Closing Time Controversy at Fort Greene Park
Does Fort Greene Park have a racially discriminatory dividing line running through it? That’s the charge being floated in a story from DNAinfo this morning. At issue are the different closing times for different sections of the 30-acre public space. More specifically, the fact that the barbecue area, which is at the northwest corner of…
Does Fort Greene Park have a racially discriminatory dividing line running through it? That’s the charge being floated in a story from DNAinfo this morning. At issue are the different closing times for different sections of the 30-acre public space. More specifically, the fact that the barbecue area, which is at the northwest corner of the park across from the Ingersoll-Whitman houses, shuts at 9 p.m. while the rest of the park, including the areas fronting on the townhouses of Dekalb and Washington Park, stays open ’til 1 a.m. has the conspiracy theorists buzzing. “On this side we get kicked out as soon as it gets dark,” said one man who’d lived in the Whitman Houses his entire life. “Over there they stay as long as they like.” “I don’t know why there would be two different closing times in this park,” said a woman who lives on the DeKalb Street side of the park. “But I hope it’s not racially motivated.” A former resident of the housing projects had this to say about the early closure of the barbecue zone. “It’s understandable, because there are a lot of drugs and crime on the Myrtle Avenue side of the park. I would rather be safe in a park at 9 p.m. than unsafe at 1 a.m.” The article fails to point out that most of the park that faces the housing projects along Myrtle is open until 1 a.m. and that there are no barbecue areas on the “fancy” side of the park. Do you buy the charge that the earlier closing time for the barbecue area is racially-driven?
Ft. Greene Park’s Different Closing Times Prompt Racism Fears [DNAinfo]
When it’s normal for 14 year olds to be starting families, then we’re headed for destruction. I say; ‘intergrate projects for the elderly, handicap and working class.’ The outcome will mean better parks, a stronger/diverse community. Hoodlums have been getting their way for far too long. Now there are people who are standing upto and rejecting negative behavioural patterns
Let those project residents pretend not to know why they won’t allow you in that section after 9pm. How about all the shootings? How about all the i-phone, i-mac and electronic device robberies happening to all the newcomers? These fools carry guns and a bad atitude like it’s a merit badge. And that mindset gets repeated with every out of wedlock pregnacy that can count on our tax dollars to support em. These same folks won’t allow you to sleep at night-and with all the bbq pork floating in the air- that section of the park smells terrible.
Getting bored with these racially charged post.