In a modest-sized square on the corner of New York Avenue and Second Street NW, empty beer cans litter the grass, thick branches jut out of piles of debris, and frayed wires curl upward from an open electrical box. Beneath a pair of swings, worn holes in the glass-ridden rubber flooring mark where feet have braked.
A broken fence keeps no one out. There’s little there to invite anyone in.
The run-down New York Avenue Playground is an open wound for the close-knit community that surrounds it, which is grieving from the loss of one of its own this summer. In late August, 21-year-old Dominic Dixon was gunned down across the street from the park. Now, friends, family and neighbors have banded together, channeling their grief to form the Better Neighborhood Civic Association (BNCA), comprised of residents in the area between New York Avenue NW, New Jersey Avenue NW, N Street NW and Kirby Street NW. The 15-member group was established in late September at the urging of Dixon’s aunt. Their first order of business is to clean up the park.
“It just seems the New York Avenue Playground has been wholly forgotten, right down to basic maintenance,” said Melanie Henderson, Dixon’s cousin and secretary of the BNCA.
According to Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) spokesman John Stokes, up until October 1, DPR was responsible for maintaining the New York Avenue Playground and field. He said landscaping was done on a regular schedule but admits the playground may have been neglected after the park’s recreation center shuttered two years ago.
“The playground may not have gotten as much attention as it deserved, because it was an unstaffed location once the recreation center closed and was not monitored everyday,” Stokes said.
The BNCA is urging the city to turn its eye toward the park once again. The group believes youth recreation programs can help stave off neighborhood violence. They’re advocating for a park that is clean, safe and programmed. The BNCA, which for now is operating under the mission of the Concerned Coalition of New York Avenue Playground Area, will motion to become a subcommittee of the Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association on Tuesday.
This isn’t the first time the park has needed saving.
In 2005, local residents expressed a profound attachment to the playground, and fought to keep it after the city proposed replacing it with 98 townhouses as part of a neighborhood revitalization project. The community argued that the park has historical value. According to the Washington Post, one resident explained that the site was once known as “a white and colored playground . . . where the whites and the blacks came together and began to play.”
The community has come together again, through the formation of the BNCA, to fight for the playground and its surrounding area — this time not against destruction, but against insidious dilapidation. Neighbors say that not only is the park not being maintained, but it’s also become a haven for drugs, sex and violence where an active community center once was.
“Yesterday I was in the park and there were people having sex right in front of me,” said Ray Valentine, president of the BNCA. “It’s not a safe place for kids.”
The BNCA wants the New York Avenue Playground — including the park’s recreation center — to be an asset to the community. Now, it’s simply a liability.
“When I was coming up in the 80s, the rec center was active,” Henderson said. “My mother didn’t have to worry about me being safe when I was over there. Now, the library is defunct. There’s no daycare. We want to build up the New York Avenue Playground not only for our youth, but also make it a really inter-generational place.”
The park has been decaying for years due to lack of basic maintenance and stalled renovation plans, which have been in the works for some time. While DPR had been tasked with caring for the playground and field, as of October 1, a new D.C. agency — the Department of General Services — is in charge of repairing and maintaining the property.
The city has been working with residents to revise the scope of the renovation project after the community raised concerns about it earlier this year. A meeting will be held on Thursday, October 20, to discuss the final scope and construction timeline.
BNCA members said the renovation plans they’ve seen don’t go far enough. They don’t want a patchwork of fixes — they’re pushing for a new, modern facility. The neighborhood believes they deserve nothing less.
“The city seems to be in a funk on this, and to be fair, we haven’t jumped up and down talking about it,” Valentine said. “Now we are.”
