Riverside Park

The Daily Plant : Tuesday, January 30, 2001

RECREATION: 2000 IN REVIEW AND WHAT’S IN STORE FOR 2001

When it comes to recreation, Parks believes kids should have fun, safe places to play when school lets out, and that programming for adults should also be high quality. 3.7 million adults and kids participated in recreation programs last year at neighborhood sites and in citywide tournaments. The Metro Swoosh basketball league, sponsored by Nike, attracted 2,120 participants from around the city, and our 6th annual bocce tournament, the largest of its kind, involved over 60 teams of 4 people.

35 recreation centers provided a spectrum of resources: athletic, arts, educational, and social. In the best cases, the centers functioned as a nucleus of community activity. One test case success in diversifying the services of our centers has been the introduction of computers. In 1997 we opened our first computer resource center. In the three years since then, we've opened 14 more and added high-speed connections at 6 of them. 2.9 million New Yorkers visited the centers this year.

In keeping with the times and developing facilities to accommodate the emergent sports, Parks will be opening a skate park in each of the five boroughs this year. January 2002 skaters can baptize their brand new board in the half pipes at Mullaly Park, Owl's Head Park, Riverside Park, and sites in Queens and Staten Island.

THE YEAR IN REVIEW: M&O IN 2000

Maintenance and Operations keeps parkland green, clean, safe and busy. Ratings and a strong fleet of vehicles are critical in that effort.

Using handheld computers and digital cameras, trained inspectors performed over 3,000 inspections in 2000. For the first year ever, these included large parks. Parks now inspects and rates 81% of our ratable parkland and that number is expected to increase in 2001. In spite of more stringent standards adopted this year and the greater number of properties to inspect, citywide cleanliness rated near 95%, and the overall condition was at 85%.

Operations teams performed regular 5x5 clean-up blitzes. In all, these numbered 48 in 2000: 7 in the Bronx, 5 in Brooklyn, 5 in Manhattan, 5 in Queens, and an impressive 26 in Staten Island.

Parks' fleet of vehicles is healthier than ever. Newly included are 225 vehicles from the Mayor, plus new environmentally responsible models: 12 Compressed Natural Gas Honda civics and 15 electric Th!nk bikes donated by Ford.

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO IN THE PLANT
(Tuesday, February 2, 1988)

PARKS SPONSORS FREE FILM SERIES IN HONOR OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Throughout February Parks will host the second annual Black History Month Film Series at the Herbert Von King Recreation Center, located at Marcy and Lafayette Avenues in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

The films in this four-part series will focus on prominent black New Yorkers and presentation on African/American culture by the Urban Park Rangers. Each program will be approximately 90 minutes.

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"Time misspent in youth is sometimes all the freedom one has."

Anita Brookner (b. 1938)

Know Before You Go

Riverside Park

West 79th Street Boat Basin

Riverside Park (79th Street)