Waterfront park is a mess

To the editor:

Hoping it would be dark enough to see the meteor shower last week, a friend and I went to the Riverdale Waterfront Promenade and Fishing Access Site. 

In case you didn’t recognize the name, this is the official name of the tiny sliver of a park right on the Hudson River that is accessible at the Riverdale Metro-North Railroad station at West 254th Street. 

It was a disgraceful mess — the once neatly landscaped and mowed areas overgrown with shoulder-high weeds and every trash basket overflowing with trash — mostly bottles.

The parking lot attendant we spoke to as we exited informed us that maintenance was the responsibility of the Parks Department. 

This was confirmed by an Aug. 5 New York Times article I found on the park’s opening. He also told us that young kids — 11, 12 13 years old (his words, not mine) — come to the park nightly to drink. 

Police regularly drag them out, only to have them return the next night. I remember how overjoyed I was when Mayor Bloomberg dedicated this park in 2005 with all our local politicians present. 

How tough can it be to maintain this tiny park — the only place we Riverdalians have with direct access to the river? Incidentally, I called 311 the next day and it took the NYC 311 rep and I (with me at my computer trying to give her an exact address of the park) close to 15 minutes to place a service request. 

I must confess, I learned from my web searches that the park hours are 8 a.m. to dusk, so I shouldn’t have been there, but neither should the people fishing that night or the kids with the beer bottles.

Kathleen M. Burke