Sagtikos Parkway reduced to standstill by concert -

The Sagtikos Parkway was transformed into a virtual parking lot complete with food vendors and miles of stalled cars yesterday when more than 30,000 people showed up for a charity event at Sunken Meadow State ...

[JJJ]

Gee I wonder who paid the tab on this one?wanna guess?

[Dee]

There's no way that park see's 30 - 40 thousand visitors a day. What the hell is wrong with Newsday.

[doh]

and the meek shall inherit Long Island .....only a sign of things to come

[Joseph I Weiss]

Kings Park deserves better, call it poor planning by those who sponsored the Concert. Also call it poor planning by New York State Department of Parks, the better and larger Venue would have been Jones Beach Ampitheater.

[mr fix it]

GET REAL wrote:

Concierto Mexicano? More like ILLEGAL ALIENSTOCK!

free health care too could have been operation deport, deport

[Road Warrior]

The cops and INS could have had a field day yesterday. I got caught in the nightmare and loss count of the number of small cars with six or seven people jammed inside. The other thing that amased me is that every car that had a driver of "Latin" decent had out of state plates on it. What gives with that? The kicker came when an Islip Terrace ambulance was making it way through traffic, everyone moved over, but as soon as the ambulance passed the rush of cars to follow it was insane. One driver of "Latin decent" and again with six people in the car nearly took out two other cars just to make it a quarter mile further up the road. What a mess!

[Liz]

Ha, my husband and I thought there was some illegal protest or something. We saw all these mexicans that looked like gangbangers and cops, we couldn't figure out what the hell was going on!...oh and most of the cars parked on Sunken Meadow were ticketed by the way.

[SuzieQ]

Sounds like a fun time, except that I will bet that most of the people were illegal aliens. This would have been a good time to round the illegals up.

[TruthBTold]

Its so funny to read these racist comments. No one wants Illegals here on L.I but none are willing to do anything about it. We need to let out jackazz politicians know that they will not get our vote without a tough policy to clean our towns of these illegals. Do we even know who our politicians are? Who to write to?

[fla fla]

Dee wrote:

There's no way that park see's 30 - 40 thousand visitors a day. What the hell is wrong with Newsday.

Also, Newsday, It's the Sunken Meadow Parkway, not the Sagtikos. The traffic was backed up to the Sagtikos though.

I have never seen anything like this before. A parking lot from Sunken Meadow all the way to the LIE.

Next year do it at Jones Beach where they can handle the crow.

[should have seen it]

They should of had a DMV post right after the toll both. Ticket vehicles with out proper tags and paper work. Confiscate vehicles where the owners had records and should not have been on the road. The worst part were the Mexicans parked and walking on the side of the highway. Yeah they may have courage to walk a few miles. However, they walked in the tall grass with their baby strollers not looking when to cross the ON RAMPs and OFF RAMPS. Groups of them did this! Foolish idiots could have gotten killed. And who's fault is that? Who the heck walks/parks on the median of the parkway abandoning their vehicles? Why weren't these cars diverted and sent away. I loved it when cars were parked on the grass right off of 25a. The sign next to one of the cars said No Parking. DID SUFFOLK COUNTY PD RUN OUT OF PARKING TICKET CHITS? I didn't see any tickets.

[Loving Mother]

Where was the INS? That could've been an effective way to thin out the illegal population. Actually, the INS should announce a similar concert elsewhere and do a round up.

[Monday]

All ILLEGALS all over the parkway, it was a huge crazy mess, very scary. Did see a handful of state troopers writing up tickets...the INS should have been there and rounded them up by the tractor trailer full...take them back to where they came from.

[Absolute Disgrace]

You should have seen it. It looked like a run for the border. Everybody was walking down the sides of the parkway, crossing the entrance and exit ramps with total disregard. Why weren’t the local people notified? Why wasn't the SCPD a little more proactive? Shame on Smithtown. A little planning goes a long way. New York State should foot the bill to clean all the trash on the local streets, but of course they won't that's the town’s responsibility. The state is responsible for nothing look at the Kings Park Psych center and all other psych centers. They are full of asbestos and hazardous materials that the State walks away from with no remorse. If I as a taxpayer did this on my own property I would be shut down when the first 100 or so illegal’s show up. We should take this opportunity next year to have INS deport all that are here illegally.
I can't wait for the Pureto Rican Day parade, that’s going to be another missed opportunity.
Just a huge Disgrace to the American Taxpayer.

[I Have His Wallet]

Missed a great opportunity to seal them in the park - round 'em up and send them home!

[Angry resident]

Ron Foley, the Long Island regional director of New York State Parks, should loose his job for causing the fiasco that shut down our town yesterday. The local fire department was not informed of this concert nor was the local police department. Emergency vehicles would have had a hard time getting around if there was any incedents.Is Healthfirst going to pay for the clean-up? I hope the state has learned a lesson but I doubt it!

[write letter]

Everyone should write a letter to NYS Parks about this and how it should not be at Sunken Meadow ever again.

Monday wrote:

All ILLEGALS all over the parkway, it was a huge crazy mess, very scary. Did see a handful of state troopers writing up tickets...the INS should have been there and rounded them up by the tractor trailer full...take them back to where they came from.

[Faust]

Sounds like we missed the perfect chance to bomb the park.

Once again our "leaders" are caught asleep at the wheel.

[Amused]

This clearly shows the infrastructure issues this country faces with illegal immigration on the rise. I am not saying "Send them back" or anything else intolerant. I am simply pointing out what is going to be a real problem in the near future.

[3d Max]

I live right down the street. If you were stuck in the traffic, it could be a bit annoying. But, this is the first time I have ever seen anything like this. If it happened more than once, I would be concerned.

They all seemed to be there to have a good time. Everyone was smiling. There were a lot of families. I dont have a problem with it. The Parks Department will clean up the trash.