I live in Kew Gardens, Queens with my lovely wife and our 9-year-old dog. Three years ago, we purchased our gorgeous early-'30s apartment on the sixth (top) floor of a stately four-building complex which is actually inset into the footprint of Forest Park. We are about a ten-minute walk from the major subway arteries into Manhattan at Queens Boulevard, and we're even closer to the Long Island Rail Road—which affords me a 17-minute commute into Penn Station. The neighborhood also has great shopping, dining and is in walking distance to the best art house theater in the five boroughs. Unfortunately, as ideal and bucolic as the neighborhood is, we're not without a growing problem in people soliciting and engaging in sexual activity out in the roads and trails of Forest Park.
As soon as the outside temperature reaches about 50°, there's a proliferation of adult males cruising for sexual partners on the closed (former vehicular-only, now pedestrian-only) stretch of Forest Park Drive which begins at Metropolitan Avenue and ends at Woodhaven Boulevard—and on the myriad hiking/equestrian trails. What's more, the post-coital detrita and debris (including, but not limited to, ejaculate-filled condoms and their wrappers & excrement/lubrication-smeared paper towels) are usually littered about the otherwise pristine natural surroundings—leaving a hazard for adults, children and pets alike—not to mention the questions which must be raised by naturally curious children about encountering these foreign objects.
So, what's the answer? I'll admit that I'm not sure. A band of like-outraged citizens with night vision goggles and 1,000-candlepower spotlights when the activity begins? Posting photos of the perpetrators on the Internet to perhaps embarrass them? Probably not. But, I'm of the opinion that it's up to the combined wisdom of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and NYPD to combat the offensive activity. There's a nice recap of the letter of the law here (on a naturist site, nonetheless) http://naturistaction.org/StatesFrames/State_Laws_Frames/New_York_Laws/body_new_york_laws.html
I have to emphatically state that I'm not anti-gay. I am, conversely, anti-sex in public parks—and it just happens to be the the majority of the coital participants in the sex-in-the-park game over by my residence happen to be homosexuals. Do not mistake my outrage at the issue at hand for homophobia.
UPDATE: Local newspaper coverage of the issue:
http://www.queenscourier.com/articles/2009/11/18/news/top_stories/doc4afaf5e72b56d735541480.txt
http://www.queenstribune.com/feature/PleasureInThePark.html
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