Parkside Playground Opens Avec Fanfare

A small miracle has taken place in our midst. After years of begging, the City Parks Department finally fixed up the dilapidated playground next to PS92, which you can enter on either Winthrop or through a cute passageway off Parkside tween Bedford and Rogers. Councilman Mathieu Eugene shepherded the project through the budget process, and therefore was seen taking his metaphorical victory lap yesterday, with folks from Parks and other local leaders. Hundreds of kids and parents spent part of yesterday's scorching heat at the playground and on the basketball courts. The street was blocked off, upbeat music was pumping, lunches were given out. Relatively healthy lunches in cute boxes to boot - tuna sammies, a peach, carrots...

So what's the big deal, you might ask? While it's true that there are excellent playgrounds at the park, what's been missing for years is a decent place for teens to hang out, and the playground includes not only jungle-gyms for toddlers but decent full-court basketball courts, handball courts, chess tables, workout stations and markings on the ground for some game that seems barely big enough for a rousing round of badminton, which it probably isn't, but I'm glad I had a chance to write it out for the first time in prose, since I had no idea the word had an "n" it. I tried all manner of spellings before I tried "badminton" on a whim without the red squiggly auto-correct lines appearing. Bad-MIN-ton. MIN. Holy cow, how many years have I been saying that wrong? 40? Anyhow, three cheers to everyone who stayed on point and got the job done. The playground is not five minutes from my doorstep, and my daughters and I will be there a lot in the coming years. Thank you, all.

One potential problem - the trees already look to be struggling, among an intense landscaping job by Parks. (Did I even notice City trees ONCE in my 20s? Now I notice them constantly, and the trash. So strange what time does to one's recognition of environment...)

Below, a funny moment where Councilman Eugene calls out to Lefferts Manor President Ben Edwards to join the picture because he's been "working hard." Also here, from the right, Eugene's assistant Jonah Rogoff and CB9 district leader Pearl Miles.