'It's beautiful': MPS unveils revitalized Columbia Playfield on Milwaukee's west side

One child hung precariously off the monkey bars. Others danced around a splash pad. Some played basketball or flew as high as possible on the swing set.

It was their first spin through the newly remodeled Columbia Playfield, a block-square city park on Milwaukee's west side.

"This is beautiful," said former resident Cecilia Edmond, surveying the playfield's upgrades: freshly painted basketball courts, a splash pad, two jungle gyms on turf, a slide and swings, musical instruments and a walking path.

Public officials and residents gathered Saturday to cut the ribbon on the newly transformed playgrounds, one of a number of neighborhood parks slated for improvements as a way to level the playing field between Milwaukee's poorest children and their more affluent peers.

"We have to be a city where every kid can have fun in the summer," said Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

Saturday's events included a raffle for new basketballs, roller-skating and face-painting for the children exploring the new space.

Columbia is the first of several playfields in line for major makeovers in the first phases of a multimillion-dollar plan by Milwaukee Public Schools Recreation Department to upgrade its outdoor facilities over the next decade or more.

The work is being driven, not just by the condition of the parks, but a greater understanding of the role play plays in the development of children and an effort to ensure equitable opportunities for Milwaukee children, regardless of their ZIP code.

A central park

The Columbia Playfield at 1345 W. Columbia St., in one of the most distressed areas of the city, has always been a gathering place for the families that surrounded it.

"We all grew up here, from the shoe up," said Shavon "Shady" Jackson, 42, who was born and raised in a house on Chambers Street directly across the park.

Columbia, she said, is where she had her first kiss and her first fight.

It wasn't great back then, she said, featuring an old sailboat, basketball courts and mostly concrete except a baseball diamond.

Cecilia Edmond is even less generous in describing what the area used to look like: "It was real basic, honey," she said laughing.

Edmond did a college internship at the park in the ’70s before she went on to spend 15 years working at MPS Recreation Department.

Now, she says the space is efficient.

"There's places for parents to walk while the kids are playing, it's enclosed — this is beautiful."

Leveling the playing field

Columbia, like many of the MPS Recreation play spaces, was built in the early half of the 20th century.

The revitalization plan grew out of an outdoor recreation facilities master plan, which found that 65% of the parks were in fair to poor condition and would need $25 million in improvements over the next 10 years.

In an effort to prioritize the work, MPS and recreation staff rank the playfields based on a number of criteria. In addition to the condition of the parks, they looked at demographic data — such as poverty, race and the number of children in the surrounding neighborhoods — crime statistics and the availability of other parkland nearby.

The results reinforced what they had seen anecdotally: that the poorest facilities tended to be in low-income, largely minority neighborhoods.

The work at Columbia began in the winter of 2017. Others slated for upgrades include Custer, Burnham, Southgate, Clovernook and Franklin Square. The MPS plans mirror a city proposal to improve 14 city-run parks.  

MPS Superintendent Keith Posley stressed Saturday that children learn through play and that every child should be able to do so in appropriate places.

"This is a wonderful safe space for young people," he said, "This is absolutely gorgeous."

MPS Board Member Annie Woodward, who represents the district where the playground is located, echoed his sentiment.

"We want to get our children engaged," said Woodward, who has lived in the area for half a century. "They got something good here. We'd like to see it stay that way."

Contact Talis Shelbourne at (414) 223-5261 or tshelbourn@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @talisseer and Facebook at @talisseer.