Washington Heights Playground Getting Bathroom, Other Upgrades

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — A popular playground in Washington Heights will be getting nearly $3.5 million of the $99 billion budget that the New York City Council adopted Wednesday night.

Council Member Mark Levine's office told Patch that $3,496,800 will go to improving the Discovery Playground in Fort Washington Park near West 164th Street.

The majority of that funding will go to building a bathroom within the Upper Manhattan park.

"The playground has been so heavily used and so embraced by the community, the original plan, though, was to have a bathroom," Levine told Patch. "It's a real problem because you are basically half a mile from a comfort station (bathroom) in either direction and for families with young kids, that's just not practical.

So, this has been a priority of mine for years, and I'm just thrilled we were able to secure the money in this budget."

Here's a breakdown of how significant elements of the funding will be used to improve the Discovery Playground:

• Rodent Extermination: $10,000
• Construction Sign + Fence: $21,000
• Tree Protection: $28,200
• Excavation: $83,250
• Utilities: $175,000
• Green Roof + Solar Panels: $36,000
• Comfort Station (bathroom): $1,800,000
• Site Restoration: $440,000

There isn't an expected completion date yet for the new bathroom, but Levine said that the design for the project is expected to start this year.

Levine's work to secure funding for the Discovery Playground isn't his only recent bathroom push. The city council member and current leading candidate for the Manhattan Borough President recently introduced a bill in the Council that would bring at least one new public bathroom to every ZIP code in the city.

"This is a public health issue. We had far more bathrooms in decades past open to the public," Levine told Patch. "The result is, particularly during off-hours, there are just no options for public bathrooms. In a city of eight and a half million people."

Read More: New Bill Would Add 4 Public Bathrooms To Wash Heights, Inwood