Currently the NYC Parks Dept in conjunction with the Upper West Side Inclusive Playground Taskforce is developing a prototype Inclusive Playground at the Bloomingdales Playground on W 104th Street. The Parks department is designing this facility as a unstaffed inclusive fixed equipment playground for children.
It would be great if this playground could also had a staffed portable recreation equipment parkhouse that would be able to offer a far greater variety of special needs recreation equipment. But I was told the parks department has no money for staff funding so are not planning to do so.. However four blocks south of Bloomingdale Playground(west 104th St) is the Bloomingdale library ( West 100th St...)
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| Bloomingdale Library (red), Bloomingdale Playground (green) |
By offering the lending of special needs recreation equipment, this library could play the role of special needs portable equipment parkhouse for the new Bloomingddale inclusive park, without the need of hiring parks staff.
But furthermore it could
-Offer special needs recreation equipment for youth, adults and seniors, age brackets not covered by the Bloomingdale's Inclusive Playground
-It could also play the role of special needs equipment and/or locker key lending facility for all the public spaces in the neighborhood.
Public Spaces Surrounding Bloomingdale Library(red pin)
. Bloomingdales Library would not replace the need for the Bloomingdales inclusive playground, rather it would complement the Blooingdales Inclusive Playground with a wide variety of portable equipment for all ages and abilities. . Additionally this portable special needs equipment collection will have the potential to transform many more public spaces, over a wider area into special needs playspaces.
The cost of funding the Bloomingdales Inclusive Playground is 5.6 million dollars.I suspect if a small fraction of the funds were taken from the Bloomingdales Inclusive Playground budget it would cover lockers for each of the 11 area parks plus a wide variety of recreation equipment for all ages and abilities.
