{"id":1105,"date":"2006-05-31T09:47:32","date_gmt":"2006-05-31T17:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2006\/05\/a_park_fit_for_the_elderly_and_infirm.html"},"modified":"2008-01-25T11:17:37","modified_gmt":"2008-01-25T16:17:37","slug":"a_park_fit_for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2006\/05\/a_park_fit_for.html","title":{"rendered":"A Park Fit For The Elderly And Infirm"},"content":{"rendered":"

Parkgoers at Brooklyn’s Empire-Fulton Ferry Park are happy to be able to enjoy an open space were virtually everything is forbidden<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“They need to lighten up,” said John Soster, 39, a teacher and cyclist from Bushwick who was reprimanded for walking — not riding — his bike through the park last summer.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been chastised,” he added. “What are they so uptight about?”<\/p>\n

Another parkgoer told the Daily News she has seen rangers tell kids to stop playing ball – and teenagers complained they’ve been scolded for running around in the park.<\/p>\n

“A couple of my friends and I were told to stop running and horsing around or we’d have to leave,” said Kenyon Harris, 17, who now avoids the state park because of the rules.<\/p>\n

Empire-Fulton Ferry also has rules against commercial photography and filming, both of which require a permit. Parkgoers said hard-nosed park rangers can take this regulation too far.<\/p>\n

Louis Benitez, 31, a Queens marketing manager, said a ranger made him put away his hand-held video camera – even though he was just filming his fianc\u00c3\u00a9e and passing boats.<\/p>\n

“I was like, ‘Come on. It’s just for our leisure,'” said Benitez, who recently was forced out of the park because he was there with his friend’s dog. “They’re pretty strict.”<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

On Sunday, The News chronicled the widespread frustration that the Empire-Fulton Ferry closes its park at dusk — and even earlier. Parkgoers charged they are often abruptly kicked out at one of the nicest times of the day. At least one day last week, the park closed at 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Following an inquiry by The News, a state parks spokeswoman said they “were looking to expand” the hours to 11 p.m., at least on weekends.<\/p>\n

Community Board 2 district manager Robert Perris said he has gotten complaints about the strict rules at Empire-Fulton Ferry — and the sometimes overly aggressive rangers.<\/p>\n

“They sometimes treat people like they’re doing something really wrong for relatively minor things,” said Perris. “The response can seem much heavier than the ‘crime.'”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parkgoers at Brooklyn’s Empire-Fulton Ferry Park are happy to be able to enjoy an open space were virtually everything is forbidden: “They need to lighten up,” said John Soster, 39, a teacher and cyclist from Bushwick who was reprimanded for walking — not riding — his bike through the park last summer. “I’ve been chastised,” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brooklyn","category-jerk_move"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}