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   From: stupid.hochul@nytimes.com   
      
   Millions of dollars in taxpayer money have been spent on a new park and   
   dog run in Queens — now if only residents could use them.   
      
   The $17.8 million state-funded Maspeth Park has been a virtual ghost town   
   since opening under the Kosciuszko Bridge last year.   
      
   It is in an isolated industrial and manufacturing zone at 54th Road and   
   43rd Street — over a mile from the nearest subway station —and lacks the   
   proper signage and lighting for passers-by to find it, locals told The   
   Post.   
      
   “Nobody even knows about this. I’m the only one here — always,” said Elvis   
   Mazzotta, 36, who was one of three people seen there on a sunny Tuesday   
   afternoon last month.   
      
   Mazzotta said he goes there about once a week, calling it “one of the best   
   workout parks in the city,’’ although hardly easily accessible.   
      
   He said he is forced to drive to the site and park on the sidewalk, as   
   there is no public parking readily available during the week.   
      
   Karen Narvaez, who has lived in Sunnyside with her husband and three young   
   kids for 12 years, resides with her family less than half a mile from the   
   park — but says her children can’t walk to it because of the highway cuts   
   through the area.   
      
   “How are you gonna get there? It’s not safe for kids to walk the path to   
   get to the skatepark,” said Narvaez, 38.   
      
   The park drew similar criticisms from the local Juniper Park Civic   
   Association when the site opened last year.   
      
   Though Gov. Kathy Hochul claimed in a press release that the new park is   
   “located within walking distance from surrounding residential   
   neighborhoods, including Sunnyside and West Maspeth,” the civic group   
   argued that strolling through an industrial zone first “is quite an   
   adventure from any direction.”   
      
   “We need to do more advertising,” acknowledged Thomas Mituzas, who serves   
   as secretary of the nearby Blissville Civic Association in Long Island   
   City.   
      
   “More can be done. … We need to improve the 43rd Street underpass and make   
   it more inviting to people [with] better lighting and better access,” he   
   said.   
      
   The park lacks much green space but does come with basketball courts,   
   exercise equipment, game tables and even professional sports lighting for   
   after-dark recreation.   
      
   While some locals lamented that they’ve waited decades for a park — only   
   to have it be mainly concrete — Mituzas said the site is still a great   
   addition to the neighborhood.   
      
   “We’ll take a park, whatever you want to call it,” he said. “It’s a pure   
   joy for me.”   
      
   Blissville is “one of the safest neighborhoods” for children to walk   
   through, and the park draws up to 20 or 30 people on a good weekend,   
   Mituzas said.   
      
   One of its more popular attractions is its concrete skateboarding park –   
   which draws a crowd of a whopping half-dozen skaters on weeknights, said a   
   skateboarder who declined to give his name.   
      
   The 27-year-old skater said he isn’t bothered by the lack of public   
   transportation to it because the park is worth going the extra mile — or   
   two — to access it since it is near a popular street spot to skate and   
   film.   
      
   Meanwhile, just over a mile from Maspeth Park is the L/CPL Thomas P.   
   Noonan Jr. Playground in Sunnyside, which opened a $2.5 million dog run to   
   fanfare last month.   
      
   But that park has faced its own accessibility issues for years, local   
   families told The Post.   
      
   The biggest concern surrounds a group of homeless men who live on the   
   grounds and shower in the kids’ splash pad and trash the bathrooms and   
   pass out — naked and high — in the toddler playground, residents said.   
      
   Maria, 43, said a gang of homeless men moved into the children’s   
   playground after the dog park where they used to sleep was renovated.   
      
   A park employee told The Post the half-dozen men have been “using the   
   bathroom all around the park” – and their messy business has prompted park   
   workers to close the women’s bathroom.   
      
   Illicit gatherings grow up to 25 people on the weekends and consist of the   
   men fighting, doing drugs around young residents and littering the park   
   with crack pipes and needles, locals said.   
      
   “It’s bad,” said Sunnyside resident Cristian Humala. 39. “They use the   
      
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