Twice in 2026, a Queens council member has used Juniper Valley Park's event calendar to argue about construction. In June it got a bathroom finished months early. In February it was the main objection to the redesign of the park's largest paved space. On the morning of Saturday, Oct. 24, the calendar takes over 80th Street.
Saturday, Oct. 24, Starts on 80th Street
Council Member Phil Wong's free Halloween Festival and Trunk or Treat runs from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24. According to the Queens Chronicle, decorated cars will line 80th Street between Juniper Boulevard North and Juniper Boulevard South and hand out candy, and families are encouraged to come in costume.
The Chronicle traces the event to Wong's predecessor, Bob Holden, who started it as an annual tradition. This year it runs in partnership with NYC Parks and the Greater Ridgewood Youth Council, and the New York & Atlantic Railway is contributing funds. "I look forward to seeing all the kids dressed up, filling their bags with candy and just having a good time with their families and neighbors," Wong said in a press release quoted by the Chronicle. Questions go to his district office at (718) 366-3900 or [email protected].
The festival takes place on a street, and that matters later in this story. The park's own big gathering space is the blacktop, and the blacktop is the part of the park the city is now redesigning.
Families who want a second stop the same morning have one in Glendale. The Shops at Atlas Park lists a Trick or Treat Fall Vendor Event on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., with pumpkin decorating, live music and games. The two events overlap almost completely, so the schedule works out like this:
- 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.: Trunk or Treat on 80th Street at Juniper Valley Park
- 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.: Fall vendor event at Atlas Park
- 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.: The Saturday farmers market on Atlas Park's Center Green, with produce, fish, baked goods, dairy and honey
Atlas Park lists the market's season as running through mid-November. The page doesn't give a year, so check the listing before planning a late-season Saturday around it.
A Bathroom Finished Early Because of the Summer Calendar
The clearest case of the calendar moving construction came in June. QNS reported that on June 12, Wong announced NYC Parks had finished renovating the park's upper bathroom. The work had been scheduled to finish in October.
QNS reported that after Wong learned the projected timeline, he worked with NYC Parks to push the contractor to speed up. His reason was "the park's packed summer calendar of events serving thousands of Middle Village and Maspeth residents." Holden had secured the capital funding for the renovation before leaving office.
That same week, the lower station house near Brennan Track was temporarily closed after its plumbing system unexpectedly collapsed. QNS reported that Wong got four portable restrooms from the Parks Department so park-goers and event attendees still had access. As of that June report, the lower station house was still closed.
In the statement QNS quoted, Wong called Juniper Valley Park "the heart of our community all summer long" and said "our families, our athletes, and our event-goers deserve working facilities."
The order of events matters. The deadline moved up four months because of who was going to use the building that summer.
The Blacktop Is the Next Test
The bigger project is the blacktop, which NYC Parks' tracker calls the Multipurpose Play Area Reconstruction. QNS described it in February as one of Middle Village's most heavily used park areas. It includes a concrete softball field, basketball and tennis courts, and a public bathroom. Holden secured $5.25 million for the work through the City Council.
The redesign took about a year of review. QNS reported that NYC Parks went to Community Board 5's parks committee several times and drew up three separate plans. The final design was presented on Feb. 4 at St. Margaret's Parish in Middle Village. "This marks the final redesign for this capital project," a Parks spokesperson told QNS, adding that it was going through review by external stakeholders.
The main change is drainage. The plan updates the underground plumbing and adds green space with a rain garden. QNS reported that locals have said the tennis courts in that section tend to flood.
QNS reported that a representative of Wong's office said the main concern with the design was making sure community groups could still use the several-acre space for their events, which include concerts and holiday festivals through the year. The Juniper Park Civic Association holds summer concerts on the blacktop. Wong's concern was that the rain garden reaches into the blacktop and could interfere with those events.
So a project meant to fix flooding ended up judged largely by whether it leaves enough open pavement for a concert crowd. Wong still backed the project. "After years of advocacy and coordination, we're excited to see the multipurpose play area finally moving toward fruition," he told QNS, adding that he looked forward to "seeing shovels in the ground."
Where the Park's Projects Stand on Paper
NYC Parks publishes each capital project's progress on its Capital Project Tracker. Here is how the Juniper Valley Park entries read now:
| Project | Design | Procurement | Construction | Key date on the tracker |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multipurpose Play Area Reconstruction | 50% | 0% | 0% | Design completion moved from January 2026 to November 2026 |
| Cardinal Ballfield, field #7 | 100% | 0% | 0% | Design finished March 2025; procurement and construction "To Be Determined" |
| Running track and field reconstruction | 100% | 100% | 100% | Construction completed November 2022 |
The blacktop project was assigned in October 2024, and design was originally due to finish in January 2026. QNS reported in February that internal approval and review would push that back, though Parks hadn't said by how much. The tracker now shows the answer, November 2026, with no procurement or construction started.
Cardinal Ballfield shows the next stage of the same process. Its plan replaces the natural-turf infield with synthetic turf. Design has been finished since March 2025, and the tracker says permitting and contract legal review are still underway. More than a year and a half after its drawings were done, the field still has no construction start date.
Put the two together and the blacktop's timeline makes more sense. Even when the design phase ends next month, it doesn't set a date for crews to arrive. The ballfield shows that a finished design can wait a long time for procurement.
What This Means for the Park's Next Season
The bathroom finished four months early because of the summer event schedule, and the debate over the blacktop design centered on whether concerts and holiday festivals would still fit.
For residents, that makes CB5's parks committee and the council office the places where the park's future gets decided. The final blacktop design went to that committee in February, and Wong's office argued for event space while the design was still under review. Rain gardens, drainage lines and the outline of the paved area are being settled now, in the months before procurement, and the tracker shows that stage has no set end date.
Saturday's Trunk or Treat avoids the question because it runs on 80th Street. The JPCA summer concerts and the holiday festivals Wong's office mentioned need the blacktop, and the final layout of that space is still in the review that QNS reported in February.
The NYC Parks tracker page for the multipurpose play area is the simplest way to follow it. The first sign that construction is getting closer will be the procurement percentage rising above zero.
The blacktop's layout will be part of everyday life on the blocks around Juniper Valley Park once the redesign moves past procurement. If you own near the park and want to know how changes like this have affected values in Middle Village, John O'Kane has followed these blocks for more than 35 years. Call John for a consultation.
