Sunset Park

The Daily Plant : Wednesday, May 21, 2003

SPOTLIGHT ON: RAINBOW PLAYGROUND

It is fitting that one of nature’s loveliest displays should provide the name for this playground in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park. The colors of the rainbow, intense when they first appear, gradually soften and combine, an appropriate metaphor for a community where diverse cultures live and work together in a harmonious blend.

Parks Commissioner Robert Moses (1888-1981) first proposed this playground in February 1954. In a letter to the Board of Estimate, he requested the assignment to Parks of "the entire easterly frontage of Sixth Avenue between 55th and 56th Street." According to the letter, "this parcel is the only vacant area in a densely built-up community in [this] section of Brooklyn and the nearest recreational facilities are over half a mile away." The Board of Estimate assigned the property to Parks a month later and it became the 56th Street Park

In the 1970s, in an effort to revive the deteriorating park, Community Board 7 and other local residents formed the Friends of the 56th Street Park. The group organized a cleanup, initiated supervised play, and banished undesirable elements, all in the hopes of making their park more enjoyable. The organization sponsored a contest to rename the park and "Rainbow Playground" won. A 1984 Local Law formally named it.

Today the playground boasts handball and basketball courts as well as play equipment with safety surfacing, game tables, spray showers and drinking fountains. Camel animal art adds an aesthetic element. In 1995, a $363,884 reconstruction of the park was sponsored by Borough President Howard Golden.

The neighborhood of Sunset Park presumably derives its name from its vantage point on a hill facing west toward Upper New York Bay. The bluff of Sunset Park affords a view of the harbor, the Manhattan skyline, the Statue of Liberty, the hills of Staten Island, and New Jersey. The land was originally the home of the Canarsee Indians, who sold portions of it to Dutch settlers in the 1640s.

By the mid-1800s it was a thriving agricultural community. Irish immigrants, seeking relief from the potato famine, found their way here in the 1840s. They were joined by Polish, Scandinavian, and Italian immigrants, who found employment on the busy waterfront. In the 1940s, the neighborhood went into a long period of decline, but a new wave of immigration in the 1980s and 1990s started a revival. Newcomers from the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Vietnam, and Jordan brought new life into the area. A small Chinatown was established. Every October, the Sunset Park Parade of Flags celebrates the variety of cultures in a community proud of its role as a starting point for Americans from every corner of the world.

The Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs held a ceremony on Wednesday, May 7, 2003 to recognize Agency Language Liaisons and volunteers who have provided translation and interpreting services to the Mayor's Office within the last 15 months. Since its founding in 1989, the Volunteer Language Bank has helped New Yorkers, regardless of their abilities in English, to communicate with City government and become part of an informed, active, safe and happy New York community.

Parks & Recreation employees recognized at this year’s ceremony with Mayor Bloomberg were Language Liaison Rajinder Garcha, Deputy Director of Personnel, and translators Joy Huang and Li-Ping Wu from Management Systems Information, Kai-Ti Lin from Capital Projects, and Martha Seelenberger from Art & Antiquities. These volunteers have helped The Mayor’s Office with Chinese and Portuguese translations. Over 2,000 New York City employees volunteer their services as translators and interpreters in 80 different languages to assist the Mayor’s Office in better meeting the needs of New York’s non-English speakers.

If you are talented in a second language and are interested in joining the Volunteer Language Bank, please contact Rajinder Garcha at 212-830-7852.

"If you want to win anything –a race, your self, your life –

you have to go a little berserk."

George Sheehan

Know Before You Go

Sunset Park Recreation Center