These teens are on the wrong track.
Hordes of dirt bike-riding rapscallions are tearing up a South Bronx track and athletic field, creating dangerous holes and slippery conditions for local residents who use the beloved park, locals told The Post.
“It’s awful,” lamented soccer coach Naim Kurtovic, pointing to massive holes in the turf at Macombs Dam Park — which was only renovated in 2010 after the construction of the new Yankee Stadium across the street.
The coach added he’s also found syringes on the turf moments before high school teams descend on the field.
Other teams, like Cardinal Hayes High School’s football team, have stopped practicing at the field altogether as coaches have deemed the site too dangerous.
“It’s been devastating for our kids,” Cardinal Hayes Coach C.J. O’Neill told The Post. “We don’t have a fancy stadium like a lot of the other schools we play, but playing across the street from Yankee Stadium was a great source of pride for them.”
A dirt bike rider collided with a 5-year-old on the track back in 2021, sending the pint-sized parkgoer to the hospital for nose and mouth injuries — but locals say enforcement has been slim even after the incident.
A Parks rep confirmed to The Post that zero dirt bike-related summonses have been issued at the site this year.
“This is a place for people to exercise: not for people to be riding their scooters, motorcycles, dirt bikes – keep that outside, to the streets,” fumed 55-year-old Eli Ocasio, who has been coming to the track for over 10 years with his adult son Gian.
“The track is getting messed up,” he added. “We want this track to [be] maintained for future generations.”
South Bronx native Ana, who declined to share her last name, said the teen dirt bike riders have been wreaking havoc on countless afternoons in the field since the renovation.
The riding has resulted in dangerously slippery conditions for the spate of senior citizens who walk the track as well.
“The kids are bored, there’s no outlet for them,” said Ana, now a city worker who has been using the track since high school.
“This is one of the few places where you can come here and get a proper workout, and it’s not the greatest anymore because of the bike treads – it’s slippery, and if you don’t have the proper gear … it’s hard,” she added, noting she’ll “completely avoid” the field between 3 and 6 p.m. when at least a dozen 15- to 24-year-olds are known to race.
Assemblywoman Chantel Jackson, who represents the South Bronx, told The Post the dirt bikes are just part of the larger issue of the $35 million city-funded park falling into disrepair just a handful of years after it was redone.
“The track has not been managed, there’s no money to fix the track,” Jackson told The Post, adding she has cleaned up the track herself due to a lack of sanitation staff at the park.
“I think the dirt bikes are absolutely an issue, but I don’t think that’s the reason why,” she added.
A Parks rep asserted the city performs “routine” cleaning and maintenance of the field, which “is one of the most heavily used in the Parks system.”
The agency has performed dozens of repairs on the field since 2018, with a rep attributing part of the issue to the fact that the foundation of the field is the roof of a public parking garage.
The rep said this has “contributed to affect the quality of the turf field.”
“Recently, we met with the coaching staff from Cardinal Hayes High School regarding the field and will be making some in-house repairs to the turf,” the rep added, and the agency is now “exploring the scope of work and cost estimates for repairs to the garage roof and will conduct a future capital project to renovate the field.”
Other grievances at the park this year range from eight garbage/litter complaints to a handful of others calling out loud music, graffiti, “unsafe use of the park,” and “obstructing public use,” according to 311 data – but the vast majority of issues still go underreported, the assemblymember argued.
Track runner Jonathan agreed, telling The Post he can regularly hear the dirt bikes riding from inside his apartment blocks away – but the matter is small fish compared to the “guys dying of drugs on the street right there.”
“People are living in poverty,” Jackson added. “They don’t have time to complain about these things.”
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