Parking battle pits pickleballers, parkgoers against South Shore shopping plaza

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Visitors to Fairview Park in Charleston are calling a fault on neighboring Bricktown Centre shopping plaza.

The issue is one that reliably gets Staten Islanders’ blood boiling: parking.

Visitors to the park say that the 60-spot parking lot at Fairview is too small to accommodate visitors when the park is in full swing.

Fairview features a large soccer field as well as playing areas for pickleball, bocce, tennis and baseball.

“It’s unbelievably small,” Ben Chua, leader of Staten Island Pickleball, said of the Fairview lot. “When soccer teams, bocce, pickleball and tennis are all going, there’s nowhere to park. It’s packed.”

Parkgoers also said that the distance from the parking lot to the playing areas is daunting, particularly for seniors.

“Older people have a hard walk,” said Louis Rinella of the Desperados bocce club. “We have members in their 80s.”

Exacerbating the problem, parkgoers say that they are being prevented from using spots in the neighboring Bricktown Centre shopping plaza that are closer to the playing areas.

Those who utilize the park told the Advance/SILive.com that access gates between the two properties have been chained and padlocked and that additional chain-link fencing has been installed to deter parkgoers from using the shopping plaza parking lots.

“They keep blocking the fence so nobody can access it,” Chua said.

And that’s a foul, according to the city Parks Department.

“In addition to the parking lot specifically constructed for the park,” the department said, “the original development plan for the park and shopping center included additional access points between the sites and an agreement that there would be shared parking in the development for the park.”

The department said, “To date, the developer has not met that stipulation of the agreement. We have engaged with the developer and other city agencies in an attempt to resolve the situation.”

Blumenfeld Development Group of Long Island developed Bricktown Centre along with Guido Passarelli & Son, a Dongan Hills-based business, according to Advance/SILive.com reporting.

Blumenfeld did not respond to requests for comment about the parking issues at Fairview. Passarelli declined to comment.

Rinella said that players used to park behind the Charleston public library and would re-secure the access gate themselves after finishing play.

“We did everything to try and keep it nice,” he said.

Rinella said that the parking battle and other issues at Fairview have led his team to abandon Fairview in favor of Bloomingdale Park.

“We got tired of fighting with the parking,” he said.

Parks spokesman Gregg McQueen said, “We are exploring options for improving the parking situation at Fairview Park to enhance the visitor experience.”

Those who use the park said that the distant Fairview parking lot has also sparked safety concerns about what they say is poor access to the grounds for emergency vehicles.

At least three players have suffered non-fatal heart attacks at Fairview since the park opened in 2021, players said.

“If there’s really an emergency and all the courts are packed, EMS would not be able to get there,” Chua said. “We’re talking about sports here. You can get hurt. It’s really a problem.”

In one instance, the Advance/SILive.com was told, emergency responders had to take a stretcher and run to the playing area to reach a stricken person.

“How are they going to get a firetruck up there?” Rinella said. “You’re trapped in there.”

Chua said that Parks should place AED defibrillators in the public bathrooms at Fairview.

The Parks Department said it does not place AED devices in their public restrooms, and that permitted youth sports leagues are required to have AEDs for use at fields.

The department did not comment further on safety concerns regarding Fairview Park.