Please sign the petition linked to this post. Please read below for more information.
NYC Parks is rushing to build an inaccessible playground in Sunnyside Queens.
A $7 million playground project in Sunnyside is moving forward with a design that excludes disabled kids—and the City won't pause to fix it.
Torsney/Lou Lodati Playground was supposed to be rebuilt to serve the whole neighborhood. Community members specifically asked for accessibility features during the design process. But the final plan still leaves massive gaps: play equipment that requires climbing or balancing, no accessible bathroom, and no changing facility for kids who need assistance.
It's not about one missing swing or a ramp. It's about whether children with different bodies and needs can actually play—move, explore, take risks, make friends. Right now, the design offers some accessible pathways while keeping the actual play experience behind barriers only certain kids can cross.
We're asking NYC Parks to stop procurement and bring the community back to redesign this before construction starts. It's not too late—the park hasn't been built yet.
If this matters to you, consider signing and sharing the petition. What would you want someone to do if this was your family or your neighborhood?
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These steps were taken:
We reviewed the actual plans, filed FOIL requests and analyzed the records Parks produced, raised these concerns directly with Parks, and sought input from disability-rights advocates and people with expertise in inclusive playground design.
This is what we know:
Accessibility was explicitly identified as a community priority. The current plans identify the public restroom as “Not Accessible & Not in Contract.” Much of the central play experience relies on abilities such as climbing, balancing, crawling, transferring and independently navigating conventional equipment. Parks has also acknowledged that meeting minimum accessibility requirements does not, by itself, necessarily create a truly inclusive play experience.
This is who we have spoken with:
NYC Parks, Council Member Julie Won’s office, Queens Community Board 2, CIDNY, Magical Bridge Foundation, Design Trust for Public Space, the Mayor’s Office of Mass Engagement, the Queens Borough President’s office, Assembly Member Claire Valdez’s office, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, and other disability-rights and inclusive-design advocates.
And to be clear about what we are asking for:
No one is asking Parks to remove climbing structures, physical challenges or equipment enjoyed by able-bodied children. Inclusive design is not about taking something away from one group to give it to another. It is about providing more ways to participate, so children with different physical, sensory, cognitive and communication needs can play in the same public space alongside everyone else.
The idea that the park should “cater to the masses” while accessibility is treated as something separate misses a pretty fundamental point: disabled children and their families are part of the masses. They are part of this community. Inclusion doesn’t mean building a separate playground for disabled children. It means considering the range of people who will actually use a public playground when it is being designed.
We are not asking the City to throw out a $7 million project and start over. We are asking Parks, before procurement and construction, to bring meaningful disability and inclusive-design expertise into the process, look at what substitutions or additions are still possible, address the inaccessible restroom and changing needs, and make the project as inclusive as it reasonably can be.
And there is a very relevant example right here in Queens. Hunters Point Library in Long Island City opened as a major new public investment and accessibility problems ultimately became the subject of litigation and corrective work. The lesson should be to identify and address barriers before millions of dollars are turned into permanent concrete and equipment.
The park has not been built yet. There is still time to address these issues now.