Pandemic Watch: Trashy Parks Part II

Perhaps you read my earlier posts, “Trashy Parks” and “Masks and Gloves.” Both posts discuss my disappointment with how we treat our environment.

Thanks to Covid-19 most of us have had much to do. To alleviate our boredom of being chained up in our NYC apartments we go for walks. We put on our PPE and stroll down our blocks. On one of my walks, I discovered Barrier Playground, a tiny cute park off the Horace Harding Expressway Service Road. It has a small green area with some benches. Basketball and handball courts abut the park area. In terms of discovered, I knew it was there. But never visited it. I only saw when I exited the expressway and made a quick right. After that turn, the park was a distant memory. But on my strolls, I walked into it. I decided to go back with my camera.

The only good thing to come out of Covid-19 is the parks are so green. That’s what you get when you don’t have people running around in them with their cigarettes and trash. As I entered the park, I noticed how green the bushes were and some pretty red flowers. An allergy sufferer’s “torture chamber.” With an itchy throat and watery eyes, I carried on.

I looked at the grounds of the park and saw water bottles, cigarette butts and bags of trash. The plastic food containers were an added touch. I posted these shots to Facebook. A friend, said “bears?” I said, “no.” We don’t have them in Queens. He responded he thought they were camp pictures. He went to camps in New Mexico and elsewhere where you had to tie your food and garbage up into trees to keep the bears out of your site. They always removed them when they broke camp. Didn’t always work. Sometimes the items fell off the trees or the bears just waltzed in. Perhaps, they were related to Smokey and checking the fire safety?

Back to Barrier Park and its trash. I don’t think the cute squirrels wanted the trash. They certainly don’t want your PPE. It is amazing how people are so worried about protecting themselves. But are they thinking about others when they dump their masks and gloves in the park? It is not fair to the birds, chipmunks and other wildlife that resides there. And it certainly not fair to the parks department workers who have to clean up your mess. Let’s keep our parks clean and green.

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