After A False Start This Summer, Astoria Park Playground Reopens

ASTORIA, QUEENS — The multi-million-dollar ribbon was cut Wednesday on the final phase of the Astoria Park playground reconstruction, after a false opening earlier this year.

Construction on Charybdis Playground, which includes upgraded play structures and a new spray shower, is the second-phase of Astoria Park’s $30 million renovation as part of an initiative by Mayor Bill de Blasio to upgrade one frequently-visited park in each of the five boroughs. Phase one of the project, which included a new track and soccer field, was completed last year.

After being closed for two years during construction, the upgraded playground opened for one weekend this summer, and then abruptly closed again — much to the confusion of neighborhood families.

“Kids were playing, and the sun was shining, so he got to go in the new splash pad, and swing and climb, and it was great. And then the next day I had to tell him that it wasn’t actually open,” local mother Amybeth Whissel told CBS New York in the wake of the playground’s false opening at the end of July.

The next day, parents were reportedly asked to leave by Parks Department staff, who said they were still conducting safety tests. At the time, staff said that the playground would be open “very soon” — and as of Wednesday, about two months later, it officially is.

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said that the upgraded playground will “serve the recreational needs of Astoria’s children and families and Western Queens neighborhood for decades to come.

Despite its “scary” namesake — a mythological sea monster — the borough president said that the playground’s new features make it “truly a beautiful and fun space.”

In addition to the play equipment upgrades, the playground’s “comfort station” — the term the Parks Department uses to refer to its public bathroom facilities — is slated for an upgrade, too. The agency said that the bathroom will be fully built by this winter.

Like Astoria Park, all five of the parks that are undergoing renovations as part of the “Anchor Parks” initiative will receive public bathroom upgrades, as part of the city’s efforts to address the frequently cited disrepair and hazardous conditions at its park bathrooms.

News of the Charybdis Playground opening coincided with the city's recommitment to invest millions in Gwen Ifill Park, a greenspace located in its namesake's home neighborhood of Jamaica.

The park was renamed in June, along with more than a dozen park spaces across the five borough's , as part of the city's effort to "honor the Black experience in New York City" ahead of Juneteenth.

Ifill, a trailblazing journalist, was the first Black woman to anchor a nationally televised public affairs program in the United States.