Playgrounds

Architect Frank Gehry, renowned for his daring and whimsical urban designs, will create his first playground -- at the historic Battery public park in Lower Manhattan. The playground will be part of a larger redevelopment of Manhattan's southernmost tip, best known to tourists as the disembarkation point for ferries to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Gehry's playground design, which is expected to be unveiled later this year, will cost about $4 million.

Before the children could slide and swing in their new playground, the parents had to build it. After more than a year of planning and fund-raising, Yorba Linda residents completed work Sunday on what they say is the county's first community-built park. The 11-acre Box Canyon Park had been set aside for public use by a local home builder, but it sat vacant for eight years because the developer went bankrupt.

City and county officials broke ground Wednesday for a new "barrier-free playground" designed to meet the needs of disabled children. The playground at Thornton Park will include rubberized play surfaces suited for people in wheelchairs, as well as ramps and other innovations to permit disabled children to play on climbing equipment, swings and slides.

Manhattan Beach plans to open a long-awaited child friendly tot-lot today. The playground features locomotives, passenger train cars, railroad tracks, swings and slides. City officials spent $210,000 to construct the state-of-the-art playground at Live Oak Park using money from the capital improvement projects fund and private donations. The park was designed with a railroad theme because it is near the former Santa Fe Railroad easement that once brought trains through town.

Dale Aigner's 9-year-old son, Jason, has been a regular at the city's Adventure Playground ever since he turned 6, the playground's minimum age. "If we don't have anything planned on Saturday, trust me, he'd be there all day long," said Aigner, 48, who owns a print shop in Fountain Valley.

Fire investigators said Monday that they have spoken with possible suspects in the early morning fire that destroyed some play equipment Friday at Circle View Elementary School. Principal Bonnie Lytle said she was confident officials would find out who started the blaze, which melted a portion of one of two new play structures set up last year after children and parents worked three years selling cookie dough, gift wrap and hosting other fund-raisers for the $65,000 to buy them.

Smoking at public playgrounds could result in a $100 fine starting next year under a bill signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis. Davis said the measure would protect children from secondhand smoke, but said he wants subsequent legislation allowing smoking within 15 to 25 feet of play areas. That would allow parents who smoke to monitor their children while they play, Davis said.

Kids take one look at that aging metal jungle gym at the local park and see an afternoon of adventure. But many safety experts and parents see that same playground and worry about all the dangers it poses--from the hard steel bars to the unforgiving concrete ground covering. Such concerns have resulted in a new generation of playground equipment that is safer and, advocates say, more stimulating for children.

The city has received a $25,000 state grant to put a special material made from recycled tires at five park playgrounds, which will make them safer and accessible to handicapped children. The city will contribute more than $33,000 toward the project at the following parks: Jaycee Parkette, Koch Park, Parque de Los Ninos, Tri-City Park and Tuffree Hill Park. The grant is from the state's Integrated Waste Management Board.

Cracked and potentially dangerous playgrounds at nine elementary schools, including six in the Valley, will be repaved this summer as part of a $1-million Los Angeles Unified School District project. That's music to the ears of Laverne Moore, principal of Capistrano Street Elementary in Canoga Park. Due to heat and lingering earthquake damage, said Moore, "our school has been on the paving list for the last four years. Our number came up, and we're very happy."