Andre Paul, 30, allegedly raped the 15-year-old victim in the park at 12:01 a.m. on May 6, authorities said.
Police were contacted after the mother recently learned of the assault.
Paul was arrested Saturday.
The hot, muggy weather means attendance at nearly every public pool citywide is up this summer. But not at the Barretto Point Park floating pool, which has seen 7,300 less visitors this year than last, according to MetroNY.
That’s because kids have no way to get there, say some. In June, the MTA eliminated a shuttle bus that took kids from the South Bronx to the Hunts Point pool to save $100,000.
“It’s been almost the hottest July on record. Numbers should be up,” said Adam Liebowitz, of the Point Community Development Corporation. “In previous summers you had to wait on line 20, 30 minutes before you could go in. But now I’ve heard the lines are gone. It’s obviously because of the lack of public transportation.”
The shuttle bus first came to the area in 2008 to help kids get there and was supposed to stay for a three-year period.
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Call it Marty’s chain gang!
Two busloads of prisoners from Rikers Island — wearing matching red- and white-striped jumpsuits — have been setting up and breaking down the chairs used this summer for Borough President Markowitz’s controversial concerts in Coney Island’s Asser Levy Park, according to The Brooklyn Paper .
The inmates aren’t a threat to public safety, according to the city — but they are a heck of a bargain for Markowitz.
“It saves me money, that’s the motivation for having them!” said Debra Garcia, who is in charge of the Beep’s concerts. “It saves about a few thousand dollars a week.”
Under the “Cool Hand Luke”-style program, the inmates set up 2,000 seats at the front of the park’s bandshell near Surf Avenue and West Fifth Street hours before the show. The next morning, the inmates are returned to the spot to collect the chairs.
The work detail for prisoners — which also takes place at Wingate Field in Crown Heights as part of Markowitz’s Martin Luther King Jr. concert series — appears to be the only one of its kind in Brooklyn.
A Department of Correction official said that there are only two other chain gang-style work crews in the city — both near Rikers Island.
Markowitz had taken advantage of the discounted labor-in-chains through the state prison system for at least the last 15 years, beginning when he was a state senator. But that font of labor ran dry this year as part of state budget cutbacks.
“The total cost is typically more than $60,000 a crew,” explained Erik Kriss a spokesman with the state’s Department of Correctional Services, explaining why the program was cut.
After the state cutback, Markowitz went to the city’s jail system for help setting up his weekly music extravaganzas, which this year have featured George Thorogood and the Beach Boys.
It is unclear why Markowitz’s concerts are the only events in Brooklyn that get the benefit of prison labor.
But there is no doubt that the concerts have highlighted the Beep’s political savvy and influence — it was only three months ago that Mayor Bloomberg scrambled to pass a temporary measure that allowed the shows to proceed, despite an apparent violation of city law barring amplified noise within 500 feet of a house of worship.
It is not a physical necessity to remove the trees in order to install the guardrail. It is a convenience for the contractor.
It also appears that no environmental assessment was ever performed on this project. According to the City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR) procedure, the lead agency of any city project should perform such an analysis when it would lead to "the removal or destruction of large quantities of vegetation or fauna" or "the impairment of the character or quality of important historical, archeological, architectural or aesthetic resources (including the demolition or alteration of a structure which is eligible for inclusion in an official inventory of such resources)."
According to the Parks Department, the parkway consists of three traffic lanes going in each direction, two large center plots, one small plot, two marginal streets, a bridle path, and an aqueduct shaft.
"An opulent thoroughfare linking two of Parks’ brightest jewels, the Bronx and Pelham Parkway, is a graceful testament to the beauty Mulally and the New Parks Act brought to the Bronx, " the agecny says on its website.
