BUFFALO (WBEN - Brendan Keany) - State Assemblyman Sean Ryan is addressing the so-called "playground desert in the Elmwood Village.
"There's an organization called Trust for Public Land, and they say one of the measurements of a healthy community is if you can walk to a park or a playground within 10 minutes of your house," said Ryan. "Believe it or not, the Elmwood area is the densest area of the city, and this map will show you that there is not a playground within a 10-minute walk of this community."
However, there are now plans to change that.
Joy Pepper was formerly the director of Right Place for KIDS, and she says the community lost out when the old playground at the church was taken down to become a parking lot.
"Because it was open to the community and the families of this neighborhood, the community really took responsibility for it, so it stayed clean, wasn't vandalized and was a great meeting place for kids and their parents, and people sorely missed it when it was turned into a parking lot," said Pepper. "It's great that there's funding available and that there's a fabulous design in place to be able to put something back in this spot because it's a highly trafficked area in Buffalo and much needed for our kids."
Ryan says that the "aggressive" timeframe for completion of the playground is at this time next summer, but if that doesn't work, Ryan says it will certainly be finished by the summer of 2021.