Gabel, Pearl/Gabel, Pearl If some Prospect Park-goers had their way, scenes like this would not happen in the park. This campaign is hardly burning up the charts.
A small but vocal group of Brooklyn residents is calling for a ban on grilling in Prospect Park, saying charcoal fumes and toxic smoke they emit is a public nuisance.
“It’s a toxic smoke issue — it affects people’s health and it’s an environmental issue,” said Park Slope resident Daz Ryan, who last week launched a Change.org petition, which had only garnered a lowly 13 signatures by Friday evening.
The petition, titled “Help Make Prospect Park Toxic Free By 2015,” urges Mayor de Blasio and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams to take action against the “toxic charcoal smoke rising from Prospect Park into playgrounds, nearby homes, and public walkways” or ban grilling altogether.
Ryan, who is in her 50s, said the hazardous smoke and fumes emanating from burning charcoal has seeped into her home near 14th St. for more than a decade, but that it has gotten far worse over the past five or six years.
“When it happens I’m forced to close all of my windows,” said Ryan, who claims the incoming smoke has even caused her carbon monoxide detector to sound.
Natalie Musumeci/New York Daily News Grilling in Prospect Park is only allowed in designated areas, but some park-goers wish it was banned all together. Grilling is only permitted in designated areas that are primarily located near the outskirts of the park, but Ryan says that the designated sections are way too close to residential areas and the populated park drives.
Other parkgoers who hope for a barbecue ban in the park because of garbage and pollution concerns say people often disregard the rules and illegally grill wherever they want.
“On any given beautiful day, the park is overrun by people with barbecues,” said Randi Lass, 47, a park clean-up volunteer, who said that people usually set up grills by the lake or under a tree, which is also not permitted.
She said aquatic life, herons, egrets, ducks, turtles, frogs and possums are affected by the fumes.
“Runoff from the charcoal wind up in the lake, threatening all living things that require the lake for sustenance,” she said, adding that the Prospect Park Alliance needs to more closely oversee the grills or implement a ban.
Natalie Musumeci/New York Daily News People who barbecue n Prospect Park often disregard these signs and grill wherever they want, locals say. Barbecue lovers were outraged by the grill aggression.
“This is everybody’s backyard,” said Laurence Checler, 45, who was cooking up burgers in the park on Thursday. “Not everybody has the privilege of having a backyard.”
A spokeswoman for the Parks Department declined to comment on the petition. Stefan Ringel, a spokesman for Adams, said the borough president “is currently reviewing this issue,” and De Blasio’s office did not return requests for comment.
With Marco Poggio
nmusumeci@nydailynews.com
http://ift.tt/1jywAR3
via Great Local News: New York http://ift.tt/1iZiLP1
No comments:
Post a Comment