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Last call at Kaiser Park: New closing time to dissuade boozy late-night crowds

Last call at Kaiser Park: New closing time to dissuade boozy late-night crowds
Photo by Georgine Benvenuto

Locals say this waterfront park needs to dry out.

Drug dealers, gang bangers, and liquored-up late-night revelers will have to cut their degenerate dealings at Kaiser Park short — the Parks Department will begin closing the park at 11 pm rather than 1 am starting Feb. 1, a local pol announced.

Raucous witching-hour parties are a problem in the Coney greensward, but police could only kick out people with open alcohol containers, making it tough to break up the gatherings, the elected said.

“Except in the case of open alcohol containers, but in terms of crowds congregating past midnight, the police department informed me that Kaiser Park has a closing time at 1 am, so there was nothing they could do,” said Councilman Mark Treyger (DConey Island).

Locals are optimistic that giving cops the power to hand out summonses for simply being in the park after 11 pm will restore a measure of peace to the sometimes rowdy park.

“They want to stay under the radar, but if they see they’re going to start enforcing the park curfew, they don’t need the heat,” said Edwin Cosme, 55, who lives a few blocks away from the park on W. 19th Street.

Treyger started pushing to close the park early after a gunman killed Philadelphia man Eric Rivera during a massive, after-midnight party at the park in June, the pol said.

“The facts of the case troubled me,” he said.

Cosme hopes the pressure will tamp down a gang activity he sees in the park, he said.

“There are gang conflicts, certain gangs wear certain colors, the Bloods wear red, the Crips wear blue, and also you have drug dealers out there peddling drugs,” Cosme said.

Reach reporter Colin Mixson at cmixson@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4505.