State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the NYC Parks Department and Riverside Park Conservancy have announced a $1 million State and Municipal (SAM) Facilities grant for the renovation of the Little Engine Playground, located on Riverside Drive from 67th to 68th Street in Riverside Park South.
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The money will be used to enhance the playground’s accessibility and safety features, including replacing all of the existing safety surface (currently in poor condition), adding new play units which will retain the train theme of the original design, installing a new ADA-compliant drinking water fountain, and adding new plantings around the perimeter of the playground.
NYC Parks will be presenting its plans to Community Board 7 for review and public input.
In terms of when that will happen, a representative for Senator Hoylman-Sigal tells us that while the funds are definitely set aside for this renovation, the “grant has to be processed by the state first which can take up to a few months.”
When asked how this particular project was chosen, the representative told us “the project was originally brought to us by Community Board 7 who identified renovating the Little Engine playground as one of their funding priorities and Senator Hoylman-Sigal was looking for ways to get more money to our parks so it was a perfect fit.”
To mark the occasion, Hoylman-Sigal presented a super-sized check to Tricia Shimamura, Manhattan Borough Commissioner for NYC Parks; Merritt Birnbaum, the President & CEO of the Riverside Park Conservancy; Max Goodstein, the Deputy Chief of Staff for Manhattan Borough at NYC Parks; and John Herrold, Riverside Park Administrator and Senior Advisor to the Riverside Park Conservancy.
