MISCHIEVOUS BOYS, IRVING SQUARE (1931)
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The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations.
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There isn’t much little boy mischief that a Bushwick alderman, a beat cop, and a parks department official can’t handle.
And all three were necessary to combat the troublesome striplings that were desecrating Irving Square Park during a renovation in 1931.
“There’s not a shrub or a plant missing.”
So explained Thomas J. Larney, park keeper for Irving Square Park in Bushwick, in his lilted Irish brogue.
“The gardener counts up every week and there’s nothing missing. And there are plenty of seats for people to sit down on.”
Larney was responding to public criticisms of a project in the park that was supposed to have ended long ago. Construction equipment, concrete park bench forms, bunches of plants and shrubbery, and piles of dirt, though, still obstructed residents’ enjoyment of the public space.
He apparently saw the little mischief-makers, though, as no concern to the project, not even mentioning their after-dark activities.
The bigger picture, of course, was just a bit more complicated. A series of unavoidable delays was keeping the contractor from finishing his work. These delays were causing conditions in the park which gave the local residents grief. And the continuation of these conditions presented targets of opportunity for the local miniature scalawags, who would “knock over some of the concrete bench forms and crack them.”
Alderman George H. Ott, who represented the area, though, perceived in this stalled project the opportunity to brandish his power and get his name in front of the eyes of his constituents. He had certain ideas of his own for a temporary solution to the problem – which he was sure would please his constituents. These he detailed to the press.
“I understand those concrete forms are worth $150 apiece,” Ott declared, “so I went down to the Wilson Ave. station yesterday afternoon and they promised to assign a man to watch the job there.”
Noticeable in the picture above, beyond No.’s 263 and 267 Weirfield Street, are, from right to left, the contractor’s shack, the concrete bench forms, and a large pile of dirt – upon which are perched a number of – probably “mischievous” – boys.
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