Park View, D.C.

Late in the day on Friday, Mayor Gray announced that the District is planning to spend $30M in FY2013 to renovate 32 DPR playgrounds (full press release below). Among those that will most serve Park View residents most are Banneker and Raymond.

I took the opportunity to reach out to Director Aguirre about the future of Park View Recreation Center since I know that few in the neighborhood are happy with the current state of the main building. Aguirre responded that while Park View is not on the list announced by the Mayor, there may be some work headed Park View’s way in the coming weeks. I’m still waiting for details, but it sounds like there is a possibility that minor improvements may be made to the building as well as some of the outstanding items from the recent grounds renovations.

I’ll be sure to stay on top of DPR until I get a solid answer, and of course, continue to advocate for complete replacement of the main rec center facility which falls way short of what the community deserves.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: OCTOBER 12, 2012 

Mayor Gray Announces Expansion of Playground Renovation Project

Playground Improvement Project Largest in D.C. History

Contact: Doxie McCoy (EOM):  (202) 727-9691; doxie.mccoy@dc.gov
John Stokes (DPR) (202) 288-7275, john.stokes@dc.gov

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Mayor Vincent C. Gray, D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) Director Jesús Aguirre and Department of General Services (DGS) Director Brian Hanlon today announced that the District government would be undertaking the largest playground renovation project in its history. The announcement was made at Benning Park Recreation Center, one of the sites scheduled to be renovated under the expanded and accelerated Playground Improvement Proj

“Improving every resident’s quality of life is one of the main goals of my One City Action Plan, and every child in the District should have a safe and inviting place to play,” said Mayor Gray. “Renovating these playgrounds is an investment in the well-being of our children that will pay dividends for years to come.”

As part of his Playground Improvement Project, Mayor Gray tasked DPR with identifying the playgrounds across the city most in need of renovations. Initially this project was to be a multi-year endeavor as the District worked to improve all of the playgrounds in DPR’s inventory. However, Mayor Gray prioritized this initiative and worked with his budget team to identify additional end-of-year capital funds to both add additional playgrounds to the project and accelerate the pace of renovations. As a result, a total of 32 playgrounds will now be renovated in Fiscal Year 2013.

DPR and DGS conducted an analysis to determine which playgrounds were most in need of renovation and to estimate the number that could be renovated with the new funding.

Criteria that were used to determine which playgrounds receive renovations include:
– Age and condition of existing equipment;
– Internal risk-management audits;
– Community needs;
– Existing usage;
– Existing surfacing;
– Accessibility;
– Area demographics – including trends and forecasts;
– Existing infrastructure (water, electricity, etc.);
– Operations and maintenance requirements; and
– Proximity to other playgrounds/parks.

Mayor Gray announced today that the following playgrounds were identified though this analysis and will be renovated through this initiative are: (more…)