exacerbated by a lack of Parks staffing<\/a> \u2014 has made it an increasingly tall order for volunteers to handle.<\/p>\nFormer Greenpoint resident Julianna Curcio, 23, stopped to enjoy the shade and quiet provided at the plaza on Sunday \u2014 and was shocked to see more than a half-dozen vagrants drinking, smoking and sleeping in the square.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is definitely disappointing, that I feel like the city is just not taking care of this space as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to live in Italian Williamsburg, and I know of monuments when my grandma lived there, and that kind of stuff meant a lot to them,\u201d she added, \u201cso I could see that being really disappointing to Polish Americans who\u2019ve lived here. I feel like this specific park is just a little bit overlooked.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFather Jerzy Popie\u0142uszko Square is an incredibly important Greenpoint memorial,\u201d Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher said. Lone Pine Press for NY Post<\/p>\n
Portrait of Jerzy Popieluszko at the Church of Saint Stainslaw Kostka in Warsaw, Poland. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cWe perform daily cleanups at Father Jerzy Popieluszko Square, which sees heavy use, especially during the summertime,\u201d a Parks rep said. \u201cOur Parks Enforcement Patrol coordinates with DHS on homeless outreach on a regular basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe encourage visitors to respect our public spaces and properly dispose of any trash,\u201d the rep added. \u201cNYC Parks staff work daily to keep our parks and greenspaces free of trash and debris, from emptying trash cans to picking up litter from our shared spaces.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Father Jerzy Popie\u0142uszko was a Polish Roman Catholic priest and outspoken anti-communist advocate. He has since been recognized as a martyr for the faith following his assassination by communist secret police in 1984.<\/p>\n
The monument in Greenpoint \u2014 the Brooklyn enclave known as having the second-largest Polish population in the United States after Chicago \u2014 was dedicated to him in October 1990.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an important public space for our whole community, but especially for the Polish community in Greenpoint,\u201d Restler said. \u201cHe was a beloved individual, and it\u2019s important that we maintain this space properly in his honor.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a beloved individual, and it\u2019s important that we maintain this space properly in his honor,\u201d Restler said of Father Jerzy Popie\u0142uszko. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Since last week, Parks has been sending multiple folks out daily to improve conditions, Restler said. <\/p>\n
In the meantime, his office has \u201cencouraged\u201d some of the volunteer groups to do garbage pickup and maintenance in McCarren Park to include the lesser-known square on their route moving forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But some advocates, like Marek Skulimowski, the president and executive director of the Kosciuszko Foundation, say the treatment of the plaza is part of a larger pattern.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe neglect of Blessed Father Jerzy Popie\u0142uszko Square in Greenpoint is deeply troubling, and a similar lack of care affects the monument to General Thaddeus Ko\u015bciuszko only a few hundred yards away near the Kosciuszko Bridge,\u201d Skulimowski told The Post.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the local authorities officially approved these monuments, they should establish a regular maintenance mechanism worthy of their significance,\u201d he added, \u201cjust as monuments to American heroes, including Presidents Washington, Wilson and Hoover and fallen American airmen, are properly cared for in Poland \u2014 because we must remember our heroes to build a better future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A neglected memorial plaza in trendy Greenpoint has been overrun by vagrants and trash as unkempt weeds and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2422,57,16671,9,197,56,63,65,64,10649,14182,21538,58],"class_list":["post-297504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-greenpoint","tag-metro","tag-monuments","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city-life","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-parks","tag-parks-department","tag-poland","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}