It's a good time for public parks in New York City. Bloomingdale Playground, a neighborhood park at the corner of Amsterdam Ave and W 104th St, just reopened after a $7.1 million renovation.
The makeover transformed a nice-but-nothing-special .71-acre area shared with P.S. 145 the Bloomingdale School into a comprehensive recreation area with a basketball court, a turf field, adult workout machines, sitting areas, a water spray zone and ADA-compliant equipment designed to encourage creative play. The best kids' playgrounds NYC families love the most pack a lot of activities into a tiny space.
Parents take note: The bathroom is shiny and new and works. The refurbishing of the comfort station accounts for $1.5 million of the total cost. Given that an average one-bedroom apartment in a transitional neighborhood costs more than $1.3 million, this park is a bargain.
The overhaul is funded in part by Mayor Bill de Blasio's Community Parks Initiative, a $318 million program that funds the renovations of high-use parks in under-served neighborhoods. After all, every part of town deserves one of the best playgrounds with famous artwork in NYC, or one of the best water playgrounds for kids in NYC.
Photograph: Courtesy of NYC Parks/Eric Johnson
The renovation, which was decades in the making, is more than simply installing new gear.
"It marks a revolution in the way this City conceptualizes children play-spaces," City Council Member Mark Levine said in a statement. "This beautiful new playground is not just ADA accessible but also goes much further than that in its design to encourage play between children of all types of mental and physical levels."
It's a playground for the neighborhood that helps to create a community.
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