Some dick tagged the Tompkins Square Park playground

EVG reader Angela Moore shared these photos from the Tompkins Square Park playground along Avenue A ... where someone drew a dick on the children's slide ... and a tree ...



Not sure if kids will buy that this is an interpretative drawing of R2-D2.

Tompkins Square Park playground reconstruction 1 month in

There's progress to note with the Tompkins Square Park playground reconstruction on Seventh Street at Avenue B. (Renovation work started on Oct. 1 on the Avenue B children’s playgrounds.)

For starters, there's now a Work in Progress sign up on that corner to let people know what's happening.

The two playgrounds in the Park's southeast quadrant have been scrapped up (along with the walkways) ...





Steven shared these next two shots ... the top photo, from Oct. 10, looks toward Seventh Street and Avenue B...



... and the same angle from Tuesday...



According to the Parks Department website: "This project will reconstruct two playgrounds with new play equipment, safety surfacing, spray showers, seating and fencing.

And a schematic from the website...



The project has a 12-month timeline for completion.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Playground renovations underway in Tompkins Square Park

Heavy-duty fencing arrives as playground renovations continue in Tompkins Square Park

Heavy-duty fencing arrives as playground renovations continue in Tompkins Square Park

Renovation work started last Monday on the Tompkins Square Park Avenue B children’s playgrounds. (This project has been three-plus years in the making.)

Later last week, more sturdy fencing arrived on the southeast portion of the Park...



The entrances on Seventh Street at Avenue B and Eighth Street at Avenue B are closed, and will likely be that way for the duration of the renovations that are estimated to take 12 months.



According to the Parks Department website: "This project will reconstruct two playgrounds with new play equipment, safety surfacing, spray showers, seating and fencing.

And a schematic from the website...



The Parks Department is supplementing the project's funding with its Parks Without Borders initiative that would lower the fences from its present height of 7 feet to 4 feet, a move that stirred plenty of concern in early 2017.

Parks officials believe the shorter fences make the play areas safer — "lowering barriers that block sight lines discourages negative behavior while at the same time making the green space more open and aesthetically pleasing," as DNAinfo reported at the time.

Last we heard, in March 2017, Parks Department Commissioner Mitchell Silver was reportedly going to make the final determination on the fence lowering.

In an email last week, a Parks official confirmed that the new fence height will be 4 feet.



The newly fenced-off area is also where Christo and Amelia's nest is ... limiting access for prime hawk watching.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Your chance to brainstorm ideas to renovate the Tompkins Square Park Playground (27 comments)

Reminders: Meeting on possible improvements to the Tompkins Square Park Playground

Join Rosie Mendez to discuss improvements to the Tompkins Square playgrounds tomorrow night

Community meeting set to discuss lowering the playground fences in Tompkins Square Park (28 comments)

Report: There's opposition to lowering the playground fences in Tompkins Square Park

Playground renovations underway in Tompkins Square Park

Playground renovations underway in Tompkins Square Park

Workers arrived this morning to start renovations on the Tompkins Square Park Avenue B children’s playgrounds.

EVG correspondent Greg Masters shared these photos...





Per Greg: Contractors are installing fences cutting off access to the paths in the area, such as the entrance at Avenue B and Seventh Street, as well as the path around the Don Robert's Garden.

The contract is for one year, a worker on the scene told Greg, but the job could be completed earlier.

Previous District 2 City Council member Rosie Mendez had allocated capital funds to renovate the adjacent playgrounds along Seventh Street and Avenue B at the Park's southeast entrance.

According to the Parks Department website: "This project will reconstruct two playgrounds with new play equipment, safety surfacing, spray showers, seating and fencing.

And a schematic from the website...



The Parks Department was to supplement the funding with its Parks Without Borders initiative that would lower the fences from its present height of 7 feet to 4 feet, a move that stirred plenty of concern.

Parks Department Commissioner Mitchell Silver was reportedly going to make the final determination on the fence lowering. That was in March 2017. We'll try to find out what the final verdict was on the fence's height.

Updated 10/2

In an email, a Parks official said that the new fence height will be 4 feet.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Your chance to brainstorm ideas to renovate the Tompkins Square Park Playground (27 comments)

Reminders: Meeting on possible improvements to the Tompkins Square Park Playground

Join Rosie Mendez to discuss improvements to the Tompkins Square playgrounds tomorrow night

Community meeting set to discuss lowering the playground fences in Tompkins Square Park (28 comments)

Report: There's opposition to lowering the playground fences in Tompkins Square Park

Report: There's opposition to lowering the playground fences in Tompkins Square Park

On Monday night, City Council Member Rosie Mendez and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation held a community meeting on the Tompkins Square Park Avenue B children’s playground renovation.

Mendez has allocated capital funds to renovate the playground on Avenue B between Seventh Street and Eighth Street. Meanwhile, the Parks Department wants to supplement the funding with its Parks Without Borders initiative that would lower the fences from its present height of 7 feet to 4 feet.

There is opposition to the fence-lowering plan.

Allegra Hobbs covered the meeting for DNAinfo. A quick excerpt:

Parents who take their kids to Tompkins Square Park are begging the city Parks Department to abandon a controversial plan to lower the fences around the play area by three feet, claiming the tall barriers provide much-needed security in a park overrun by vagrants, substance abusers, and rowdy college students.

However!

[T]he Parks Department believes lowering the fences would actually make the play areas safer — lowering barriers that block sight lines discourages negative behavior while at the same time making the green space more open and aesthetically pleasing, argued Manhattan Parks Borough Commissioner Bill Castro.

The article included a comment from one parent in favor of lowering the fences. "[O]ne mother with an 18-month-old child said she could could see the alteration creating a more open and healthy environment for kids." She also said that "she would support the fences staying as they are if that were the majority opinion."

Parks Department Commissioner Mitchell Silver will make the final determination on the fence lowering. DNAinfo reports that he expects to make a decision by the spring.

Read the full article here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Community meeting set to discuss lowering the playground fences in Tompkins Square Park (28 comments)

Community meeting set to discuss lowering the playground fences in Tompkins Square Park

Via the EVG inbox...

On Monday, Feb. 27, NYC Councilwoman Rosie Mendez and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation will hold a community meeting pertaining to the Tompkins Square Park Avenue B Children’s Playground Renovation.

Councilwoman Mendez allocated capital funds to renovate the Avenue B Children’s Playground. The Parks Department has supplemented the funding with its “Parks Without Borders” Initiative that would lower the fences from its present height of 7 feet to 4 feet.

This initiative to lowers the fences at the Avenue B Playground has raised many concerns from residents and NYC Councilwoman Mendez. Please join us at the meeting to share your concerns for the initiative.

The meeting takes place Monday night from 6:30-8 at Saint Brigid-Saint Emeric on Avenue B at Eighth Street. Use the entrance on Eighth Street.

For a little more background, here's a piece from DNAinfo earlier this month:

The Parks Department currently plans to lower the fences around the two playgrounds at the southeast corner of the park from seven feet to four feet as part of a larger reconstruction project, claiming the high fences could obscure bad behavior and actually make the playgrounds less safe.

But community representatives say lowering the fences would expose children using the playgrounds to "vagrants" and drug paraphernalia in the park.

Capt. Vincent Greany, commanding officer at the 9th Precinct, also told DNAinfo that he believes the fences should not be lowered.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Your chance to brainstorm ideas to renovate the Tompkins Square Park Playground (27 comments)

Reminders: Meeting on possible improvements to the Tompkins Square Park Playground

Join Rosie Mendez to discuss improvements to the Tompkins Square playgrounds tomorrow night

Reminders: Meeting on possible improvements to the Tompkins Square Park Playground

Just a reminder… Councilmember Rosie Mendez is hosting a meeting tonight to discuss ideas for improving the Tompkins Square Park Playground near East Seventh Street and Avenue B. Mendez has allotted some $900,000 to renovate this space… this is the first step in the improvement process…





The meeting tonight is at St. Brigid's on Avenue B (enter the community center space on the East Eighth Street side) from 6:30-8.

Meanwhile, someone offered his or her opinion on the meeting on one of the flyers in the Park… even pointing out a missing word in the text…


[Photo by Steven]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Your chance to brainstorm ideas to renovate the Tompkins Square Park Playground (27 comments)

Tompkins Square Park playground closed for repair for some reason

The playground on Avenue A and East Ninth Street in Tompkins Square Park has been closed all week for repairs...

[Bobby Williams]

[Steven Matthews]

[SM]

The sandbox has been closed for months here. (As previously noted, the Parks Department had closed the sandbox because of a recurring problem — the sharp lip is exposed when the sand level gets too low ... kids are apparently removing the sand for various reasons...)

We asked Chad Marlow, who helped launch the Tompkins Square Park & Playgrounds Parents' Association (TSP3A) in 2011, if he knew what was happening with the repairs.

"My hope is that, in addition to adding sand to the sandbox, they are trying to correct the structural flaw that regularly allows sand to clog the sprinklers," Marlow said. "When I passed by the other day it appeared the work was focused on major repairs/rennovations under the surface area between the sandbox and sprinklers."

The playground was closed for 11 months, reopening in July 2009, for a $1.5 million renovation.

Trash and a dead rat at the Tompkins Square Park Playground this morning

A reader this morning noted an unusually dirty playground in Tompkins Square Park on East Ninth Street and Avenue A ... newspapers, half-eaten containers of food, etc. ...

But... per the reader, "The icing on the cake was the dead rat, which was still pulsating, chilling in a swarm of flies by the still broken-down sandbox."

In the summer of 2010, New York magazine named this one of the city's best playgrounds.

Just in time for the rest of summer: The Tompkins Square Park playground has reopened

Reopened yesterday. And it looks very nice too. I would go in, but I don't have any kids. And would seem like a perv. Maybe. Anyway! It closed last August.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Tompkins Square Park playground completion now set for summer

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...