CLEVELAND, Ohio — Kristen Case, 40, grew up in Cleveland’s West Park neighborhood and remembers the original playground at Impett Park. It was her park, she said.
Now, with a new one in its place, her three-year-old son is enjoying the fruits of the community’s labor with an inclusive playground.
Friends of Impett Park held a grand opening Saturday afternoon to celebrate the newly renovated, inclusive playground, and the new community mural in front of neighborhood residents, community organizers, Cleveland police officers and firefighters and Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb.
FOIP worked with Cleveland City Hall and members of the Ward 17 committee to create the playground at Impett Park which is tucked between West 153rd and West 159th streets.
“It’s inclusive, you know, all of the adaptable equipment that’s here, we can include everybody,” Case said. “We come here almost every night now and the whole neighborhood is here, which is so cool. Before it was like a dead zone here. There was nobody here, nobody was hanging out.”
Now seeing the playground come to fruition it makes her really happy, she said.
The playground renovation cost the city $1.4 million and part of the funding, $750,000, is all thanks to the American Rescue Plan Act stimulus recovery funds. The additional funds were secured by Cleveland City Councilman Charlie Slife, who represents Ward 17, through city council.
To make room for the zipline the park shelter was taken down, Slife said. But the city of Cleveland applied for a grant through the Ohio Department of Resources and were approved for a new park shelter, he added.
The playground accommodates all children with bridges, climbing structures, sensory panels, slides, swings and more. And the 860-square foot paint-by-numbers mural on the pool house could be seen from the new playground.
Artists Bernadette Glorioso, Mimi Rindfleish and Monica Webb headed up the mural project which involved hundreds of West Park residents who were involved in the entire creation, FOIP said.
Slife said the playground project and the mural was a three-year process that involved the entire community to give their thoughts. That is when the first meeting about the park was held. Nearly unanimously, everyone said they would like to see a new playground, he said.
Right around the time of that meeting a coalition of residents decided to band together to do tasks at the park including cleanup and making the mural, he said.
“So not only are we getting a new park, but all the features that you see are built around the idea of inclusivity,” he said to the crowd that attended the ribbon cutting, grand opening ceremony. “Designs chosen specifically by residents and children living in the neighborhood. This is the example of what happens when neighborhoods get together and work with government. Amazing things can happen.”
Kate Catanese, lead organizer of FOIP, told the crowd that some of the people who need to be thanked include the families who designed the new Impett Park Playground.
“We started Friends of Impett Park to seal the disconnection and loneliness of the pandemic by bringing our neighbors back together to revitalize this shared space,” she said. “The top concern for our families was replacing our beloved but tired playground. And today we celebrate that accomplishment.”
There are eight parks in Ward 17, Slife said, with Impett Park being the largest. It is open to the public seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Kaylee Remington is the shopping and entertainment commerce reporter and metro reporter for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. Read her work online.