Thomas P. Noonan Playground (Photo: Nurture by Nature)
Aug. 27, 2020 By Allie Griffin
Sunnyside residents are raising money to beautify a neighborhood playground.
A group of Sunnysiders, the “Friends of Thomas P. Noonan Jr. Playground,” launched a fundraising page to raise money to plant new flowers and greenery at the playground, located at Greenpoint Avenue and 43rd Street.
The group formed in June and reached out to community members to ask what they would most like to see upgraded at the Thomas P. Noonan Jr. Playground. Playground beautification was the first choice.
The playground, in its current state, is largely devoid of flowering plants and shrubs, and weeds have overtaken all of the pant beds, the Friends of Noonan said in their fundraiser page.
The playground’s planter boxers are full with old woodchips, litter is scattered in plant beds and its existing trees and plants are not adequately cared for, the group added.
With the funds raised, the Friends of Noonan hope to hire horticultural experts, buy flowers and shrubs and complete brand new landscaping at the playground by next April.
The beautification project, dubbed Nurture by Nature, will revive current plant beds, and also create new ones in underutilized areas.
The group has already raised more than $3,000 of their $8,000+ goal on the crowdfunding site ioby. The organization Partnerships for the Parks is matching up to $2,500 in donations for the fundraiser.
The playground has undergone a number of upgrades in recent years and the Parks Dept. is planning on revamping the south west corner of the park–near the intersection of Greenpoint Avenue and 42nd Street– that will include a dog run and new seating areas.
In 2015, the children’s play area was expanded and new safety surfaces and shrubbery were added. A new sprinkler as well as a flagpole in recognition of Lance Corporal Thomas P. Noonan Jr. were also installed. In 2016, the basketball courts and handball courts were resurfaced with new asphalt.
The Friends of Noonan, however, say the playground has been undermaintained despite the upgrades.
The deadline for donations is Oct. 1, 2020. To donate, click here.
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39 Comments
Last week I was walking past the par,This is the park that I grew up in, this is the part my son grew up in and I don’t recognize it. Is it basketball courts people were smoking pot rolling a joint right out In the open children within feet of this .As I proceeded to walk past the park there were several shopping carts filled with the homeless belongings as I continued on the walk there were five guys and they’re all homeless all drinking beer. So how can you tell me that you’re trying to beautify the park when you have all this going on get rid of this and start fresh
how about clearing the parks of the drunks out of the park first and just having the park workers tell people to pick up after themselves and put thier garbage in the bins…
Noonan would be 77 this year.
He died in Vietnam. Award the Medal of Honor by his country.
Does anyone remover his grade school and what street he lived on?
Litter and urine and grime plus no maintenance, then COVID cost cutting.
Do not expect (or even hope) NYC government to help. Obviously, we could raise some money (less cheep b*****ds) or even get some volunteers to do clean-ups. But, we do not have the right to move the homeless (all of whom are the children of loving parents, many of whom have healthy siblings. So, where is your Judeo-Christian values/heritage? Disgusting!
Yes, we ask government to do our dirty work. Nice.
Perhaps AOC, Cathy Nolan and other elected leaders (?) can guide us.
Maybe if we initiated the rent freeze so many of us demanded there would not be this increase of homeless people on our streets. High rents and greedy landlords are the problem and not those living on the streets. Leave them alone! Let them rest and sleep on our streets. Being homeless is exhausting. Luckily i had my car. I slept 7 nights in my car when i arrived to NYC and it was a stressful and dramatic experience.
Where i live they leave meals for homeless people and the hungry on benches. The meals are not labeled and look like cafeteria school meals. Every item is packaged. I have seen people take the dessert and throw everything else on the floor. You would think that people would be more grateful and careful to leave the rest for someone that might want it but no its like i will take the cookie and toss the beverages, sandwich and fruit on the ground. Its sad and a waste. I would say something but im too scared to confront them.
I’ll never understand how there can be several vagrants drinking, passing out and pissing in public while a group of police hang out nearby and nothing happens.
Uhm, because the police are afraid to be proactive lest a situation escalate and they have to arrest someone who resists and presto, their career is over.
The mayor certainly doesn’t have their backs.
That’s a ridiculous statement. If there are police officers who are afraid to do their job, they should quit. They are public servants and should expect occasional criticism by NYers who would like to fix some of the brokenness in the NYPD.
This is the same NYPD that turned their back on the Mayor and showed him deep dis-respect at the beginning of his administration. It’s not his job to have their back; it’s their job to act professionally and to do their job. A handful of officers have seen their career end because of their mistakes; the vast majority of them have seen very little evidence that their jobs are in jeopardy if they arrest someone who is resisting.
I think police are a lot braver than you describe, but I’m not a liberal like you
“Their career is over”???? They get a raise! They never get fired. Worse than bad teachers.
Quality of life crimes are no longer enforced in NYC.
Thanks to the governor and the mayor who declared New York sanctuary city, Our city including our neighborhood became like San Francisco.. it’s a shame…
No to extra garbage cans. Residents tend to throw household garbage in them, they are full of dog waste, they overflow and trash gets onto the pavement and sanitation does a bad job of picking up the trash usually tossing 1/3 on the sidewalk and just leaving it there because they are in such a hurry and dont care. The only city trash cans that are good are the ones looked after by the homeless sweepers. Too bad most of them were fired. And we also have those people looking for the 5 cent refund bottles that toss trash on the floor and always rip household recycling bags. Its all disgusting and there is more of them around. You cant even sleep at night when you leave out your garbage because the supermarket shopping carts they use are so loud. Just cement the garden area and the park should be fine.
And what should the police do? Looking for suggestions here?
How nice…run the mentally ill through the criminal justice system? Then what?
This is really nice BUT we need our lovely Jimmy to get his act together and get rid of the Hommeless and vagrants that have taken over the park. The urine the drinking the trash and litter needs to go first. Can we also get Garbage cans? There is always a big pile of black plastic bags and random trash on the corner of the park on 43rd and 47 th ave. The mayor also has to stop shipping the homeless from Manhattan to Sunnyside. Has anyone noticed that? All of a sudden it seems we have more homeless than residents in the neighborhood.
We need more affordable housing in Sunnyside. Or the city needs to convert more hotels into homeless shelters. That is the only solution. The homeless population is not going to disappear just because you do not like seeing them on the street. Housing should be a right just like healthcare and not a privilege. Think about the children.
I have housing and healthcare because I work for it. Working since I’m a teenager.
Housing is not a right, it is a commodity. Your rights are listed in the US Constitution. Three hots and a cot are nowhere to be found. Spare us the sanctimonious B.S. response. You want to help the homeless good, take them home with you.
Yes, and there should be free ice cream for everyone, laws requiring all people to be nice, and pink bubbles of love surrounding everything.
but we’re paying for the wall (in HUGE tax increases)
get the homeless and the trash that hangs out there all day and that will beautify
it more. People don’t respect things these day. Litter/garbage all over
I think this would be a waste of time and money.
Why isn’t JVB commenting on this?!
because it does not fit his agenda.
get the homeless off the benches first
You guys had money for this park..back when sunnyside was being pushed as the new Williamsberg. You failed to completely gentrify the neighborhood now you’re all seeing what I predicted years ago. Sunnyside is the new detroit .
The biggest problem is the amount of vagrants has increased they imbibe(drink alcohol)and smoke marijuana ALL day and create excessive trash .
Find solution to the homeless problem; men sleeping on the benches, urinating and defacating in the surrounding area, eating and leaving garbage on the benches, drinking, etc.
I don’t understand? Mr. Van Bummer overhauled this park not that long ago. I vaguely recall a news article saying that it cost lots of money and remember all of the Belgium blocks around the park was removed which laid for months only to be relaided sloppily. I heard people wanted a dog park. Homeless people have made camp in the park so what the point of beautifying it, only to be turned into a public urinal.
It’s a nice park. Great spashpad for the kids, but too many mosquitos! I can’t stay for long until we get too bitten up! Please spray some of that anti-mosquito spray around the park
Ronnie, people will complain you are poisoning them, you can never make some people happy, except they will not complain about the homeless, drunk and pot smokers who occupy this park.
And we pay taxes because. . . .?
SunnysideDown, Exactly, why should I pay a dime to make anything better at this park, there is never an attendant there. Check your taxes how much of it goes to parks, library, police, etc.. They spent thousands and thousands of dollars, what was it some $200,000 to recently renovate this place! What happened to it, another waste, mismanagement, god knows whose pockets got bigger with that money, and now “let’s make our park beautiful, $8k please..” Sure.. These people need to find another hobby, why don’t they walk around sunnyside and clean up the streets instead, or shoo away the public urinators?
To pay for the mayor’s wife’s large staff that includes a videographer making 70 grand a year.
How many times is this one playground get a make-over while other parks and playgrounds never do? Wasn’t it just done a few years back and a few years before that? It is not fair to single out one playground over and over again.
It is a great idea and I for one thank the people who care so much about beautification of our neighborhood.. unfortunately as long as the dog owners from the neighborhood use the green space designated for greenery as their dogs toilet, the money will be wasted as were the ones spent when beautiful plants and bushes were planted around the park a few years ago. Also, homeless people with their shopping carts and disgusting habits…. I suggest that problems should be addressed and fixed before investing in plants and shrubs.
Isn’t this the same park that Jimmy fought to get 2.5 million to displace “undesirables” and install a dog run!
I am all for it, let’s do that. Now that, I will donate to. Note 2.5million but we can build our own dog park and get rid of the scum. (grandpa’s can keep their chess boards in place, those are welcome)
why isn’t someone approaching JVB about this — where did all of this money go – this should be looked into – maybe him and his husband bought another house in Puerto Rico or paid off his mortgage