{"id":257556,"date":"2026-06-06T15:24:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T15:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/257556\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T15:24:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T15:24:32","slug":"nyc-parks-cuts-the-ribbon-at-reopened-and-renovated-queensbridge-baby-park-qns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/257556\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Parks cuts the ribbon at reopened and renovated Queensbridge \u2018Baby\u2019 Park \u2013 QNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

NYC Parks<\/a>, elected officials and members of the local Queensbridge community gathered Friday morning to cut the ribbon at Queensbridge \u201cBaby\u201d Park, which was shuttered to the public in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s 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 <\/a>waterfront.<\/p>\n

\"QueensbridgeQueensbridge Baby Park features multiple chess tables framed by the Queensboro Bridge. Photo by Shane O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s ribbon-cutting.<\/p>\n

Several speakers at the event asserted that Friday\u2019s ribbon-cutting was \u201cjust the beginning\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\"NYCNYC Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura speaks ahead of the ribbon cutting at Queensbridge Baby Park. Photo by Shane O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.\n<\/p>\n

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 \u201cvery big deal\u201d\u00a0 for the local community.<\/p>\n

\"QueensQueens Borough President Donovan Richards. Photo by Shane O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis park has played a massive role in the recreational history of this community,\u201d Richards said Friday. \u201cTalk to someone who has lived in Queensbridge Houses for decades, and they\u2019ll 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Won, meanwhile, said local residents have informed her office directly of the importance Queensbridge Baby Park held to the local community.\n<\/p>\n

Won added that the city would \u201cnever again\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by Shane O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the Queensboro Bridge as a backdrop, Queensbridge Baby Park features two ping pong tables, several chess tables and a children\u2019s play area featuring hopscotch courts. The park received an Excellence in Design Award from the NYC Public Design Commission for its design and layout.<\/p>\n

Haynes said the community is \u201csuper excited\u201d about the new park and, like Won, called for an end to \u201cfences and demarcation\u201d between Queensbridge and the rest of Long Island City.<\/p>\n

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.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d Haynes said.<\/p>\n

Shimamura noted that more open space is \u201cabsolutely critical\u201d for the local community.\n<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"NYCNYC Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura tries out one of the park\u2019s new ping pong tables. Photo by Shane O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single square foot of open space, particularly for this community, is absolutely vital,\u201d Shimamura said. \u201cParks are oftentimes thought of as a luxury or a nice amenity when you\u2019re looking for housing, but the truth is that they are absolutely vital infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the timing of the ribbon-cutting \u2013 one week before the World Cup and only a few weeks before the end of school \u2013 was perfect and forecasted an \u201cepic summer\u201d across the city\u2019s parks.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Yorkers are going to be outside. They deserve to be outside.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NYC Parks, elected officials and members of the local Queensbridge community gathered Friday morning to cut the ribbon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[37184,310,3945,9442,9,56,63,65,64,22458,93357,22492,100424,22045],"class_list":["post-257556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-corinne-haynes","tag-daily-newsletter","tag-donovan-richards","tag-julie-won","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-nyc-parks","tag-nyc-parks-commissioner-tricia-shimamura","tag-queensboro-bridge","tag-queensbridge","tag-queensbridge-baby-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}