Inwood Hill Park

The Daily Plant : Thursday, May 9, 2002

FLOWER SHOWER SPROUTS AND BUTTERFLIES A-FLUTTER IN PEOPLE’S PARK

Thirty years ago, legendary artists Tito Puente, Willy Colon, Celia Cruz, and El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico shared their music with the people of Mott Haven. On Friday, May 3, 2002, Parks celebrated the new rhythm of People's Park in The Bronx.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, Jr. and Council Member Philip Reed joined NYPD Officials and Members of Community Board #1 to cut the ribbon for the new and improved playground. Second-graders from P.S. 30 led the crowd in patriotic songs. Mr. Larsen's class even performed a special bilingual rendition of the song, "Preciosa," complete with dance moves. Students from P.S. 220 were also on hand for the festivities.

Thanks to $950,000 from Council Member Philip Reed, People's Park has new play equipment, complete with safety surfacing. Swings for both preschoolers and older children were added to the playground. Athletes will enjoy the restored handball courts while all park patrons can rest on park's twenty new benches. Decorative art panels in the shape of a butterfly, dragonfly, bee, and grasshopper have been crafted into the playground's steel fence. Assistant Landscape Architect Randee Stewart designed a special garden in People's Park to attract real butterflies. "Butterfly bushes" and flowers, such as the "Globe thistle," were planted to entice these delicate creatures.

A new colorful flower spray shower, standing eleven feet tall, graces the center of the park. "While the new flower spray shower you see…may not appeal to the butterflies, it will help the children of Mott Haven cool off on hot days, " said Commissioner Benepe. Twenty-three maple trees were also planted to help city-dwellers escape the summer heat.

Bronx Borough Commissioner, Dottie Lewandowski, Chair of Community Board #1, George Rodriguez, Chair of the Youth Community for Community Board #1, Evelyn Muñoz, District Manager of Community Board #1, Cedric Loftin, Principal of P.S. 30, Aida Rosa, and Captain Robert Boyce of the 40th Precinct also joined Parkies and friends to celebrate the rejuvenation of People's Park.

Hopefully the residents of Mott Haven and the butterflies will continue to dance to the new beat of People's Park for years to come.

On Sunday at northern Manhattan’s Inwood Hill Park, excited Shad-lovers got their fill of their favorite fish at Shad Fest 2002, an all-day festival sponsored by Parks and the Hudson River Foundation. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe welcomed over two hundred visitors to the park, as well as many elected officials including Council Member Robert Jackson and Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat. Shad-centric visitors dove into tons of activities including shad planking demonstrations and free tastes of shad with Christopher Letts, nature tours and fish printing with the Urban Park Rangers, and live musical performances by Catfish John, courtesy of the River Music Group.

(Thursday, May 17, 1989)

….Legend says that George Washington chopped down a cherry tree, but in fact he was an avid gardener who planned and plotted the extensive plantings at his estate in Mount Vernon, Virginia. The estate’s design included a bowling green, greenhouse, botanical garden, deer park, vineyard, and wilderness area, among other features. Some of the plants mentioned in Washington’s writings include Bachelor’s Button (also known as Globe Amaranth), Cardinal Flower, Larkspur, Thready Adam’s Needle, and Wild Sweet William. Mount Vernon’s pleasure garden was recently restored with varieties of plants that Washington might have used.

"There is no greater sorrow than to recall a happy time in the midst of wretchedness."

(May 9, 1265–1321)

Know Before You Go

Muscota Marsh