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Lanier Playground is back open for business

The playground’s improvements include a renovated field, a new walking trail, fitness zone, a dog park, stormwater management, and transform the space into a multi use, multigenerational playground.

City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson cuts the ribbon at the grand re-opening of the Lanier Playground in Grays Ferry.

After an 11-year hiatus, Grays Ferry’s Lanier Playground re-opened with a bang this past Saturday, marking the completion of a three-year-process to get the park back in working order.

The playground’s improvements include a renovated field, a new walking trail, fitness zone, a dog park, stormwater management, and transform the space into a multi use, multigenerational playground.

“To the community, give yourselves a round of applause for building out, participating in the process night after night, coming to a common consensus on this great and beautiful park,” said Philadelphia City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson at the ribbon cutting event, who added that the facility was a “safe, high quality recreation facility and park here in Grays Ferry South Philadelphia.”

According to Owen Franklin, Pennsylvania State Director for the Trust for Public Land, the process for the park’s completion started with an “intensive, participatory design process” that involved working with residents to understand what they prioritized in a communal space,

Children play on one of the new jungle gyms at Lanier Playground in Grays Ferry.

“And through that design process we came with the design that you see here today,” said Franklin. “So we begin by getting input about what the community finds to be important, take information and kind of move it through the redevelopment process where ultimately it’s construction companies coming out here, digging in the ground, putting things in that reflect what the community wants.”

According to Debra McCarty, Commissioner of the Philadelphia Water Department, the park was built with environmentally friendly stormwater management in mind.

Children play on the new swings at Lanier Playground in Grays Ferry.

“Mayor Kenney’s administration is extremely committed to supporting parks,” said city representative Sheila Hess. “As we all know, the playgrounds and recreation centers because we all know what places like Lanier Playground, how it strengthens the neighborhoods and how it gives you something to do and keep the kids off of the street.”

According to Hess, the city’s Rebuilding Community Infrastructure Initiative is slated to invest $500 million into community facilities “in the coming years.”

“Everyone has worked so hard with the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation, the [Department of Conservation of] Natural Resources and the Trust for Public Land to redevelop Lanier and to do what we wanted to do.”

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