Wednesday, May 02, 2018

To The Delight Of Carroll Gardens' Kids, St. Mary's Playground Under The Culver Viaduct Just Re-Opened

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To the delight of Carroll Gardens children, the brand new St. Mary's Playground at Huntington and Smith Street officially re-opened. Yesterday, the place was filled with kids, taking full advantage of the new play equipment as well as the nice weather.
This new playground replaces one of two neglected, under-used parks underneath the Culver Viaduct. It was closed and dismantled a few years ago, while the Metropolitan Transit Authority worked on
the viaduct and the train tracks above.
The design includes two play areas, one for 2-5 year olds and another for 5-12 year olds. There is also a water feature, which will certainly come in handy in the summertime.

Originally, the reconstruction of this southern part of St. Mary's Playground was supposed to re-open in 2013, but as with everything in New York City, there were delays. Obviously, the wait was worth it as the kids looked as though they were having a blast yesterday, as we walked by.

The second part of the reconstruction includes the portion of the park between Nelson Street and Luquer Street. The design for Phase 2 has already been approved and construction has begun. It will include exercise equipment and basketball hoops. It is slated for completion by the end of this year.

Though the two sections of the park will be in shade most of the day and the train running overhead can be deafening, the Carroll Gardens neighborhood has been in sore need of more park space.
Let us hope that St. Mary's will ease some of the overcrowding in Carroll Park.

7 comments:

John Longbow said...

I used to love taking my nephew and niece to St. Mary's before they closed it nearly ten years ago. It felt like such a New York City scene: the kids going wild, their voices echoing off the big freeway viaduct, turning the trains passing above into earthquakes and rocketships. It wasn't the best kept or busiest playground in the neighborhood, but the kids loved it and so did I. More room to play, even if they always had to scare away a big crowd of pigeons when we showed up. I'd always make them wait while I shooed the birds and swept for any dangerous trash. Well, one blistering August day I missed something, but my niece found it (thankfully, without touching it!) and was very excited to show me. I approached the fence to see a terrified little creature trapped in a pile of rubble and trash. It couldn't have been more than five days old, and was rather cute… but this "baby squirrel" had a very hairless tail! We set it free, and I didn't have the heart to tell my niece that our neighborhood still desperately needs a Shanghainese restaurant.

Katia said...

OH, how I love your stories, even if they always have the same ending, John.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your racist tidbit at the end John. Chinese people don't eat sewer rats. I thought the half-life of propaganda was 100 years.

anony mouse said...

anonymous at 2:19 - i understand how it might look in this particular post, but i don't think john meant it as racist... the shanghainese comment is a recurring theme that started with a discussion on soup dumplings and has carried through in the comments section on many of the posts here at PMFA - and how, whenever there's a new storefront vacancy, many people in our neighborhood would prefer a soup dumplings venue rather than another coffee shop or nail salon.... and "john" has been burning the candle on both ends to advocate for that. but i see how taken out of context, or put into the context of this particular post without referring to other posts, it comes across as careless and inappropriate.

Anonymous said...

Anon: Just goes to show. Watch & wait to make enemies here. Mull over what you don't fully understand for a day and not just two hours. Wait for others to find fault then you can join in.

Anonymous said...

Glad I came back to this, because my response didn't seem to post.

Thank you for the clarification, sorry John, a simple misunderstanding. I'm glad I posted my concern because I'm sure others read it the same way and can now have the backstory

Not sure how mulling over what was said for a day would have changed things, since anony-mouse wouldn't premptively post the back story. Nice try anon-10:03.

John will be glad that those reading his post will know where his heart is thanks to my reaction to his poorly phrased ending. Think- what did you contribute to this thread?

Unknown said...

The newly renovated park is great so far -- my son dragged me down there bright and early at 9am Saturday morning, and it was already packed. Really a surprisingly nice job by all involved (if a few years behind schedule). Great that they have reasonable seating for adults, too, and I'm sure the former F Line Bagels down the street will get much busier on weekends.