Article by Stephanie Bouvia
Skiddy Park, a major recreation area on Syracuse’s Near West Side, is getting an $80,000 face-lift that will equip it with two new basketball courts and a new playground. Some of the changes came from ideas given to city officials by local children, whom officials sought out for their advice.
Four organizations united to upgrade the decaying park located at 300 Tioga Street, which included the city’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Youth Programs, the Near Westside Initiative, the Boeheim Foundation and Onondaga County’s Save the Rain program. The upgrade came in two phases, the basketball court donation came first, followed by the idea for the new playground.
Maarten Jacobs, director of the Near Westside Initiative, said the park was in need of a new playground because the one there is rotting and falling apart.
The city agreed to contribute $40,000 toward the new playground if the other organizations could match that amount. The response to the request for donations was enthusiastic and the matching goal was met with a very short turnaround so the old playground equipment could be removed and replaced with the new playground this fall.
Karen Armstrong, architect for the playground, and Glen Lewis, of Syracuse’s Parks department, met with children who live on the West side to get some input as to what they would like to see incorporated into the new playground. The meetingwith the neighborhood children was held on Sept. 20 at PEACE Inc. on the near Westside and was well-attended, Jacobs said.
Armstrong said the meeting gave her a chance to connect with the kids, and to really get a sense of what they want to see in the new playground. “The kids just want to have a place to go and hang out and have fun,” she said.
Armstrong said the current park is considered a “concrete park,” which means that everything in it is pavement, rather than grass. The children told Armstrong the playground bores them, she said. “They told me that it’s just not fun anymore; all they do is play on the swings,” she said.
Armstrong added that the kids at the meeting gave her some very colorful ideas for the park. “Some of the girls wanted everything to be pink; some of the boys wanted to have a roller coaster. I think there was a trampoline at the end of the slide. Nothing that would meet any safety criteria known to man,” she said.
On a more practical level, the children told Armstrong what colors they would like to see in the park. She said the kids wanted bright colors such as yellows, greens, blues, purples and oranges.
The playground design was recently approved by the City of Syracuse and includes new swings, slides, monkey bars and more. On Monday, October 17th the City began the tear down the old playground. Construction on the new playground is expected to be completed by mid November.
Skiddy Park also received two new basketball courts, donated this summer from the Courts4Kids program, a collaborative initiative of the Jim & Juli Boeheim Foundation and the Carmelo K. Anthony Foundation. Courts4Kids worked with the City of Syracuse Parks Department and Onondaga County’s Save the Rain program to build the courts.
Mike Bristol, official publicist and marketing manager for the Boeheim Foundation, said the Courts4Kids program donated the courts because they wanted to make a positive impact in the community. Bristol said the foundations wanted to provide the kids and the community with something special, which would bring everyone together. “It also helps them to see that someone’s coming into their community and doing something nice,” Bristol said.
A grand opening ceremony for the new basketball courts attracted former Syracuse University basketball player Derrick Coleman, SU basketball coach Jim Boeheim, County Executive Joanie Mahoney, Mayor Stephanie Miner, and others.
Onondaga County’s Save the Rain program saw the new basketball courts as an opportunity to also install green infrastructure in the park. The Save the Rain program focuses on storm water management and reducing pollution in the water.
BJ Adigun, public affairs director of the Onondaga County Department of Water Environment Protection, said the two full-length basketball courts take up about 11,000 square feet, and are unique because they have green infrastructure properties, such as porous asphalt.
Adigun said porous asphalt absorbs water from rain or melting snow, and helps prevent polluted water from running directly into Onondaga Lake or Harbor Brook. “It has little tiny holes that basically allow the water to infiltrate into the ground,” he said. “It’s almost like a sponge.”
Adigun said when the Save the Rain program heard about the donation from Courts4Kids, not only was it an opportunity to draw the community closer together, they also saw it as an opportunity to educate people on green infrastructure. “It’s just a win-win for everybody” said Adigun.