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By
Shams Tarek
Brookville
Park — that damp, Manhattan-shaped oasis in the middle of Rosedale —
has been getting a lot of bad press lately.
Not
that the park is rife with problems . . . it just has a little bug
situation it needs to take care of.
It
was recently identified, actually, as the site of the borough’s first
West Nile Virus discovery this summer.
As
the Department of Health plants larvicides in the park, and local
officials and activists fight for more aggressive treatment of the virus
in the area, the 90-acre park continues to offer what it always has: a
pastoral setting for romantics and nature lovers, durable open space for
athletes and a pristine waypoint for millions of animals migrating up and
down the Atlantic coast.
Walking
into Brookville Park gives visitors an immediate sense of tranquility.
As
squirrels shuffle around and birds call knowing they’re far from the
traffic of nearby roads, strollers and picnickers can also forget, for a
moment, that they’re surrounded by the noisy bustle of 149th Avenue,
235th Street, Brookville Boulevard and South Conduit Avenue.
The
park is quite diverse in its topography, too.
A
pond anchors the center of the park and provides a habitat for small fish
and, unfortunately for the very young and those over 50—the high-risk
group for suffering the most from West Nile — mosquitos, too.
Other
parts of the park are dense with tall grass and other foliage; in places,
you feel like you’re near a southern swamp.
Elsewhere,
the gently rolling humps and dips of the park’s surface give way to land
flattened just for athletes.
In
all, the environment of Brookville Park makes for a favorite stop on the
Atlantic Flyway, a migratory path for millions of birds, butterflies, bats
and dragonflies between Florida and Nova Scotia.
Bird
and other animal watchers are most likely to see their subjects in the
fall and spring, when they make their flights to avoid the extreme heat of
the southern United States and extreme cold of Canada.
Brookville
Park, according to the Parks Department, is a favorite resting spot for
many of the birds along the way.
The
birds of prey include hawks, eagles, peregrine falcons, harriers and
osprey.
On
the more docile side of the bird family at Brookville Park are various
ducks, geese, swans, swallows, sparrows and warblers.
All
this nature talk would have someone thinking that Brookville Park is some
kind of wildlife refuge.
While
it is a refuge for wildlife, including the unwanted kind, the park is also
a refuge for people looking to get their athletic fixes in the
neighborhood.
There’s
a strong tradition of sports — including organized league play — at
Brookville Park.
The
Rosedale Jets, one of Southeast Queens’ most active and
community-oriented youth sports leagues, calls the park home.
The
football and cheerleading organization for kids ages six to 13 just left
for its second annual football camp, with a big public send-off at the
park’s Field on Aug. 14.
The
team is scheduled to have a homecoming at the same place on Aug. 17; its
Allen A.M.E. luxury charter bus will be rolling back into the park at 8
p.m.
There
are also several baseball fields and tennis courts at the park; of the two
sports, though, it’s tennis that’s closest to Brookville’s heart.
The
park is one of the few locations around the city where the Parks
Department runs its City Parks Youth Tennis program, which gives urban
kids the chance to learn the relatively expensive sport for free. Programs
were most recently held on Aug. 12 and 14.
The
six courts at the park were recently renamed the Derek Dilworth Courts, in
honor of a local tennis guru and community activist who gave free lessons
to local kids, painted fences, bought storage equipment and even donated
fish for the pond.
Dilworth
was also a major figure in the Brookville Racket Club and the first black
air traffic controller at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
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