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New York City's parks are revamped and rehabilitated
For all the millions of words that have been written about New York City, one interesting point has gone almost unnoticed-New York is probably the most abused city in the world. Where else, for example, would a visitor (often enough, the questioner's own host) feel no qualms about asking a citizen, "How can you possibly live in such a noisy, filthy, dangerous place?"
The answer, of course, is that New York offers a multitude of delights that few visitors are apt to see, and one of the most interesting these days is a citywide program of improvements specifically targeted at neighborhood playgrounds. Since 1995, the city's Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) has replaced or refurbished more than 378 playgrounds, and the capital budget has included more funding each year.
"Under Mayor Giuliani, our funding has more than tripled, from $51 million to $165 million," explains Parks Commissioner Henry Stern, "and that translates into hundreds of new and renovated playgrounds for the city's children in every neighborhood." Taken all together, this program amounts to a virtual renaissance in neighborhood amenities. Oddly, though, this work has gotten little publicity or attention in the media, and it seems to have gone largely unnoticed by New Yorkers themselves.
Curious to see how the city has managed to pull off this "invisible" renewal, I recently arranged a short multi-borough visit to recently completed and in-progress playground rehab projects with an engineer friend, Kirti Gandhi, PE., Ph.D., founder and president of Gandhi Engineering, Inc. Dr. Gandhi's firm is one of several professional consulting organizations with which DPR has established 'requirements contracts." An innovative form of agencyconsultant alliance, these contracts enable DPR to speed park and playground reconstruction by handling several sites under a single contract, with each designated consultant providing a variety of engineering, design, and construction inspection services for the improvements.
Blending Imagination and Utility Our first stop was the J. Hood Wright Park and Playground in the Washington Hights neighborhood of upper Manhattan. There's a fantastic view from here that takes in the mile-wide Hudson River and the George Washington Bridge, once the world's longest suspension bridge. From a child's-eye point of view, the most exciting feature of the...