Reliable standard in Overbrook: Baker playground

Playground: Baker

Location: Lansdowne & Conestoga (enter on Lansdowne -- there's also an entrance on Hunter, on the north side of the block)

Date visited: 6/12/11

Equipment:

• Small kids' zone: platform-style playset with 2 ladders (coil and quarter circle) and 3 slides; this zone also has 2 hobby horses, turtle statue for climbing, spinning cup, and 4 strap swings (1 deformed)
• Big kids' zone: platform-style playset with 4 ladders, 2 slides, jointed bridge, firepole, and monkey bars; zone also includes 4 strap swings

Ages: 1-8

Surface: rubberized around play area

Shade(0-3): 0 (maybe a little in small kids' zone)

Water: No

Other: Rec center, swimming pool (seemed abandoned when visited on a Sunday in June), basketball court

Access: Posted rec dept hours: 9 AM-10:30 PM in summer, 2-10:30 PM otherwise

Impressions: Reasonable range of equipment, but some sense of age and disrepair in the big-kid zone (it doesn't help aesthetically that the gazebo at the center of the playground has a collapsing roof, nor to see the swimming pool filled with plant matter rather than water). The small kids' zone does have a few nice extras.

Overall rating: 6

Halfway toward renewal: Miles Mack

Playground: Miles Mack

Location: 36th & Aspen

Date visited: Jun. 11, 2011

Equipment:

• Newer zone -- platforms, bumpy ramp, 3 ladders, 2 slides (1 turning), "deli counter", curvy bridge, 2 bucket swings, 4 strap swings
• Older zone -- 2 ladders, 2 slides, monkey bars, fire pole, two metal climbing appartus (one is two perpendicular semicircles, the other a tall tower of metal bars); this zone also has an abandoned swingset (with no remaining swings)

Ages: 1 1/2 to 7 years old

Surface: rubberized squares around playsets

Shade(0-3): 0

Water: Yes -- circular zone with a spraying pole

Other: rec center, basketball court, baseball field

Access: Posted rec dept hours 9 AM-10:30 PM summer, 2-10:30 PM otherwise

Impressions: Older zone is minimal and rundown. Newer zone is pretty nice, but really only for smaller kids. Overall, the space is fairly large, but a bit bleak/underdeveloped. A nice spot for some future development by the city or others.

Overall rating: 6

Gem just around the corner from the zoo: Clemens & Lewis

Playground: Clemens & Lewis

Location: 38th & Poplar (just South of Girard)

Date visited: Jun. 11, 2011

Equipment:

• Small kids' zone features a fire truck playset (low hanging bars, clambering tires, slide, and a raised platform), as well as 4 bucket swings, 2 hobby horses (1 of which actually worked, unlike most we've seen), and a longish low tunnel
• Big kids' zone included a large playset (many ladders, several bridges, 3 slides--including 1 turning slide--2 "ladder bridges", climbing wall, and loop monkey bars), 2 1-person "spinners" mounted on the ground, and 4 strap swings

Ages: 1-10

Surface: rubberized by play areas

Shade(0-3): 1 (only on bigger kids' playset)

Water: Y? broken-looking dragon sprayer

Other: 4 small picnic tables, basketball court, lots of bike-riding space (including sloped wall behind basketball court), rec center

Access: Posted Rec Dept hours: 9 AM- 10:30 PM summer, 2-10:30 PM otherwise

Impressions: A bit rundown/weedy, but equipment is in good shape. The small kids' zone is not extensive, but the fire truck is a nice apparatus (may be slightly biased by the fact that our child is currently obsessed with low monkey bars). Big kids' zone is quite large with a fun range of equipment. Setting is not too scenic -- up against train tracks, and the particular block you can see from the playground is a bit rundown, but it's a cozy small neighborhood tucked among the train tracks, Rte. 76, and the zoo.

Overall rating: 8-9

A hidden nook for smaller kids: Shissler Recreation Center

Playground: Daniel Shissler Recreation Center
Location: 1 block west of Frankford (=Blair) between Berks and Montgomery; right behind Kensington Performing Arts High School
Date visited: 5/29/11

Equipment: Two apparent zones:

• One appears to be a water zone, with a cement surface and three cement animals set up as sprayers. (Smallest turtles might offer something to the crawler set even when off.) Trickles of water indicated that these should be functional, but they were not spraying at the time of our visit
• Playzone has (1) a smaller playset with several types of climbing (including a large arch of barrel-slat ladder good for newer climbers) and a set of double metal slides; (2) the larger playset has tall monkey bars, various climbing, and another set of double metal (straight) slides

material: modern resin & metal; scale: small
Ages:1-9
Surface: rubbery around equipment; cement elsewhere
Shade(0-3): 2
Water: Y
Other: rec center, basketball courts, large baseball field (marked "closed until August 2011"), large new parking lot (shared with the highschool? for baseball?), grassy lot across the street
Access: 6am - 10pm

Impressions: Small and limited to younger kids (except, perhaps, the monkey bars), but servicable for those. No swings is a minus; water could be nice, but no idea when it runs. Out of the way enough that it probably appeals mostly to those who live nearby, or who make a stop at the Berks station of the Market-Frankford line (accessible by a paved path).
Overall rating: 6-

Decent but lonely: Towey Recreation Center

Playground: Towey Recreation Center
Location: Howard & Berks (SW corner)
Date visited: 5/29/11

Equipment: Several pieces in one medium play zone:

1. Lower playset (3-4 foot platforms) is unusually big, with lots of climbing of varying difficulty, one plastic curved slide and one straight metal slide, short fireman's pole, and monkey bars.
2. Several "hobby horse" animals, very stiff
3. Swings -- 4 strap and 2 bucket (one missing)
4. Higher playset (5-6 foot platforms) with many climbing ladders and one tall straight metal ladder

material: modern resin & metal
Ages: 1-10
Surface: rubbery around equipment (some holes under monkey bars) and blacktop elsewhere
Shade(0-3): 2
Water: N
Other: baketball rec center with bright abstract mural, handball courts, extra blacktop
Access: open (dawn to dusk)

Impressions: Decent equipment, but covered with graffitti and surrounded by loose trash -- the feeling is dingy even though everything is in functional shape and our 3-year-old had a good time. Faced mostly by the back sides of residential buildings (so it feels more industrial than it is); we enjoyed the crowing of a rooster from a nearby yard.
Overall rating: 6-7

Fishtown Rec Center: A blast of color

Playground: Fishtown Rec Center

Location: Palmer St. and Flora St. (just north of Girard on Palmer); another entrance is on Montgomery and Flora (again, just north of Girard on Montgomery).

Date visited: 5/29/11

Equipment:

• Smaller playset with lots of climbing, 1 wide plastic curved and 1 straight metal slide
• Taller playset with climbing, monkey bars, fireman's pole, and a straight metal slide
• 6 strap swings (1 broken) and 2 bucket swings
• 3 hobby horse critters (too stiff to rock much, as most seem to be)
• 2 sit 'n' spin platforms with poles (1 semi-broken/wobbly)
• central "hill" with brick sides, some raised bricks to make a slanted climbing wall
• circle with stone tower water units (not on when visited on a Sunday morning in May)

Ages: 1-10

Surface: rubberized by most play areas, blacktop elsewhere

Shade(0-3): 0

Water: Yes (small area with stone tower sprayers)

Other: roller-hockey rink, rec center with large covered area, basketball courts, picnic tables, lib outdoor concert area (maybe?) with tables and benches, library across Montgomery St.

Access: Probably dawn to dusk

Impressions: Clearly a well-loved playground: every inch of equipment, benches, and poles is painted with colors and patterns that make you happy just being there. Had the sense that this was a semi-recent effort to beautify a space that was beginning to run down (e.g., a note indicates that Agnes Irwin School out on the Main Line was part of a recent painting effort; some paint was peeling and graffiti already creeping back in). The central climbing structure is neat and offers the only shaded zone on the site; the rest seems fun but might be prohibitively hot on most summer days. Would love to see a roller-hockey game!

Overall rating: 7+

A mix of offerings: Vare playground

Playground: Vare playground
Location: between Moore and Morris, 26th and 27th
Date visited: 5/21/11

Equipment: Several separate pieces spread around a medium playzone:

• One large playset with hight (6-7-foot?) platforms, lots of climbing types, and two straight metal slides of different lenghts
  
• One small playset with 3-4-foot platforms, several types of climbing (including the rarish barrel-stave type that's friendly to newer climbers), and one wide metal slide
  
• Lots of swings! 6 strap + 4 bucket, all functional
  
• A freestanding set of metal monkey bars (around 5 feet tall)
  
• A novelty play piece shaped like an arch, which can be used like a techno-teeter-totter (you sit on either end an the entire structure slides back and forth, raising one end or the other, along the underlying curved tube) or like a more advanced challenge, with hand grips underneath the top part and foot rests on the side, so that one or more people could move the thing that way. [Makes more sense in person.]

Ages: 1-10
Surface: rubbery around equipment; blacktop elsewhere
Shade(0-3): 1 (mostly on swings)
Water: N
Other: large field with baseball diamond, basketball courts, pool, grassy areas, and large rec. center
Access: open (= dawn to dusk?)

Impressions: A nice playground and park a block or two from the blight of the 25th Street train viaduct. Decent basic equipment -- especially good challenges for climbers of various skills, but a little short on slides -- and the novelty arch structure makes it possible for a toddler and parent to teeter together. Lots of swings is nice, and the mix of equipment should accommodate families with kids of various ages. Equipment probably gets really hot in midsummer, but there is refuge at the edges and shaded grass for a picnic.
Overall rating: 7-8