LONG ISLAND CITY — Bill Bylewski, a neighborhood parks advocate who spent years planting, weeding and beautifying the Hunters Point waterfront, died last month after a bout with cancer, friends said.
His death was previously reported by the Times Ledger.
Bylewski, 53, was a tenant in the CityLights building when he helped start the Friends of Gantry Park group — now the Hunters Point Parks Conservancy — in the late 1990s in an effort to clean up and take care of Gantry Plaza State Park, friends said.
"To me what was most impressive was that he took the initiative make Long Island City a better place back when Long Island City was a bit of a wasteland, and not a very cool place to be," said Rob Basch, current president of the Hunters Point Park Conservancy.
Friends of Gantry expanded and changed its name last year in order to include the new Hunters Point South Park, which opened on the waterfront in 2013.
"We shared a vision of this waterfront being one spectacular and connected park," Mark Christie, the group's vice president, said of Bylewski. The two were advocates for the neighborhood in its earliest days, sweeping and getting rid of abandoned cars, Christie said.
"He always offered a kind word to us volunteers," he added. "That's going to be missed."
Friends said Bylewski frequently led the charge when it came to the betterment of the waterfront, organizing "It's My Park Day" activities and clean-ups or weeding, pruning and spreading mulch in the park's gardens.
"Bill made it his life mission, really," said Frank Raffaele, owner of waterfront restaurant LIC Landing, which donates a portion of its sales to the Hunters Point Parks Conservancy. "We would not be there without Bill's leadership."
The Conservancy is planning to do something in the park to honor Bylewski in the near future, members said.
"His legacy will go on with the Conservancy," Raffaele said.
