""I love doing it," Vega said Tuesday of the clean-up. "I love sitting here and watching neighbors enjoy their time'' near it. "The elders in this neighborhood are doing all the work," he said. "Those who are [younger] are struggling to make ends meet - the rents are too high.""
""We want to keep their memory alive," Caponegro, 71, told a crowd of roughly two dozen locals at the event."
Theresa "Tish" Cianciotta and her World War II veteran husband Guido voluntarily cared for Memorial Gore, a World War I memorial honoring 83 locals, beginning in the 1980s. After both died in their 90s in 2021 and 2023, the small park became overgrown and was overrun by homeless encampments. Volunteer William Vega and the Friends of Cooper Park resumed cleanup following a 2024 Post investigation that exposed city neglect. The green space was purchased by the city in 1894 and features a sculpture by the Piccirilli Brothers; NYC Parks is technically responsible but faced budget cuts.
Read at New York Post
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