The Willow Glen Resident Photograph by Skye Dunlap Making the Rounds: Efrain Plascencia opted to check out the new playground equipment rather than listen to politicians' speeches at the Sept. 19 dedication of the new Gregory Plaza Tot Lot. Gregory Plaza neighbors dedicate new playground By Sharon Parks Children stopped playing in the Gregory Plaza Tot Lot when drug addicts and drunks took over, leaving it in a dangerous condition, with hypodermic needles and beer bottles behind the sandbox. The residents of Gregory Plaza took the last step in reclaiming their community Sept. 19, joining Mayor Susan Hammer and District 6 City Councilmember Frank Fiscalini in dedicating a new, safe playground for the children in their neighborhood. The dedication was the culmination of a two-year project by the Gregory Plaza Neighborhood Association, which was formed to restore the deteriorating playground. "The association became empowered to learn to really work within the system and to accomplish a goal they set out to achieve," Fiscalini said at the dedication ceremony. "If you would have seen this spot two years ago you would have shaken your head, 'no, never, you can't do it.' Today it is a beautiful tot lot." The approximately 70 adults and children who attended Saturday's dedication cheered as Hammer cut a bright red ribbon with giant gold scissors to mark the official opening of the new Gregory Plaza Tot Lot on Gregory street. "Projects like the Gregory tot lot are a lot of fun to do because they really involve on the most grassroots level the neighbors that live right around here," Hammer said. "This park was dangerous; it was overrun with drug dealers, and now look at it. They have families out here and people that have reclaimed their neighborhood." The neighborhood association plans to help put the finishing touches on the new tot lot. "There is a series of projects that the neighborhood will be involved in such as maintenance of the park," association member John Francis Maggio said. "There are still steppingstones and plants that need to be put in, as well as the protection of the [equipment] against graffiti." According to Hammer, experience has shown that when neighborhoods improve a place that has been marred by graffiti and turn it into a place where families want to come and watch their kids play, the undesirable element usually stays away. The children who attended the dedication were having fun trying out the new playground equipment, which consists of swings, two rocking horses and a climbing structure with three slides attached. "I like the swings best," 5-year-old Jozett Rirs said. Parents, even those whose children are grown, were happy to see the new, improved tot lot. "When we first moved in, our kids were little, and now they are teenagers," Virginia Morales said. "It improved since our kids were little. Before it was all dirty and covered with broken glass, and I would never let them play here." Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren appeared unannounced at the dedication. "I just heard about this and I know the neighborhood, and this is really neat and should be honored," Lofgren said. [ Back to Contents Page | Willow Glen Resident Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Willow Glen Resident, September 23, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.