A dAy in the pA rks

See how our neighborhood playgrounds rate for this expert panel of 6- to 9-year-olds

story by rachel Stone | photos by Danny Fulgencio

When people have babies in North Oak Cliff, and those babies grow to be toddlers, their parents take them to play in the “toddler park,” as moms and dads call Annie Stevens Park, at Plymouth and Oak Cliff Boulevard. It is what an elementary-age kid might call a “baby park,” safe and fun for the little ones, a total snore by second grade. Once children grow older, there are many more choices in our neighborhoods.

Public playgrounds mostly are designed by city governments with cost and safety high on the list of priorities. When City Councilwoman Delia Jasso was on the park board, she says, she attended park and recreation conferences every year to see the latest and greatest in playground equipment. That is how she procured the two famous (if you’re under 10 and live in Oak Cliff) playground apparatuses at Kidd Springs Park — the big climbing rock and the pyramid of climbing ropes. She negotiated a good price because they were unwieldy displays that the vendor didn’t want to have to haul back to his home base.

Having good playgrounds is important because they’re one of the few affordable sources of recreation for young families. “We’ve got families with four or five kids who can’t afford to take their kids to the movies,” Jasso says. “Parks really are the main recreation, especially for a large family.”

But which Oak Cliff playgrounds are the BeS t? t he most fun? t he most entertaining?

What makes a gOOd playground?

In an effort to answer this question, we compiled a panel of neighborhood kids to play in our neighborhood playgrounds and give us their ratings.