Bland Playground (GMaps)
March 6, 2020 By Michael Dorgan
The city will host a public meeting next week to seek residents’ input into the redevelopment of Bland Playground.
The event will take place at Bland Community Center, 133-36 Roosevelt Ave., on Thursday, Mar. 12 at 6 p.m. and the public will be asked to weigh in on how the playground, located on 40th Road in downtown Flushing, should be redesigned and reconstructed.
Last June Council Member Peter Koo, Speaker Corey Johnson, and the Queens Borough President’s office secured $6 million in funding to upgrade the park as part of the FY 2020 Council budget.
The site has been plagued by a variety of problems for years including sanitation and homeless people congregating there, according to Council Member Koo.
“This scoping meeting is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for area residents to redesign their own backyard playground,” Koo stated.
Bland Playground opened to the public in the 1950s and is named in honor of James A. Bland, the famed African American folk singer and Flushing native who wrote “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny” that was the official state song of Virginia from 1940 to 1997.
The NYCHA’s housing projects situated adjacent to the playground are also named after Bland.
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