Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Kids' Fun: San Jose's first playground designed for children both with and without disabilities opened May 18 at Willow Glen's Lincoln Glen Park. (From left) Stacey Santa Maria, 15 months, Hannah Noelle Smith, 2, and Hannah Barness, 3, play on the park's seesaw.
Lincoln Glen Park opens to praise from community, S.J. city officials
Children with or with-out disabilities can enjoy playground area
By Susan Wiedmann
Willow Glen's new Lincoln Glen Park is the first park in San Jose to open under the city's new "Play for All" campaign, which calls for parks and playground equipment to be accessible to all children, with and without physical disabilities.
The $1.5 million park was officially dedicated at 10 a.m. May 18, with San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales and District 6 San Jose City Council member Ken Yeager taking part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony, along with Richard Patterson, a member of the San Jose Disabilities Advisory Commission.
"We are delighted with the outcome," Gonzales said after the ceremony. "It is a great asset to the neighborhood. We hope everyone in Willow Glen enjoys it."
Lincoln Glen Park was designed to provide physical and sensory stimulation for all children through its use of bright colors, textures, sand, water and scent. MIG, Inc., the landscape architecture firm that created the park's design, used a riparian theme for the park after considerable community input as to its design.
The landscaping throughout the park includes willow trees, fragrant plantings and a curving pebbled walkway that meanders like a river, beginning at a mini waterfall near the main play structure. The "river" then goes through a large shower before it enters the preschool play area, where it "flows" to a water and sand play area for toddlers.
A 17-inch-high wall provides the base of the mini waterfall and sand play area--just the right height so that children in wheelchairs can reach out and play with the water and sand while other children are also enjoying the fun. A start button rests on top of a 3-foot-high pole, enabling the children to be in charge of their water play, and a similar pole controls the water in the shower play area nearby.
Giant green frogs are also part of the riparian theme, and in the preschool water and sand area, two of the frogs shoot water from their mouths at each other every 20 seconds, providing a water spray that creates wet sand, ideal for making sandcastles.
The structure for older children is the largest feature in the park, making for a variety of play opportunities. A sloping walkway provides easy wheelchair access to the upper level of the structure, where children can socialize and play. A soft, spongy, multicolored material made from recycled tires covers the ground throughout the area to help protect the children in case of falls. It also appears in the preschool play area across the park.
Fun Times: Nolan Sheridan, 3, enjoys Willow Glen's $1.5 million Lincoln Glen Park playground, which includes 6.5 acres of open space.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Children could already be heard shrieking happily in the play areas on the day of the park's opening.
"I am so excited to have this kind of park here," Yeager said after the ceremony. "We respect everyone in San Jose, and now we have a playground that incorporates that attitude. I love it that it is in my district."
Willow Glen resident George Rix came to the park's opening with his daughters, Alicia, 5, and Liana, 3. Alicia has an orthopedic impairment and uses a wheelchair. Her knees cannot bend enough for her to climb steps that are more than two inches high.
"It's a challenge for her to go to a park to play," Rix said.
Low, wheelchair-height swings had children, including Alicia, waiting to use them, while in the large, fenced-in preschool area, small children were strolling with their parents through a wheelchair-accessible play structure and using swings, a seesaw for four, and small rocking-horse-type toys.
The park also holds appeal for older adults. The Willows Senior Center is just across the driveway from the park. Center Director Jane Hemeon said, "They tell me they know the park was built for their second childhood," and that they intend to use it to sit and relax.
Anna Wagner, 5, and her brother, Oliver Wagner, 4, were at the park with their aunt, Shelley Pegram. Anna was particularly fond of the track ride, on which a child holds a bar while zipping across a 6-foot-high horizontal beam.
When asked what he enjoyed the most, Oliver summed up the feelings of many people there by replying, "Everything!"
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
