Bronx Little League field surrounded by trailer park that houses migrants
A Bronx Little League facility is a real diamond in the rough — surrounded by a growing, makeshift, migrant-friendly trailer park, frustrated parents and coaches said.
More than two dozen motor homes, camping trailers and even a converted school bus — many of which appear inoperable — languish along Allerton and Bruner Avenues near Astor Little League in Baychester.
The 26 parked vehicles are accompanied by generators, propane tanks and rank trash piles — and at least one is inhabited by a group of five recently-arrived migrants.
The RVs “make me uncomfortable,” said Andrés Rodriguez, 60, whose 10-year-old son, Andruyulo, has practice every day at the park. “We don’t know who they are on that street or what they’re capable of.”
Another dad, Edwin Pichardo, 45, whose 10-year-old son uses the field, said, “Just think about not knowing who’s next to you. . . . You can’t let the kids even walk to [their parents’] cars by themselves.”
Gilberto Laguna, who arrived in the Big Apple from Venezuela five months ago, began living in the caravan two weeks ago.
Laguna, 35, said he’d been living in a West 42nd Street shelter in Manhattan before teaming up with four other Venezuelan migrants to purchase the trailer from someone on Facebook Marketplace. Laguna didn’t know how much the vehicle cost the group.
The trailer — which would require a vehicle in order to move — was already parked on Bruner, so they simply “moved in,” Laguna said.
“Here, it’s not bad, but we have to leave to go to the bathroom. We have a bathroom in here but it doesn’t work,” Laguna said, explaining that he goes to a McDonalds on Bartow Avenue to do his business.
The five — who all work in construction — cook food on a stove inside the trailer, but they share a single bed and a couch for sleeping.
Addressing parents’ concerns for the safety of their kids, Laguna said, “Maybe it would scare me too, but we don’t want to hurt anyone.
“We just hang out and go to work. We don’t want to be living here either, we don’t like it,” he said, adding it was preferable to life in the shelter.
A resident of a different motorhome refused to answer questions, and none of the remaining vehicles responded to door knocks.
The trailer park has trashed convenient parking.
“You can’t find parking so everyone just parks wherever. And when I have to go home, I have to find who’s blocking me in,” griped baseball dad Steven Grskovic, 46.
Trash piles surrounding the RVs also give new meaning to the phrase “foul ball.”
“I think [the smell is] from pee and something else on the street,” speculated José Luis Peña, 37, whose 11- and 9-year-old sons play ball at the park.
In August, NYPD towed a camper and three vehicles from the two streets, according to a department spokesperson — but they returned in droves two weeks later, parents fumed.
By law, an RV cannot hog the same parking spot for more than 24 hours.
The NYPD spokesperson said a department commanding officer “is aware of the condition in that area and is working to correct it,” and that a car was towed from the area for not being registered this week.
The president of Astor Baseball League said he hopes the city figures out a longterm solution.
“It’s dangerous,” said Eladio Rodriguez, 44. “I want . . . my kids to be safe.”
