$3.3m transforms dumping ground into playground.

Parks & Recreation commissioner Adrian Benepe joined assembly member Carmen Arroyo, chair of the Bronx River Alliance Dart Westphal, executive director of the Sustainable South Bronx Majora Carter, and children from Hunt's Point Recreation Center to cut the rig bon on Hunt's Point Riverside Park, a 1 A-acre park carved along the southern end of the Bronx River. The $3.3 million project, funded by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, transformed a vacant lot used as an illegal dumping ground into a park featuring waterfront access and numerous recreational opportunities.

"Hunt's Point Riverside Park has been transformed from an old dumping ground into a waterfront recreational oasis, thanks to South Bronx community organizations who led the advocacy and Mayor Bloomberg and local elected officials who allocated the funds," said Benepe. "The opening of this park celebrates the positive changes made possible by citizens and government working together as we clean up the Bronx River and re-connect Bronx neighborhoods to its natural beauty."

Hunt's Point Riverside Park features a fishing and recreational pier with a floating dock, a central open lawn oval, canoe-themed play structures, and a natural riverside amphitheater with stone seating and lawn panels. Furthermore, the shore line of the Bronx River is protected with a rebuilt bulkhead, an intertidal gravel beach, and new plantings.

Over the past decade, local community organizations including The Point CDC and Sustainable South Bronx were instrumental in the revitalization of the site, collaborating with the City to cleanup the lot, establish it as an ad-hoc gathering point for community events and river-oriented activities, and ultimately develop it into the verdant recreational oasis it is today.

Hunt's Point Riverside Park sits at the beginning of the Bronx River Greenway, a multi-use bike and pedestrian path that stretches eight miles from the South Bronx to the Westchester Border and will provide continuous public access to the river when completed in 2012. The park is a gateway to the Bronx River, New York City's only freshwater river and home of Jose, the first beaver sighted within the five boroughs in about 200 years.

Over the next five years, Parks will invest an additional $560 million to develop park projects in the Bronx, including more than $200 million from the construction of the Croton Water Filtration Plant and $98 million from Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC initiative to establish the sustainable growth of New York City by the year 2030.