By Amy Zimmer
DNAinfo News Editor
KIPS BAY — Families who live near Bellevue South Park are on a mission to reclaim the Kips Bay green space from the homeless.
Residents say the 1.6 acre space between First and Second avenues, from East 26th to 28th streets, had been taken over by men who stream out in the morning from a nearby shelter in the former Bellevue psychiatric building.
Many men had been taking up residence on the park's benches, sometimes using its sprinkler — intended for kids — in the summer for their showers, according to those who have been fighting to clean up the park.
But recent neighborhood efforts have started to bring kids back into the playgrounds and basketball courts. Community Board 6 has been holding monthly meetings about Bellevue South with the Parks Department, Department of Homeless Services and the NYPD.
"There are a lot of people who live in this neighborhood who've never been here," said Maxine McIntosh, a volunteer with the Bellevue South Park Association neighborhood group which is trying to bring more activities to the park and encourage more residents to volunteer.
"It's a hidden park," said McIntosh, who also chairs Community Board 6's youth and education committee.
Lisa Metrock began volunteering in the park nearly five years ago when she grew so frustrated with its homeless population that she took it upon herself to walk around telling the men they couldn't drink there.
"I'm telling you they would take up the whole park, wall to wall," said Metrock, a mother of four who was born and raised in the area and worked as a clinical nurse at Bellevue Medical Center.
She estimated that of more than 100 men, all but a dozen regulars remain.
Metrock was eventually trained by the Parks Department as an official volunteer greeter and now spends her day in Bellevue South Park from 7 a.m. until 8:30 p.m., seven days a week. Her presence has encouraged parents to bring their kids to the park's playgrounds, she said.
"I'm like the mother hen," said Metrock, who has a stack of letters from parents thanking her. From her own pocket, she has painted and planted to beautify the park.
"Lisa has done a tremendous job," said McIntosh.
The park's seclusion, however, still poses challenges.
It's surrounded by the massive Mitchell-Lama apartment houses that recently went market-rate, a public housing complex and a building with medical offices.
McIntosh remembers when the park was first built in 1979 with a concrete wall around it, turning it into a "haven for all sorts of illegal activities." The wall was removed after a $2 million renovation in 1997 that the community fought hard for, she said.
But the overgrown trees in the park still provide a thick cover, blocking lights at night, and making the space "scary," McIntosh said.
"They need to be cut back. When it's dusk, it's really dark."
Her group has worked with the staff at local methadone clinics to ensure the park is no longer a hub for sellers and users. They've also been working with Common Ground, a nonprofit that helps find housing for the homeless, which has placed some of the men who used the park into homes.
But McIntosh worries the park is still forbidding to some families.
Some of the men can be hostile to criticism, such as when Metrock asked one of the men to put out a cigarette and he refused, glaring at her as she made her rounds.
"Having this many men in the park at any time is a deterrent to families. And they’re drinking alcohol. Now, they take it out of the bag and drink it from a cup," McIntosh said, nodding toward a man with a Styrofoam cup.
"Large numbers of men for women is threatening, especially women with kids."
The homeless men keep out of the kiddie playground on the park's northern end, thanks to a metal fence, Metrock said.
With signs the Parks Department recently installed around the jungle gym for bigger kids at the southern end banning adults without kids, Metrock has been able to reclaim that space for children, too, she said.
But she and McIntosh hope the Parks Department sends more Parks Enforcement officers to keep the space safe.
"Homeless Services, working in partnership with Community Board 6, the Parks Department, NYPD and the Manhattan DA's office has taken multiple steps to ensure that homeless individuals do not loiter in the Bellevue South Park," a DHS spokeswoman said.
A Parks Department spokesman added, "We will continue to monitor Bellevue Park South, and work closely with NYPD and DHS to ensure that this park remains a positive environment for the community."
The park recently annexed a walkway from First Avenue along what would be East 27th Street — which had turned into a homeless encampment with tents and beds when it was under scaffolding.
Now that the scaffolding and beds are gone — and the Parks Department removed some benches and installed new gates to deter possible sleepers — the Bellevue South Park Association is trying to get the Asser Levy Recreation Center involved in programming tai chi, yoga or other exercise classes in that outdoor space.
"We still need more support and cleanup and more safe zones for the children," Metrock said. "My husband thinks I'm crazy, but he supports what I do."
