NEW YORK—Rockaway children can finally run through a squiggly, mustard yellow, and fire-hydrant red playground that gently splashes cool water through its colorful tubes. The dream was delayed, but is now a reality.
Mayor Bloomberg and former Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe cut the ribbon for the opening of the renovated public Rockaway Park at the eastern end of the Rockaway Peninsula Monday. The new park was destroyed in March this year by vandalism. It took $100,000 to rebuild it, pushing back the opening by months.
Rockaway Park was one of eight parks being revamped under the PlaNYC initiative. The city spent nearly $30 million on the Rockaway project, which includes a 15,700-square-foot skateboard park, ball court, playground, climbing wall, synthetic turf field, and a new public bathroom with lime green walls on the inside and out.
“It was fun. It’s a better experience than where we usually play,” Jonathan Gonzales, 12, said after a football game. Gonzales plays for the Rockaway Ravens, the area’s youth football team. The Lady Ravens cheerleaders said they were also excited about their team’s “new home.”
Instead of the usual dark surfaces used to build playgrounds, Rockaway Park has a sky-blue permeable surface that absorbs less heat and helps with storm water collection.
“I used to go to Jones Beach as a kid to find a nice beach, this used to be an abandoned parking lot filled with illegal dumping,” Benepe said.
The project site is 27 acres in size, approximately one mile long, and borders the boardwalk and open beach between Beach 9th Street and Beach 32nd Street.
“Beaches and boardwalks of the Rockaways have drawn New Yorkers and tourists for generations, but a lack of investment led this section of our seashore to deteriorate and fall short of its promise as a recreational destination,” Bloomberg said.
Other regional parks being worked on under PlaNYC include the High Bridge and Fort Washington Park in Manhattan, Calvert Vaux Park in Brooklyn, the Ocean Breeze Indoor Track and Field Facility on Staten Island, and Highland Park in Queens.
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