high marks on the survey. “When the community started taking care of the park, people took more pride in their homes. The message is simple—that the park is worth keeping.”
Linda Zimmer, a lifelong Middle Village resident of more than 50 years, has volunteered in cleaning the park for 25 years on a weekly basis, helping to clean up leaves, shovel snow and plant flowers.
“We’re out there so much that sometimes people have come up to us and asked us, ‘Don’t you work with the city? Where are your uniforms?’” she joked.
Zimmer said she has seen a lot of volunteers come and go through the years, while pointing to some like Peter Polonski, a Middle Village volunteer who have stayed on for years to help maintain Juniper Valley Park. Such help, Zimmer added, was vital in keeping the park looking pristine, especially in the face of perpetual understaffing of park personnel on the city level.
“It’s a neighborhood that cares about where they are and wants to stay safe,” she said. “All you need is a few people that stay dedicated.”
A Middle Village resident since 1939, Sciulli — who has seen the changes around Juniper Valley Park from its official inception as a city park — said the high marks reflected the great pride that local residents have taken in the park.
A healthy and robust-looking park, she added, meant that the prices of local homes around the area would also benefit in the real estate market.
“We care a lot about the park,” she said. “The condition of the park reflects the neighborhood.”
By Jean-Paul Salamanca
jp.salamanca@theforumnewsgroup.com
