Griffon Park - A Tale of Two PlaygroundsBy Anna Howard August 11, 2015 |
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It may not have been a crime, although yellow and black caution tape surrounds the scene, but it’s definitely a shame in that taxpayer money was, once again, used and abused. It’s the abandoned playground tucked in the southeast corner of Griffon Park on River Road in Niagara Falls. A playground with cannibalized children’s play equipment sitting in plain sight, 150 yards, from Dyster’s new playground that’s situated at the northern edge of the park. While that new playground was put together during a public construction event several years ago - to great Paul Dyster and Tom DeSantis fanfare - the older playground was inexplicably abandoned and the perfectly usable playground equipment has been allowed to sit…and rot and be cannibalized by who knows whom. The former play area was recently wrapped with yellow caution tape and that tape now flaps in the wind, a limp, and ineffective method of preventing children from using the equipment. In fact we would say that the current status of the playground is that of an “attractive nuisance.” A legal term reserved for things such as in ground swimming pools with no fences and abandoned buildings with open doors and windows. In other words: a lawsuit waiting to happen. While Griffon Park receives very few young visitors the few that do wander past with adult supervision can be seen walking to the abandoned playground, milling around, and then walking to the new playground closer to River Road. There’s no signage telling visitors to keep away from the abandoned playground and no explanation as to whether the play area is permanently closed or simply under construction. The mind reels to consider that the “new playground” was built at an estimated cost of $40,000 when the equipment from the older playground could have simply been repurposed for the “new playground.” That older, abandoned equipment, we are told, has been slowly disappearing a piece at a time, over the past two years. Where it has gone is anyone’s guess, but we’re also told that the city has had ongoing trouble for several years regarding vanishing recreation equipment. Chalk it up as one more Dyster administration mystery. A hundred yards to the south of the newer playground is the new Dyster canoe launch on the Little River. The mayor cut the ribbon on the launch earlier this summer in a much-ballyhooed ceremony attended by a baker’s dozen of political candidates and Dyster supporters. On the three days that the Reporter visited Griffon Park to research this story we saw a total of zero people using the canoe launch. And yes, there is the requisite “this canoe launch project completed by” sign with the mayor’s name on it adjacent the launch. The walkway near the canoe launch features a small area of “native plantings” that are overgrown with native weeds making the native wild flowers and plants virtually impossible to distinguish, much less appreciate. This is more of what is referred to as “drop, stop and go” plantings…drop the plant in the ground, stop the maintenance, and go away. What can be said of a park that has, incredibly enough, duplicated its own playground equipment while ruling half of that equipment off limits to children with yellow caution tape? What can be said of a park that’s been presented as a welcome respite on the shore of the Little River, but offers rotting benches, weed choked plantings and no shade from the sun or protection from the elements? The overall impression created by Griffon Park (aside from the pleasure and fishing boat launch area, an area that has been self-sufficient for many years) is that of an incomplete and poorly planned municipal green space. In other words it fits in perfectly with any number of other Dyster administration park projects: money spent; money wasted; and, project not maintained.
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