An Incident in the Park

My very good friend and I have made the decision that years of eating too much and too little exercise have finally caught up with us. It is time to buckle down and face the fact that serious action has to be taken. So, for 2 weeks now, we started counting calories and taking walks. Needless to say, getting to that goal will be a very very slow process. Discouraged? No, we are not. We have been walking in this little park on Greenway South in Forest Hills (in the Gardens). It is a beautiful and very small park with a few benches. I have passed this park and sat in these benches to rest many times. During the early hours in the morning, I used to see elderly Asian men and women doing Tai-chi. I haven't seen them recently. That I attributed to the fact that I no longer pass that street that early. Now that walking has become part of our exercise, we decided to use this little park. We walk about 3 or 4 times a week. The walks average about 45 minutes. Other than yesterday, these were without incident. Yesterday, New York was experiencing a heat wave. We walked a few minutes and decided to sit for a few minutes to catch our breath. A security officer (or maybe a cop, I'm not sure which one he was) approached us and asked us if we were residents of the Gardens. Lying was not an option ever. It never is to us. So we told him, we live right outside the Gardens. He told us this park (which is not walled off or fenced in) is only for residents of the Gardens. Being the non-confrontational people that we are, we stood and left but not without telling him that we were shocked by this information. I told him I saw no sign that said that. I have never seen a sign saying this was a private park. He pointed to a sign which was a sign about the private parking on these streets. I knew about that. As we looked around, I saw a sign which was not very big, that did say this was a private park open only to the residents. I had never seen this sign before. To keep other people who are not being disruptive from using this wonderful resource is cruel and hurtful. That's how we felt as we were walking away from the park. I feel ashamed to be part of a neighborhood that acts this way. It is, to me, snobbery at its best. The residents of the Gardens should re-consider the way their rules are being enforced.  I am truly saddened by this incident at the park.