In Full Swing
NYC Parks breaks ground on $7.1 million
renovation at Ravenswood Playground
22 JULY 2 0 2 1
Photo courtesy of NYC Parks/Daniel Avila
Photo: Getty Images
A heavily used community green space adjoining the
Ravenswood Houses and Queensview Homes in Long
Island City is undergoing a $7.1 million renovation.
Elected officials and community leaders gathered
Tuesday, June 29, for a groundbreaking ceremony at
the Ravenswood Playground on 21st Street between
34th and 35th avenues.
“This is a great day for the children and families of
Ravenswood Houses, Queensbridge Houses and the
surrounding neighborhoods as we break ground on
the first-class playground this community deserves,”
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said.
“Fairness and equity demand that all children, no matter
where they live, should have access to top-quality play
spaces they need to thrive.”
The $7.1 million project will reconstruct the playground
with new, inclusive play equipment and a spray
play area. Improvements will include new accessible entrances,
repaved basketball courts and paths.
The project will also feature new benches, lighting, native
tree and plant beds and a renovated picnic grove
that will connect the playground and softball field. Renovations
were made possible by a $3.9 million allocation
from Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, $2.5 million
from the borough president’s office and $693,000 from
Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“The people of Ravenswood deserve a beautiful,
modern park and playground and the way we renovate
parks around our city must be done with an eye on equity,”
Van Bramer said. “The $7.1 million renovation will
make the Ravenswood Playground a welcoming place
for kids and adults of all ages.”
The project is expected to be completed in spring
2022.
“Reconstruction is in full swing at Ravenswood Playground,”
NYC Parks Queens Borough Commissioner
Michael Dockett said. “By next summer, the children
and families of Long Island City will be able to enjoy
brand-new play equipment, updated sports courts and
a more inviting place to play.
EXPLORE YOUR BORO
Legends of Sunnyside
The Heart of Art
BY GREATER ASTORIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Artists often use tools
that were familiar to
the ancients. A plectrum
hitting strings
of a prehistoric harp
creates music in many
ways similar to a modern
Steinway pianist at the keyboard.
For both a nameless
Neolithic artist and Isamu Noguchi, founder of the Noguchi Museum,
stone was sculpted into art by mallet and chisel.
The transistor, a semiconductor device, revolutionized the creative
arts. For the first time, artistic expression became limitless. An invisible
spark could conjure sight and sound, expanding the bounds of
imagination.
Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita co-founded a rag-tag Japanese
company whose first effort was to fail miserably at making rice cookers
in the ruins of post-war Japan. Ibuka, after doing research, had
an opportunity to secure the licensing of transistor technology in the
mid-1950s. The transistor, outside of military applications, was primarily
used for hearing aids.
In 1957, using transistors, they manufactured the first pocketsized
radio and renamed themselves Sony (from the homophonic
phrase “Sounds Nice”) Corporation. After going international, in
1960, they leased a nondescript building on Van Dam Street in Sunnyside
where they created Sony Corporation of America, informally
dubbed “SONAM.”
The launching of SONAM was also the start in a revolution for
the entertainment industry: the first transistor television (1960), the
first transistor VTR (1961), Trinitron TV (1968) and the first compact
cassette recorder (1969). Although they lost the Betamax war, they
continued to dominate and innovate consumer electronics with the
legendary Walkman (1979).
A Wiki entry summarized their success: “Sony has historically been
notable for creating its own in-house standards for new recording
and storage technologies, instead of adopting those of other manufacturers.”
Within a scant generation, as they were riding on a curve
of creative energy, one historian would state, “They went on to create
and deliver more entertainment experiences to more people
than anyone else on earth.”
By the mid-1980s, when SONAM outgrew its Van Dam address,
they were well on the way toward becoming one of the world’s great
entertainment conglomerates, with a whirlwind of acquisitions including
the legendary Columbia Pictures and CBS Records.
For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020, Sony recorded consolidated
annual sales of approximately US $76.67 billion. Their work
force was approximately 114,400.
All from a little transistor, the beating heart of today’s art.
BY BILL PARRY
Greater Astoria Historical Society
44-02 23RD ST. #219
LONG ISLAND CITY, NY 11101
INFO@ASTORIALIC.ORG / WWW.ASTORIALIC.ORG
718-278-0700
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer and Queens Borough
President Donovan Richards help break ground
on a $7.1 million renovation of Ravenswood Playground.
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