To read this blog in your preferred language, please use the 'Select Language' dropdown menu.
Request for Independent Investigation into
Hinton Park Mismanagement (2020–2025)
Introduction
Since 2020, the community surrounding Hinton Park in Corona, Queens, has documented the endured reckless, lawless, and unsafe conditions due to the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation’s failure to provide even the most basic services. Despite repeated complaints for many years by many members from the community including Louis Armstrong school officials, parents and community meetings organized by Council Member Francisco Moya in 2020 and 2022 ( Moya serves on the Parks & Recreation committee), where promises were made by both Parks officials and representatives from the 115th Precinct, conditions have continued to deteriorate year after year.
This is what gaslighting the community by counsel member Moya looks like in 2022. Picture is from counsel member Moya's facebook page
Now, in the fall of 2025, we are still fighting for the same issues. Instead of protecting children, families, and residents, the Parks Department has proven itself to be dysfunctional and/or incompetent, allowing our community to suffer from hazards, disorder, and neglect when going to school or the Playground.
This letter is a formal request for a full, independent investigation into the management of Hinton Park between 2020 and 2025, with specific review of the roles and decisions of:
-
Council Member Francisco Moya – for his role at the 2020 and 2022 community meetings and on the Parks & Recreation committee
-
Philip Sparacio, Chief of Operations, NYC Parks
-
Eric Goetz, Regional Manager, NYC Parks
-
Michelle Young, Director of Community Affairs, NYC Parks
-
Matthew Sheridan, Local Parks Manager, NYC Parks
-
Stephanie Taveras, Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP)
Garbage Storage at the Playground Entrance
According to Regional Manager Eric Goetz, “historically” the Parks Department has stored garbage at the Playground entrance, where 1,500 elementary school students and their parents pass daily on their way to Louis Armstrong School.
Every morning at 8am, children and families are forced to walk through the stench of rotting garbage, leaking bags, broken glass, grease, and sludge spread across the sidewalk. This is not only unsanitary but dangerous.
Broken glass and debris have already caused injuries — including children hospitalized after stepping on glass at the playground entrance.
When Mr. Goetz used the word “historically,” it was not a plan for change — it was an admission that this unsafe practice has been normalized and is standard procedure for years. In bureaucratic language, “historically” translates to:
“We’ve always done it this way, and we don’t intend to change it.”
That single word exposes the Parks Department’s complacency and disregard for child safety.
When safer garbage storage alternatives were proposed by residents, Regional Manager Eric Goetz stated: it was "convenient” to store the garbage at the Playground entrance for the truck to pick it up.
This response, combined with his earlier remark that garbage has been stored there “historically,” shows a clear attitude of complacency and disregard. In plain terms, “convenient” means it’s easier for Parks staff to keep risking children’s health than to change procedure.
The Parks Department continues to put its own convenience ahead of the well-being of schoolchildren, parents, and the community.
In the video below, you can see children and parents are exposed to alcohol consumption and walking through the Playground entrance, directly exposed to garbage bags, leaking fluids, and broken glass on the sidewalk. Each day, hundreds of families are forced to navigate this unsafe, unhygienic path on their way to Louis Armstrong School — conditions that have been accepted and perpetuated by Parks officials for years.
In the video evidence below, Regional Manager Eric Goetz can be heard acknowledging how “convenient” it is to store garbage at the Playground entrance, directly confirming that this decision prioritizes operational convenience over public safety.
Louis Armstrong school officials quote:
"The garbage storage is disgusting. I called 311 and no results"
" We called many times including parents, but they don't do anything. We don't know what else to do"
Local residents quote:
" I don't even know what to say anymore after all those years."
