Reiff Playground

NYC Parks calls the fight over the site one of the most heated political battles in Maspeth's history, debated for well over two years. The Board of Education planned an intermediate school here and argued it would foster "better ethnic distribution of children"; the local Community Planning Board and School Board voted against it, and residents wanted a high school instead to relieve population pressure on Grover Cleveland High School, opposed "the substantial influx of people a new intermediate school would bring, fearing community disruption," and wanted ball fields for the neighborhood's Little League players. The Board of Education was denied the land, which was designated as a park in 1964, and in 1969 the City Council named it the Andrew J. Reiff Memorial Playground, later shortened. NYC Parks describes Reiff (1887-1963) as a community activist and president of the Ridgewood-Metropolitan Civic Association of Queens for over 30 years who "played a leading role in disputes over land development in his neighborhood of Maspeth."