NYC Parks, elected officials and members of the local Queensbridge community gathered Friday morning to cut the ribbon at Queensbridge “Baby” Park, which was shuttered to the public in the 1980s.
Friday’s ribbon-cutting celebrated the completion of a $2.6 million project, which transformed the once-shuttered park at 41-92 Vernon Blvd. into a community gathering space with ping pong tables, chess tables, open lawns and a central plaza with benches and play areas. The park is located across the street from the much larger Queensbridge Park on the Long Island City waterfront.
Queensbridge Baby Park features multiple chess tables framed by the Queensboro Bridge. Photo by Shane O’Brien.
Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura, Council Member Julie Won, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and Queensbridge Houses Tenants Association President Corinne Haynes were among the officials to celebrate Friday’s ribbon-cutting.
Several speakers at the event asserted that Friday’s ribbon-cutting was “just the beginning” of the expansion of open space in the area, with Shimamura stating that the Parks Department will seek community input on other projects planned for the area.
NYC Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura speaks ahead of the ribbon cutting at Queensbridge Baby Park. Photo by Shane O’Brien.
The OneLIC Neighborhood Plan, a massive rezoning passed by the City Council last year, will create nearly 15 acres of new public space in the community.
But Queensbridge Baby Park, which was not part of OneLIC, was a project years in the making, relying on advocacy from Haynes and other community leaders as well as Won and the Parks Department.
The park is significantly smaller than the original Queensbridge Baby Park, which stretched underneath the Queensboro Bridge, but Richards insisted that the newly reopened space represents a “very big deal” for the local community.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards. Photo by Shane O’Brien.
“This park has played a massive role in the recreational history of this community,” Richards said Friday. “Talk to someone who has lived in Queensbridge Houses for decades, and they’ll tell you so many stories of playing here as children before it closed decades ago. Today, in their name, we right that wrong and finally return the space back to the people who it belongs to.”
Won, meanwhile, said local residents have informed her office directly of the importance Queensbridge Baby Park held to the local community.
Won added that the city would “never again” allow public open spaces to be shuttered and said OneLIC would help remove divisions and barriers between Queensbridge House and the rest of the community.
Photo by Shane O’Brien.
With the Queensboro Bridge as a backdrop, Queensbridge Baby Park features two ping pong tables, several chess tables and a children’s play area featuring hopscotch courts. The park received an Excellence in Design Award from the NYC Public Design Commission for its design and layout.
Haynes said the community is “super excited” about the new park and, like Won, called for an end to “fences and demarcation” between Queensbridge and the rest of Long Island City.
She praised NYC Parks and the city for including Queensbridge residents in the decision-making process and called for similar levels of inclusion in future projects.
“We will continue to advocate and to fight for open park space that complements the residents of Queensridge Houses and beyond, so that we can continue to build a community,” Haynes said.
Shimamura noted that more open space is “absolutely critical” for the local community.
Long Island City ranks 57th out of 59 New York City neighborhoods in terms of open space per capita, with Shimamura acknowledging that even the addition of smaller parks like Queensbridge Baby Park can have a huge impact on local communities.
NYC Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura tries out one of the park’s new ping pong tables. Photo by Shane O’Brien.
“Every single square foot of open space, particularly for this community, is absolutely vital,” Shimamura said. “Parks are oftentimes thought of as a luxury or a nice amenity when you’re looking for housing, but the truth is that they are absolutely vital infrastructure.”
She said the timing of the ribbon-cutting – one week before the World Cup and only a few weeks before the end of school – was perfect and forecasted an “epic summer” across the city’s parks.
“New Yorkers are going to be outside. They deserve to be outside.”