For the second time in three weeks, someone was found locked in a park bathroom.

According to NYC Park Advocates, a person was found locked inside the bathroom in the Hilton White Playground in the Bronx on Wednesday.

The fire department had to cut the lock to free the person, according to the site.

On March 17, a man was locked in a rest room at Detective Keith L. Williams Park in Jamaica, Queens.

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Despite an apparent outpouring of support for a proposal first put forward by Wall Street Journal photo editor Patrick Whelan, efforts to name a Brooklyn Bridge Park lawn in memory of photojournalist Chris Hondros have been quashed, as the officials behind the lawn-naming contest state that they will not consider naming the space after an individual.

Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy Executive Director Nancy Webster said they received over 200 e-mails about Hondros. 

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  Chris Hondros: Selected Photos from Libya

Hondros was born in Queens and lived in Brooklyn, most recently in DUMBO, the same neighborhood in which the park is located. He was killed on assignment in Misrata, Libya on April 20, 2011, while covering the rebel uprising. Metro has gathered some of his photos from Libya in a slideshow on the left.

That Hondros’ birthday is this Thursday, March 14, and the second anniversary of his death is next month, contributed to the urgency and excitement to name the lawn for him, Whelan told Photo District News.

Webster said that when the e-mails about Hondros started coming in, they realized their intentions with the contest “hadn’t been clear enough.”

“What we were looking for was a name that was expressive of the park and in line with names for other sections of the park, like the Harbor View Lawn or the Spiral Tidal Pool,” Webster said.

The e-mails about Hondros were so moving, though, that they felt compelled to reply.

“We realized that we had raised expectations of doing something that we felt like we couldn’t fulfill,” Webster explained.

Webster’s e-mail response explained their original intentions, and went on to say that “there are so very many deserving and special Brooklyn residents to memorialize and pay tribute to… as such, the naming of one lawn for one person does not seem fully inclusive of the larger community.”

Photographer Alan Chin told PDN that the message was “disingenuous.”

“All kinds of parks and parts of parks are named for all kinds of people,” he added.

Chin referenced the Louis J. Valentino Park in his neighborhood, named for a local firefighter who died in a burning building in 1996, and PDN added a number of “city-run parks in Brooklyn alone” including McCarren Park, Maria Hernandez Park, J.J. Byrne Payfround, or the Lt. Federico Narvarez Tot Lot, which were named for a state senator, a city council member, a Building Department clerk and a New York police lieutenant respectively.

But Webster stood firm on that position.

“There’s usually a much more involved process around doing that and in this instance we were speaking of a very small lawn within the park and wanting to stay within the framework of names that were suggestive of park features,” she said.

Webster said they will not consider naming the park for Hondros, or any person.

However, the e-mail sent to some of Hondros’ supporters stated that “as Brooklyn Bridge Park continues to grow and mature, we will be considering how we might best honor the memories of those we have lost,” and promised to reach out to the Chris Hondros Fund, established after his death to support emerging photojournalists,  ”to see if there might be a more fitting way to pay tribute to Chris and his work.”

Christina Piaia, President of the Chris Hondros Fund and Hondros’ fiancé, said she hoped a physical space to “gather in [Hondros'] name” could be established, and “that the group of friends that started this and the Fund can take a role in that, too.”

“We got a lot of lovely notes about times people spent with Chris in New York,” Piaia said. “We were disappointed by the news, but we’re hopeful that this can build momentum to continue Chris’ legacy in other ways.”

Benefit and silent auction to come in June

Plans are underway for the Chris Hondros Fund’s second annual benefit and silent auction, where the Chris Hondros and Getty Images Award will be bestowed to an emerging photojournalist.

The event will take place sometime in June of this year, Piaia said.

Last year’s event featured Lara Logan from CBS as a guest speaker, and the first ever Christ Hondros and Getty Images award was given to photojournalist Andrea Bruce. The Fund is in the process of selecting a team of nominators to choose this year’s winner in the spring.

Piaia said she is looking forward to this year’s event, after the success of last year.

“Being in that room with so many people who loved him was a very cathartic experience,” she said.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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The city is finally getting an additional 81 Parks Enforcement Patrol Officers, a security boost that city officials have long said is much needed.

Last year, there was an eight percent increase in park crimes, while overall crime increased by only four percent.

“Crime is rising in our parks, and a handful of officer to keep an entire borough of parkland safe just won’t cut it,” Councilman Peter Vallone said.

There are currently about 90 officers patrolling citywide, according PEP union leader Joe Puleo. Puleo said that amounts to any average of about five per borough on any given day.

Puleo said the additional officers will boost the number of PEP on patrol to nine or 10 per borough daily.

“For a whole borough, that’s very minimal to say the least,” Puleo said. “10 people would be minimally adequate for Flushing Meadow Park alone.”

Last summer, most officers were assigned to beaches and pools, leaving all of Queens’ parks with one lone PEP officer.

Puleo estimates the city really needs 100 officers daily, which has never happened. In the mid-1990s, there was a total of 450 PEP officers, resulting in about 50 a day, which Puleo said was “at least effective.”

Having more officers would allow the Parks Enforcement Patrol to be a preventive force, rather than simply responding to incidents that have already occurred, Puleo said.

Four women were raped in parks last year in the month of September alone.

“The visibility factor is key,” Puleo said. “When officers are seen, people don’t try to commit crimes.”

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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Work on the third and final section of Chelsea’s High Line Park is on schedule, according to reports from Crains, set to be finished a year and a half before the first building in the Hudson Yards, the neighborhood being built around it, is completed.

Peter Mullan, Vice President for planning and design at Friends of the High Line, told Crains “the big idea right now is to get to 34th Street as quickly as we possibly can.”

“The big prize here is that the entire length of the High Line is going to be complete much quicker than anyone thought,” Mullan said.

Crains reported that construction crews spent the last two weeks completing sandblasting the steel strestle and applying thick coats of paint in the custom High Line hue “greenblack.”

Nearly 800 gallons of paint have been used on the part extending to 12 Avenue alone.

More than half of the third section is going to be a simple, temporary walkway when it opens, leaving the current, unlandscaped vegetation untouched, Crains reported. Although temporary, the walkway could remain for 15 years, depending on how construction on the Hudson Yards progresses.

Workers are currently busy digging up the “urban fill” that accumulated in the rail yards: 150,000 cubic feet of soil since the last train used it to carry frozen turkeys in 1980, according to Crains.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

The post Last section of High Line Park to be largely temporary appeared first on Metro.us.

A third teen has been arrested after a shocking video circulated showing two little girls being forced to fight in a New York City park.

The third teenager arrested is 14, the older sister of one of the little girls and the alleged ringleader instigating the fight, according to the Daily News.

NBC reported last week that two teens, ages 14 and 15, were charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

According to NYC Park Advocates, police were questioning a 17-year-old girl and looking for another, 19.

PIX11 reported that the incident occurred after candy was shared earlier that day, and the older sisters of the little girls had some type of run-in.

Apparently, the groups ran into each other later that day in the Bronx, and a sister ordered the little girls to fight as retribution for the earlier altercation.

A NYPD spokeswoman confirmed to Metro Thursday that the department is investigating the video, which was posted on YouTube.

In the video, which is about two minutes and 30 seconds long, adults encourage the two little girls to hit each other.

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  Little Girls Forced to Fight

The video includes plenty of curse words as the adults taunt the girls even as one starts to cry.

“I’m not playing,” the girl screams as she stops fighting.

The adults still push her to hit the other girl even as they laugh while she protests.

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