Do Better for Far Rock

Dear Editor:

Reading the Rockaway Times every week, I’m kept abreast of new businesses and restaurants opening. There’s also a section on what’s going on with things to do in Rockaway. What I seldom see is a new business advertised opening in the Far Rockaway recently renovated business district, nor have I’ve seen many community events east of Beach 58th Street. I recently moved from Far Rockaway, which was the community I grew up in. I left after I came to the realization that those who are responsible for our sanitation, police, and our Far Rockaway business district never really cared about our community, they just cashed their checks and went through their day with blinders on and when the day was over, they went back to their homes somewhere else.

Our public officials turned a blind eye for years, just think about it. Our sanitation, school board, police and our elected representatives didn’t see anything wrong with having a newly built school right by the ocean (Beach 29th Street) whose school’s parking lot for YEARS had at least half a dozen abandoned cars (good example of laying a foundation for school children to be exposed to daily?). In the Beach 30s, an empty field across from the newly rebuilt boardwalk there was a ripped up Barcalounger just sitting for all to see for years, hard to miss it. It was just one field over from the field used as a parking lot for those visiting our beaches (nice advertising for our community?). Even though Far Rockaway was a high crime area, you would seldom be able to reach the police on the phone, because the police closes at about six. Many of the vacant lots in the Beach 20s and 30s across from the beach are constantly abused. As community groups and residents worked hard trying to turn them into flowering green areas, only to be destroyed by cars turning them into parking lots and off road and four-wheel drive courses. When you call the police, they would say it’s the park service responsibility and the park service said it was the police responsibility, as they did nothing but point fingers as the plantings and fields were constantly being destroyed.

When a professional sports team is floundering, you find new managers and coaches and I think it’s time to find the right management to bring Far Rockaway back into the beautiful and self-sufficient beach side community it once was and should be again. This isn’t about Republicans and Democrats, it’s hiring the right sanitation, police, school boards, etc. in Far Rockaway who will take responsibility. The abandoned cars and the Barcalounger were very visible, so I’m asking, how could those responsible ignore what’s out there? Is that hard to demand abandoned, smashed cars not be in one’s school parking lot?

H. Brownstein