Players, residents battle over kickball games

NEW YORK

At issue are the lights and noise and residents saying they and their children need to get their sleep.

The rain kept the kickball to a minimum on the playground at PS 142 Thursday night.

But three nights a week, there are two adult kickball games going on at the same time and some neighbors say it's just too much.

"It's extremely loud," said Francis DiDonato, a resident.

Then there are the lights, which are also loud and one resident took a photo from her balcony to show what the lights look like in her home.

Francis DiDonato is a parent who says the kickball games make it tough to get his son to bed.

"They're loud when they miss the ball, they're loud when they get homeruns, no matter what the play is, they're loud," DiDonato said, "It's timed around bed time for my child."

"We're just young professionals having a good time. We're enjoying ourselves, harmless fun if you ask me, and I don't see anything wrong with it," Emily, a kickball player said.

The woman who originally brought this issue to Eyewitness News' attention refused to go on camera because she got threats, over kickball.

"The worst part is we have let's say 50 adults literally screaming at the top of their lungs," a resident said at a community board meeting.

This all wound up before the local community board committee Thursday, where the organizer of the league said she's looking at other sites, but do the parents really want that?

"If we get park space we might be taking that away from children and little leagues and that's certainly not our objective," said Amy Short, of NYC Social.

Ms. Short agreed to end the games by 9:00 p.m. instead of 10, but some neighbors say it's still not good enough.

They want the group gone.

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