If you fix it, they will come.
A collapsed ramp leading into Shore Road Park’s baseball fields has been closed for nearly a year, but now that little league season has kicked off, pint-sized ball players and their families are hopping the gate and traversing the unstable structure instead of taking a blocks-long detour. More of the crumbling ramp could cave-in at any moment, but some fed-up locals say it’s worth the risk.
“It’s such an obstacle,” said Dyker Heights resident Warren Tsang, who regularly jumps the gate with his 10-year-old son. “Anyone who climbs over it risks being unsafe, but the next entrance is pretty far, and it’s difficult for the players with all their gear. It’s just easier this way.”
Rather than schlep a bag full of bats, gloves, and balls a few blocks over to the 93rd or 100th street entrances, Tsang and his son, who plays multiple positions in Saint Patrick’s Catholic Academy Baseball League, simply hop over the fence for practice once a week, sidestep the walkway’s collapsed crater, and saunter down to the field.
But the city fenced off the structure after its cave-in last July and Parks Department engineers deemed the ramp structurally unsound, according to an agency spokeswoman. Anyone who treads the decrepit walkway is literally risking life and limb, said the district manager of Community Board 10.
“The area around the collapse is vulnerable. The ramp is hollowed out in many places and more of it could easily cave-in,” said Josephine Beckmann, whose office has received 22 calls in the last month from locals venting their frustrations about the shuttered entrance. “I’m having trouble understanding why anyone wouldn’t heed warnings not to use the ramp. It’s very troubling to me.”
The Parks Department posted signs warning park-goers to beware of the busted ramp, but with warmer weather and the start of baseball season on April 2 has come an uptick in traffic on the verboten viaduct. And the city has peppered the area with more warning signs.
But some heeding the posts are entering the park through nearby gaps or merely hopping the fence bordering the park and trudging down a steep, densely wooded hill. The trek hasn’t always ended well, said one witness.
“I saw one kid trip and tumble down the hill,” said Ridgite Murray Fryd, who was enjoying the scenic view on a bench when he saw a group of kids climb the fence and enter the wilds. “It’s clearly not a good idea, but kids will be kids.”
The clear solution is to fix the ramp as soon as possible, said Tsang.
“We just want a repair,” he said. “It’s been a year. We want to see this ramp fixed.”
But it’s not a simple patch job, and locals need to cut the city some slack, said Beckmann.
“It’s not a quick fix. It is a major reconstruction that is required for that ramp,” said Beckmann. “I understand that it’s an inconvenience, but it’s an inconvenience for safety.”
The Parks Department aims to present a plan to the community board later this month and anticipates construction to begin this summer.
