NEW YORK—What used to be parking lots for the Yankee Stadium on East 157th Street and River Avenue have now been turned into a new playground and skate park, combined they are The River Avenue Parks.
With a mural dedicated to the Yankees above it, the new blue-and-green-themed playground on the north side of East 157th Street features new sprinklers, lighting, benches, a drinking fountain, landscaping, and play equipment including monkey bars, a wheel swing, and slides.
Across the street, a 10,000-square-foot concrete skate plaza allows bicycles, skateboards, scooters, and inline skates to go on half-pipes, ramps, stairs, rails, ledges, banks, and gaps.
“We unpaved a parking lot and put up a paradise,” said Adrian Benepe, commissioner of the city’s Department of Parks & Recreation, at a press conference. “These used be parking lots … and they are not parking lots anymore—they are park lots.”
Benepe said that the sprinklers would spray water whenever a subway on the adjacent tracks passes.
“[These parks] provide opportunities for our young people and families to be active, engaged, burn energy, and hopefully we can reduce the obesity rates in our community and be able to provide an ongoing place for children to live healthy, productive lives, because you are our future,” said City Councilmember Maria del Carmen Arroy, speaking to over 30 children from the Brightside Academy at the playground.
With a mural dedicated to the Yankees above it, the new blue-and-green-themed playground on the north side of East 157th Street features new sprinklers, lighting, benches, a drinking fountain, landscaping, and play equipment including monkey bars, a wheel swing, and slides.
Across the street, a 10,000-square-foot concrete skate plaza allows bicycles, skateboards, scooters, and inline skates to go on half-pipes, ramps, stairs, rails, ledges, banks, and gaps.
“We unpaved a parking lot and put up a paradise,” said Adrian Benepe, commissioner of the city’s Department of Parks & Recreation, at a press conference. “These used be parking lots … and they are not parking lots anymore—they are park lots.”
Benepe said that the sprinklers would spray water whenever a subway on the adjacent tracks passes.
“[These parks] provide opportunities for our young people and families to be active, engaged, burn energy, and hopefully we can reduce the obesity rates in our community and be able to provide an ongoing place for children to live healthy, productive lives, because you are our future,” said City Councilmember Maria del Carmen Arroy, speaking to over 30 children from the Brightside Academy at the playground.
For most living in the neighborhood, they had to travel a lot farther to get to similar facilities.
“It’s good,” said 7-year-old Soraida, who lives in the neighborhood.
“I’m about to go on the wheel,” she said, pointing at the wheel swing.
Heather Bell, mother of a 22-month-old boy, said that she usually had to take her son Matel to Manhattan to play. With the opening of the new playground, she can just walk four blocks for her son to play.
“We’ve been passing by and waiting for it to open actually. He’s always pointing,” said Bell while watching her son running through the sprinklers. “It seems to be good. I like it. I mean it’s a little more compact and smaller for younger children, and it seems to have more things for him to do whereas in some of the other parks, at 2 years old, he cannot really do much.”
On the other side of the street, the skate plaza became a haven for venturesome youths vying for better skateboarding jumps and techniques.
“I really like the park, said 16-year-old Luis Almanzar, who usually goes to Manhattan to skateboard. “I got here like 10 minutes ago and I’m warming up.”
The project is part of the department’s Yankee Stadium Redevelopment project, which focuses on replacing the community’s parkland that was displaced by the construction of the new Yankee Stadium. The city funded $6 million to create the parks.
“It’s good,” said 7-year-old Soraida, who lives in the neighborhood.
“I’m about to go on the wheel,” she said, pointing at the wheel swing.
Heather Bell, mother of a 22-month-old boy, said that she usually had to take her son Matel to Manhattan to play. With the opening of the new playground, she can just walk four blocks for her son to play.
“We’ve been passing by and waiting for it to open actually. He’s always pointing,” said Bell while watching her son running through the sprinklers. “It seems to be good. I like it. I mean it’s a little more compact and smaller for younger children, and it seems to have more things for him to do whereas in some of the other parks, at 2 years old, he cannot really do much.”
On the other side of the street, the skate plaza became a haven for venturesome youths vying for better skateboarding jumps and techniques.
“I really like the park, said 16-year-old Luis Almanzar, who usually goes to Manhattan to skateboard. “I got here like 10 minutes ago and I’m warming up.”
The project is part of the department’s Yankee Stadium Redevelopment project, which focuses on replacing the community’s parkland that was displaced by the construction of the new Yankee Stadium. The city funded $6 million to create the parks.
