Want to party in Van Cortlandt? Neighbors instead say, ‘go home!’

By day, Jerome Avenue in Woodlawn is environmentally sensitive, surrounded by the famous Woodlawn Cemetery. By night, it’s a whole other story as people show up with their cars and their over-sized speakers.

William Murray grew up in Bedford Park and made his fair share of complaints about neighbors not being friendly. Car washes inhabited the Bedford Park neighborhood near the New York Botanical Garden.

He moved to Woodlawn not long ago to improve his quality of life. Or so he thought.

“Are these pop-up car washes driving down sales (of legitimate businesses)? Are they even legit? Are they money laundering? Like, what’s going on,” he said. “I don’t want this to happen to Woodlawn.”

There is a stretch of Jerome Avenue all the way to East 233rd Street. On the east side, there is Woodlawn cemetery, and on the west side is Van Cortlandt Park. And farther up, there is something called the Allen Shandler recreation area.

Community board meetings have brought up this area for multiple complaints.

Nearby is Mosholu Golf Course, with the entrance on Jerome Avenue. But as dusk hits, people come out to have fun. Passersby can see the stretch of people standing and sometimes sitting on furniture that is brought out while they smoke hookah surrounded by sound systems.

“There will be a carpet laid out on the grass, they would put a couch — but it’s not only one or two, there are six on one side and six on another,” Murray said.

Once illegal car washes move, those parking spaces are for loudspeakers where music can be heard across the entire neighborhood on Webster Avenue.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz serves this part of Woodlawn, and he told The Riverdale Press Woodlawn has it bad. Dinowitz drove there several months ago on a Saturday near Webster Avenue and Gun Hill Road. He witnessed the car washes and tractor-trailers illegally parked.

“They have no business being there,” he said.

“Traffic was stopped (June 3) in both directions this morning on by the Mosholu golf course,” Murray said.

The most recent party was on June 4. According to Murray, it sometimes starts around 11 p.m. and ends around 6 a.m. “I don’t know how they have the stamina” he said.

“I don’t think that this should be permitted, but there may be no ordinance against it,” Murray said. “But the periphery of a cemetery is the real crime with music blazing all night long.”

The Bronx native said 3900 Webster Ave, adjacent to the Samuel Untermyer Tomb and not far from the gravesite of jazz legend Miles Davis at the cemetery, is the favorite spot for partygoers.

Christopher Jeannopoulos, president and chief executive of Woodlawn Cemetery and Conservancy, said in a statement:  “Woodlawn is an active cemetery where people pay their respects. Families expect the resting location to be quiet and calm as well as properly maintained.

“We are asking those who are occupying Woodlawn’s sidewalks and grassy barriers to move on and to respect a National Historic Landmark that serves thousands of New Yorkers at a time when they are praying.”

Police are aware, but they play cat and mouse, Murray said. The 50th and 47th precincts share coverage of the neighborhood. The group moves to the Webster side when the 50th targets the Van Cortlandt Park side.

“But if we’re criminalizing it — I think the real thing is the pollution,” Murray said.

“In recent months, we have seen an increase in concerning activities along the perimeter of the Woodlawn Cemetery — car washes, parking of semi-trucks, illegal dumping of trash, and playing of loud amplified music,” Jeannopoulos stated.

Remnants of the party, including couches and other furniture, will remain on the streets, Murray said.

Murray says he can hear car motors and people fleeing the police. And as the weather gets warmer, the parties will continue to increase and worsen, he added.

The park does have its own law enforcement force: Parks Enforcement Patrol and Urban Park Services. But the amount of power they have is limited. The Urban Park Services comprises PEP and park communications and acts as the primary receiving station for all park incidents.

While PEP cannot make official arrests, they must drive the suspect to the 50th Precinct to be processed.

It doesn’t matter because the PEP shift ends around the time the parties begin. Then it’s in the hands of the precinct.

Yet, there is some light in this gloomy situation. In April, Neighborhood Coordination Officers Nelida Perez and Joel Olivencia confiscated two speakers standing as tall as the officers mid-thigh after 311 complaints were issued around Jerome Avenue near Allen Shandler Park.

Since June 1, 2020, in the Woodlawn Cemetery area, there have been more than 2,000 complaints of loud music from cars and vans about parties.

A Liberty Line bus driver operating on the Bee-Line System ran into some rowdy people who jumped on the outside of his bus.

The line runs from Westchester into Riverdale, Bedford Park and Yonkers—specifically, Jerome Avenue.

Murray feels the residents and himself picture the situation as a new form of blockbusting. He says that since it’s decreasing the quality of life it might drive people out of the neighborhood.

He expressed his concern for the beginning of urban blight — unless there is more enforcement. He hopes that one day the police department will work with parks and the cemetery to solve the noise problem and find an easier way to stop the harassment.