cherrypatter nyc
and great ideas for what to do too!
tompkins square park: toddlers exist in the east village!
we spend many of our weekends in new york hunting down the best playgrounds. we travel all over to explore the newest, the most fun, the biggest and the wildest play areas in the city (we are so tired of our local one at j.j. byrne parkwhich isn’t so great anyways). if we hear or see of a new one, or a good one, we’re there. it doesn’t matter how far or how old. we are especially fond of a couple over in tribeca, several in central park (we haven’t been to the newly designed ancient playground near the metropolitan museum of art so that might get added to the list). when we’re across the pond on our annual trip to see the rellies we’re exploring the amazing diana memorial pirates playground in kensington gardens, our favorite luxembourg gardens or the even more fun playground at parc de la villette. if only someone could pay us to review playgrounds around the world we’d be in heaven.
as i roamed through the east village this summer, i was surprised to see what looked like a super cool playground finishing up construction. i hadn’t ever really noticed kids over in this neck of the woods, but whatever, i’m sure they’re there, and when we came back last weekend there were plenty. what was even better was how great this playground is. with a $1.5 million upgrade, the playground has been fully redesigned by the parks department architect gail wittwer-laird. she did an excellent job.
the new and hugely improved tompkins square park playground has funky looking equipment with some great new features that we don’t often see in new york like this pole that spins around like crazy, oddball monkey bars, lots of little climbing walls and a seriously upgraded sandbox with the nicest sand i’ve seen in new york (we’ll see if that lasts). best of all, the playground is well designed for all ages (there are 4 different play structures) and the placement allows the parents to see the kids pretty easily from wherever you are. after spending more than four hours there without boredom, we might need to return again too (i also loved the farmer’s market that’s right there on avenue a). for ideas as to where to eat and shop nearby — there are tons of options – see my mini guide below. t0mpkins square park playground, st. marks place and avenue a, manhattan, new york.
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