Kids, Politicos, and of Course Police, Mark National Night Out on the East Side

Local residents were lining up at the gates of St. Catherine’s Park long before the 4pm start of the 19th Precinct’s National Night Out on Aug. 5. The gathering attracted local political leaders, civic activists, police officers, and mobs of kids.

”It’s always a great day,” said 19th Precinct Commander Neil Zuber at his second Night Out as the head of the precinct and the first since his promotion to inspector last February. He said he particularly enjoyed the activities for kids. “I love having the kids here. They were giving us high fives.” One of the biggest attactions of the day was a parked police cruiser, its strobe lights flashing, where kids could sit in the driver’s seat and sound the siren.

“It’s cool,” said 11-year-old Emma Losquadro after she blasted the siren, accompanied by her mom, Jen, and 12-year-old friend Emma Schaffer.

The 19th Precinct Community Council made a surprise award to Barry Schneider and his wife, Judy Schneider, for more than three decades of service running the East Sixties Neighborhood Association.

Judy, who took over from Barry as president, said they’ve lived in the St. Tropez condo building for 58 years and kind of fell into their civic activism accidentally when they began a campaign to keep a landlord from renting a nearby building to a sex club in the late 1980s. They stood on street corners with then City Council Member Charlie Millard handing out postcards addressed to a woman in Ossining, NY, who owned the building. At first the landlord ignored them, but as the postcards began arriving by the hundreds each week, she finally capitulated.

From there, they formed the East Sixties Neighborhood Association. Barry was long active in Community Board 8, and served three terms as chairman.

After he presented the Schneiders with their award, Nick Viest was surprised by being honored for his long role running the 19th Precinct Community Council. “He’s been here 25 years,” said Zuber, and poked a little fun at the lengthy service in the volunteer job. “Sorry that did not work out for you,” he quipped.

”He’s a funny guy, I’m still laughing at that one,” said Viest, who said he was pleasantly surprised by his award.

”It’s a very valuable event for people to see the human side of cops, and police can see that there is a lot of support for them in the community, and kids have a little fun at it,” said Viest of the local version of the National Night Out. Like the Schneiders, he is a community activist who spent about 20 years as a member of Community Board 8, including three as the board chair.

One of the first people inside after the park gates, on First Avenue between East 67th and 68th streets, was C.J. Rivera. “I come every year,” he told Our Town. “My dad was a cop.” He currently resides in the Bronx, he said, but is thinking of moving to the East Side.

Nora Tranquada was at the park just so the two young kids she was minding could ride scooters. She didn’t know it was National Night Out. “This was a surprise,” she said of the food and festivities. “I love it. It’s just a beautiful event.”

Robert Curran, with the injury prevention trauma center at the NewYork-Presbyterian ambulatory service, was getting quite a few people to stop and practice CPR on lifelike dummies at his table. “Most people get tired after a minute,” he said as a young girl named Mikela practiced CPR on one of the mannequins. But to do CPR properly you might have to manually stimulate the heart for a half hour, he said.

A short distance away, Katrina Tang, Jamie Kern, and Alexis Metha were drawing a crowd at a table filled with samples for the Swedish candy company Bon Bon. “We’re very busy,” said Kern as she handed a small pink bag filled with candy to a neighborhood mom with a small child in stroller.

Police and auxuliary police were not the only law enforcement people on the scene. “We’re here to represent the DA’s office,” said Hayley Murphy, an assistant DA, as she worked their table with another ADA, Jesse Castaneda, and community relations rep Julia Maenza. A representative of the FBI also roamed about with a picture frame for kids to take photos with the headline “Future Special Agent.”

Jordan Feiner, the Manhattan regional director for Governor Kathy Hochul, read a proclamation thanking police for their services.

There was also free entertainment. Arianna Cheuck, who is only 10 years old, has been taking lessons at the New York Guitar School for the past two years. She sang the song “Love,” popularized by Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole, while playing a ukulele. Asked if she felt nervous about performing before a crowd, she said, “No.” Turns out, she performs weekly for residents at the Riverside Rehabilitation Center, said her father, Mike Kobles.

As the evening wore on, the politicians making the rounds stopped by, including Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright, NY Senator Liz Krueger, and the recently appointed Parks commissioner, Iris Rodriguez-Rosa.

Seawright, who popped by for the second half of the Night Out, told Our Town that the events, staged in every borough in the city on the first Tuesday of August, play an important role. “National Night Out is a vital reminder that public safety depends on strong community relationships.”

Farther downtown, term-limited Council Member Keith Powers and Virginia Maloney, the Dem who hopes to be his successor, stopped by to make the rounds at the 13th Precinct National Night Out at Peter’s Field on East 20th Street. The biggest draw there was the line for the char-broiled hamburgers that were being served by cops manning open-flame grills. Maloney eventually made her way to the 17th Precinct Night Out celebration. “I was trying to stop by more, but I ran out of time,” she told Our Town. “It was a great evening and a powerful reminder of the good that can happen when city leaders, service organizations, and neighbors come together around shared goals.”