Tompkins Square Park playground completion now set for summer

Late last summer, the city began a $1.5 million upgrade on the main playground in Tompkins Square Park. The playground has been closed since late August.



As the sign just off Avenue A at Ninth Street notes (as of yesterday), the project is set for completion this spring.



However, according to the Parks Department Web site, the anticipated completion date is now this summer.



Uh-oh. Several annoyed parents and residents have already complained about a spring completion. As The Villager reported last October, the construction has "disrupted the rhythm of their lives."

“This was the main gathering area, not just for the kids, but also for the parents,” said Susan. “When you live in spaces as small as we do in the East Village, then these community gathering areas are really important. And, especially, like single parents — where do you go? You go to the playground and you can talk to other single parents. It’s an important resource.”

“They closed it and we lost like 20 friends maybe?” said Luis Castro, who was with his partner, Isabel Bigelow, and friend Jan Kuba Gontarczyk, all taking turns pushing their 2-year-old daughters on a tire swing in a smaller playground in the southeast corner of Tompkins Square Park. Parents they used to see every day now “go to different parks,” said Castro.

Meanwhile, a few random shots of the playground from recent months...