I will be the first to admit, I have not been to city council meetings this year to address the playgrounds. It just doesn't seem to be a productive thing to do. I would however be willing to band together with other concerned citizens and try to fix these playgrounds. If you are interested let me know and we will meet. In the meantime enjoy my trip in pictures to the Center Street playground this morning 7-12-12 at about 11:30am.
I am not even complaining now. I just want to document the condition of a playground in the city that is highly utilized. There were more than 30 kids here this morning playing amongst the garbage, weeds, broken equipment and broken glass. They were all very well behaved and they deserve better.
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I did pick up and throw out as much glass as I could after taking the pictures, but I was also supervising 3 kids, so not really the time for clean up.
I invite everyone to go to your local playground and post your pictures here. Even Martin Road has a slide that was vandalized weeks ago that's sitting unfixed covered in garbage and broken glass.
Yepper! Hop on Board!
I have been walking this same road for 23 1/2 years.......been to 90% of Council Meetings in same period..............a few people have come and gone over the years complaining......it fell on deaf ears, and they faded away. Shame.Originally Posted by jenrose66
BTW: Back in 2000-2004 Mayor Kuryak brought in 2 $30,000/matching funds, playground GRANTS from NYSParks .......One for Center/Franklin St the other for Bauder Street.
Normie got in 2004 and they sat on Bauder Street playground revitalization grant until 2006 because it was a political hot potato............. it should have been in and the kids swinging by 2005.........unbeknown-st to me, they festered a mess, that I even got threatened over and had to call the police to break up their swearing and screaming! Can you imagine them high-fighing each other as they slugged down their beers? It finally went in without the basketball court.
Center Street playground MONIES were turned back into NYSParks because Normie and company( including you know who) did NOT want to spend any money in there!
Now can you imagine them, in about 2005/06' giving back money that was hard to get in place.......FOR THE CHILDREN?!?SHAME ON THEM!
Just so they could add patronage to the bottom of their "you better vote for me" family and friends club pyramid!
And just like they are trying to do to this very day!
It's only a few thousand dollars....that's what I don't understand. They could even commit to do a playground a year and within the decade they'd all have new equipment. Then you set up your group of community volunteers to keep it nice and you can ignore it for the next 15 or 20 years if you want...but come on already it's time!
I actually have a grand vision for that entire space. It will never happen, but still. I'm thinking you can put a nice jungle gym area with slides where the broken one is that's surrounded by rusty spikes and glass. Put down some mulch...or pebbles if you want to cheap out. Then there is that huge expanse of grass. They could put in a splash pad, like at caz. Throw in a couple porta potties and some more benches and you have a nice family friendly area. There is still room for the ball diamond and there is still room for various running around/green space. It would be absolutely beautiful and the perfect addition to a neighborhood with so many families. I bet it would even boost property values and rents because it would be so nice to live next to such a usable outdoor space.
Also, I understand that the garbage and the broken glass obviously come from people using the playground. However, there is no pride in that area. Why would the kids respect the area, it's obvious the city has no respect for them. I'm not saying it's right, however, I think that there would be some incentive to keep the park nice if it was spruced up.
I noticed when the playground watchers were handing out lunches they did tell the kids to throw out their garbage when they were done. That's a good start, but since the playground watchers are there all day, and they are getting paid, why aren't they cleaning up the parks? While I was there one of the boys was playing with the kids (which is great). There were 4 other kids who were sitting in the shade either staring at the ground or playing on their cellphones. They certainly aren't watching the kids. The place was strewn with garbage, it should be in their job description to spruce it up and keep it nice, that would be setting a good example for the large amount of little kids they interact with every day.
Been there done that 35 plus years ago. Overstock.com has great deals on the old fashioned metal playgrounds. Easy to assemble, free delivery. Just bought one for the grandchildren in May.
I know. We have a swingset in the backyard along with playground balls, sprinklers, slipnslides, you name it. My son said he was bored in our backyard (go figure) and I didn't really feel like cooking, so I figured I'd take the kids to eat and run around with some other kids at the park. I hadn't been there since last September and I just get so angry...
Have you ever been to GreenLake, OP? Playground, splash pad, lake, lifeguards, picnic area. Pack up the kids, picnic basket, blankets, nice sand area, & take hubby along and enjoy the day. The kids will have lots to do there. You will feel like your on vacation. And it is free.
Are those creosote soak railroad ties in a play ground. I thought they were outlawed in play grounds last century.
also Greenlake in Orchard park is nice but it is for town residents only cars with out town stickers maybe towed .
One good thing about growing old is your secrets are safe with your friends they can't remember them either
Thanks for the info. Been going there for a few years now, many childrens parties. Never noticed any required car stickers, never even thought about it.
Since it is Mr. Love's job to maintain this why don't you ask him why he doesn't? Stand back and let him talk you won't believe what he will have to say. On the otherhand he is probably gonna walk after they cut his pay which is a good thing for the kids. A lot of the problems can be fixed easily if people are proactive rather than reactive. When I was a kid they were locked at dusk and the reopened at sunrise maybe we need to do it this way again?
So I have reported the playground to various news agencies. I sent my pictures to wrgz, wivb, wkbw, and ynn. My full 14 picture album as well as pictures from last September are also fully viewable on my facebook page. Also through channel 4 I found this site:
http://en.seeclickfix.com/issues/206...ous-playground
Please visit this webpage and "vote" for fixing this playground. I guess they sent the information I submitted to growwny.org and the state senate. I'm just really tired of being completely ignored...and having the best interests of innocent children ignored too.
Good for YOU. That is the only way to change things...do not FEEL bad that you had to resort to sharing the pictures. Something will get done now!
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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