Owl’s Head Park Playground Is Accepting Ideas
Davey Ives, Christopher Syrett, Lauren Sylvester and Rachel Kramer from NYC Parks ran a virtual meeting about Owl’s Head Park.
Four million dollars is going to be spent on parks – it’s not going to start for a long time – it’s a three year process.
FOUR MILLION DOLLARS
FOUR MILLION DOLLARS
FOUR MILLION DOLLARS – even when NYC has a 9 billion dollar budget hole and has cut sanitation services. Does that make sense?
Tonight and for the next two weeks, they are taking input from the community about what they want in the park.
The skate park is not part of this project. The basketball court is part of this design, but they were not part of tonight’s conversation. This meeting was about the Owl’s Head playground area.
About 20 Bay Ridge residents were at this meeting. Several teams of concerned parents and children brought great ideas for the park.
Bad news: For one year, the playground will be off limits. Davey Ives said the park was bland. They are going to add new colors to the playground.
Children asked for:
1) Monkey bars
2) A bridge attached to a boat (like a pirate ship) and a water area with sand
3)Big kids swings (Response: You need 30 feet high to install this so it may not be part of the design. Even thought there is FOUR MILLION DOLLARS…..Get the kids some swings!
4) A strawberry to climb in
5) Longer slides
6) One girl asked for the playground to be made larger because there are so many children there. Parents agreed that this needs to be larger!
7) 65th Street Park has some great climbing equipment (John Alateen Park)
8) The design needs to to include children with disabilities. Children on the spectrum get left out of the design for parks. How about a wheelchair accessible swing? There is not one in the area.
I’m actually putting this here to see if the NYC Parks Department is going to listen to the residents designs and concerns OR if they are just going to roll out a generic park with FOUR MILLION DOLLARS.
Children can still send drawings of what they want in the park to the NY Parks Designer, Aurora. Her e-mail address is: BKspecialevents@parks.nyc.gov
Will the drainage system be updated in Owl’s Head Park? Yes! There is an area on the walkway that floods from the hill. The water gathers and becomes stagnant after a rainstorm. They plan to address this in the design.
A lovely Bay Ridge resident spoke to a staff member who worked at the park. The NYC Parks worker said her claw for cleaning up was stolen and she had to buy a new one herself from Amazon. He asked: Why can’t the NYC Parks Department replace the claw for her?
They will be looking into new lighting also.
The homeless people sleeping in the park came up. They don’t just throw the homeless people out of the park anymore. A resident said that the problem is that the homeless are defecating in the park and there is a biohazard area in the park. Children and dogs can’t be around this. Can a porta-potty be added? (Send e-mail if to the address below if you think this is important)
People love to play volleyball at Owl’s Head Park. Is there a way to include this into the design so that the grass doesn’t get ruined in the park?
New, larger garbage cans will be added. Since COVID-19 started, there are a lot of people, but there isn’t enough storage for garbage. An organized effort to collect garbage. (The NYC Parks Department spoke about zone management, but they didn’t seem to get the jist that garbage is problem)
Someone asked: “Are the brick walls staying?” Yes, they are staying.
New seating in the shade can be added – like this:
If you have ideas for Owl’s Head Park Lauren.Sylvester@parks.nyc.gov
Hugs,
marlene
Topics: Bay Ridge | 2 Comments »
October 9th, 2020 at 7:56 am
Is the city going to have the money for this? Unless there is a safety issue I’m guessing renovation projects will be put on hold indefinitely.
October 10th, 2020 at 12:20 am
The people from NYC acted like this project was going to take a few years to plan and create.