The official opening of the revamped playground at P.S. 19 on First Avenue between 11th Street and 12th Street took place yesterday morning.
As noted in the previous post on the renovation:
The playground will feature a synthetic turf field, a painted track, play equipment, trees, a garden area with an outdoor classroom, a green-roof gazebo, junior basketball, benches, game tables, student art and an outdoor ping-pong table.
It was designed as a green infrastructure playground, and will capture hundreds of thousands of gallons of stormwater each year.
The playground is open to the community until dusk, after school and on weekends and holidays — just not when in use by P.S. 19 or any of their after-school programs.
This all-new playground happened with funding by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and (now-former) City Council member Rosie Mendez in conjunction with the Trust for Public Land.
[Click on image for more detail]
Previously on EV Grieve:
More details on the all-new playground coming to P.S. 19
So Wonderful !
ReplyDeleteNow that this block will be used heavier with families and children we need the city to install Speed Humps on 11th and 12th Streets between 1st and 2nd Avenues. Drivers pay no attention to speed limit signs, physical treatment is the only way to slow down dangerous driving. And please install two speed humps on every block in order to avoid the situation today where the driver clears the speed hump and then races even faster in order to make the light in the intersection (as happens on 11th and 12th streets east of 1st Av).
Unfortunately, these Trust for Public Land playgrounds that are attached to schools are never actually open to the public. The soccer field attached to East Side Community High School (beneath the Charlie Brown mural) is always locked, same with the recently opened opened playground near East Village Community School/Children's Workshop on 12th between B and C. Always locked and never open.
ReplyDeleteEssentially its up to the school custodians to unlock the playgrounds on weekends and after school hours and they never do. I'm guessing because they are the ones that have to maintain them and clean them up. I called the Trust for Public Land and asked them about it and they said that these PGs should be open on the weekends but they didn't have any answers about why they weren't.
Hopefully this new PG will be different and will actually be open to the public.
What an asset for the school, the students and the community! The Trust turned a piece of land with the personality of a parking lot into a park. Imagine: trees, bushes, plants and sports! Now if we can only stop the supers and tenants of the south side of 11th street from throwing their garbage by the school, it will be a perfect addition to the nabe.
ReplyDeleteIt's a superb playground, looks great.
ReplyDeleteIt's true. The design is wonderful and there are lots of places to sit. Unfortunately, I echo the earlier comments. Everyone makes claims that these places will be open to the public on weekends and eves, but I've been checking, and so far, locked gates. Same as the "public" community garden on 11th B/W first and A...it's only open maybe twice a year. And I've been living here 20 years. The other park on 11th is typically closed to the public, too. We all need green spaces.
ReplyDeleteWe shall see if this is actually available to the locals.
ReplyDeleteI note that the crusties (and their large couch) who set up on the 11th St. side of the school were REMOVED just in time for the bigwigs to have their "grand opening" event. Will the crusties be back?
Wow. I just walked past this today. What a beautiful playground it is. Growing up in the eighties and nineties, we didn't have playgrounds like this. I am sure it will be a happy place for many children :)
ReplyDelete