$1.6 Million City Playground Upgrade Effort Underway

must be spring, the podium is out of storage.

I am glad this city is wasting money on something like this. It is just going to turn into an area the cops have to keep a constant eye on, due to thugs and drug selling. Remember my words and see how it is within a year it is opened. What a joke.

Any follow-up to the mayor's grand news conference last year about the city's evaluation of technology equipped "Big Belly" trash compactors?

They are vandal proof, solar-powered, wirelessly and remotely monitored trash receptacles whose ROI is based upon alerting Parks personnel to come only when the compactors are full.

It would makes sense to equip these new playground areas with something more than old school trash barrels that fill up, spill over, create a mess. Seriously. If we're investing this kind of money, let's try to eliminate one of the first deterrents to park use - litter.

Buffalo needs to clean up its act. Just because we're "America's third poorest city" or whatever doesn't mean we should accept litter and live like slobs. Pick up after yourselves when you're done!

Hey this is awesome! A new place for gangs and thugs and punks to tag with grafitti! Crip Walkin' in parks, yo. Bloods what what? Well done gentlemen. Someone ask Darius and Demone Smiff how long it takes for the people in their respective elected districts to destroy these areas, cause more blight on the City of Buffalo and generally destroy the overall quality of life. I say a year, depending on completion of these projects, which according to article looks like June. But, let's be honest -- there are going to be City Union workers doing the construction of these playgrounds and they can't finish the work too early or they won't have anything to do in July and August. Pace yourself guys!

This is terrific news, and exactly the kind of thing the city should be doing more of (not just playgrounds, but public infrastructure and amenities in general).

We took a family bicycle ride to the Delaware Park playground near the Rose Garden on Saturday, and it was wonderful to see the place overflowing with families enjoying the warm spring weather. I like the way playgrounds bring people together; kids interact on the swings and slides, and adults strike up casual conversations with each other as they watch their kids.

People and their agendas. Yawn.

As a person who has lived in the city throughout my twenties and now in my early thirties and having my first child, this is great news. You do want people to actually stay in the city when they have children, right??? My house doesn't have much of a yard, so I welcome these playgrounds. I agree that something must be done about the litter situation, as I have seen too many people just blatantly litter, but don't knock playgrounds when we should actually be thinking of ways to get people to stay here when they start having children.

What is the source of the funding? (NOTE: The BNews didn't say either).

Let's not all quickly jump on EllicottNick. Perhaps while growing up the only sandbox he had access too was the kitty litter box?

Seriously, how could anyone be against upgrading playgrounds?!

It's a relatively good thing, but the critics have a valid point. We live near the Wegmans on Amherst and we often go to the playground behind Assumption church. Only a few years ago all that expensive equipment was replaced and now it's been replaced yet again (we were surprised, given that the replaced equipment was structurally perfectly sound). The equipment didn't need replacement. Nothing was worn out about the old stuff at all, it was just tagged all over with graffiti. So it's nice to get new stuff yet again, but . . . in another year or two this new stuff, too, will be covered with graffiti and the place will look like ghetto again.

If it were my money to spend, I'd spend it on camera systems to catch the thieving aholes who vandalize the stuff to begin with.

This article should be merged with the one about the need for foot patrols in the city. I'm not holding my breath, but a regular police presence NOT in a patrol car would work wonders for many areas in the city.

Remember when metal playgrounds made people work for their graffiti? You had to etch it into the paint. It also encouraged responsible behavior because if you screwed around and fell, you'd chip your teeth on the steel. They also lasted forever. But alas...plastic playsets ans sharpies changed all of that.

I best take my goats elsewhere. Too many trolls here.

So sad that an investment in youth, families and our city's future gets derailed so quickly. And we wonder why nothing happens here and why people leave.