Sherman Brown Park Refacing Begins

The Sherman Brown Park in Long Beach's North Park neighborhood is in the midst of a facelift.

The city announced this week that work has started to refurbish and upgrade the blacktopped playground that previously sported a couple of basketball courts at the northern end of Riverside Boulevard.

The reconstructed park will feature new basketball nets and backboards, along with color acrylic surfacing on the court and surrounding area, as well as fitness equipment with safety surfacing and new benches, trash receptacles and landscaping, according to the city.

The city’s department of public works initiated “preparation of plans and specifications to revitalize the Sherman Brown Park in the 2012-2016 Capital Improvement Plan that was passed by the City Council earlier this year,” states a city press release about the project.  

“Our team worked hard to develop the plans for this park,” Jim LaCarrubba, the public works commissioner, said in a statement. “We believe our residents will be extremely happy with the end result.”

The city told Patch that the project is expected to be completed, weather permitting, before the start of winter.

The City Council unanimously awarded the project to the Holbrook-based Louis Barbato Landscaping at a cost of $170,570, according to the proceeding from the City Council meeting on July 5. The cost will be covered by a community development block grant, LaCarrubba said at a city-led Long Beach Listens meeting at the Martin Luther King Center in April, when he announced a potential second phase to the project. “We have a phase two for a bathroom, if we can find some additional funding in the next year or so,” he said.

City officials worked with a neighborhood committee to develop conceptual designs to rehabilitate the facility. At a City Council meeting in August 2011, Charles Theofan, the city manager at the time, said the city was awaiting community input on whether the equipment should be better suited for teens or younger children, or a combination of both.

At that meeting, North Park resident Crystal Lake said that the city had neglected neighborhood teens who needed a place to play, and that upgrading the playground would go a long way toward keeping them from roaming the streets. Lake told Patch on Friday that she is "truly ecstatic" to witness the revitalization of the park. 

"This wonderful project is an extraordinary achievement for the North Park residents enhancement of our community park and recreational atmosphere for children to grow, providing fun, exercise, fitness, kids enjoyment, learning and education through organized recreation/entertainment, interaction of adults and children," he said.

“Sherman Brown Park is an important destination in our community,” City Council President Len Torres said in a statement. “Unfortunately, it has been neglected for many years and, as a result, is in desperate need of rehabilitation. We are happy to say that the days of neglect are over.”