Long Island City’s Murray Park gets a facelift: new ball-field and playground

I live right around the corner from the park and your post about it being “undiscovered and almost completely unused” is totally wrong. The park is heavily used especially on weekends. There are two churches that hold events there, residents who live near and around the park use it on a regular basis (it’s just not as crowded as Ganrty and no water view), the local high school special education students use it during the school year and it is also used on a regular basis by the people who work in the neighborhood. There is a popular dog run (needs a bit of work, hopefully soon) and a community garden(anyone interested? we need more people). It is a park well used by the surronding residents. The problem with the new field, also artificial turf (which was fought), is that the city did not look at who actually used the previous asphalt field, soccer teams. So now there is a baseball field, which was not played on a regular basis, and the guys who played soccer every sunday have hopefully found another place to play. It would be nice if it could be a dual field, but it doesn’t appear that will happen. Once the playground is completed it will be well used also. There are alot of kids especially little ones. There will be a water spray also, much needed in the summer. Hopefully the kids will get to enjoy it soon.

Parents and caregivers! Be careful of the water spray in the renovated Murray Park. The water flows at a very high velocity, which could sting and irritate the skin of toddlers. And if your child falls and his wet shirt accidentally covers his mouth, he might have the sensation of waterboarded.

There is actually nothing “natural” about maintaining grass. It would be better if the city just planted low-maintenance native perennial species in areas where people go to relax. Grass needs constant watering, fertilizing, aerating, and weed and pest control with expensive and harmful chemicals. If people really want the damn grass, then they should form a residents’ park conservancy and pay for it themselves.

So glad there is finally another playground in this area! The kids were running out of options with 5(?) all within walking distance.

The sportsfield is actually not open yet, but some people ripped open one of the security gates to access the field. All of the other entrances are still fenced off.