A new community group, Friends of Chimborazo Playground, has formed to address crime, safety and health issues at the Chimborazo Park Playground and Recreational area. The group wants to hear your ideas for how to make the playground and recreational area a safer, more beautiful place. Send in your ideas at imaginechimbo.org.

The Chimborazo Park playground at North 29th and 31st Streets is a neighborhood gathering space where you can regularly find children enjoying the play equipment, kids and adults involved in a game of basketball, teenagers skateboarding, and adults playing pétanque.  It’s also a place where you can regularly find discarded condoms, broken bottles and even crack bags littering the playground where children play. Graffiti covers the jungle gym and transients urinate on the storage facility. Lack of lighting transforms the playground into a nighttime haven for prostitution, drug use and potential assaults.

To turn around the decline and safety issues at the playground and recreational area, neighbors have organized a new Friends of Chimborazo Playground group.  This group aims to improve the safety and quality of the playground and recreational area and provide a safe, beautiful place for community members of all ages to play, gather and enjoy.

Concerned individuals worked with local police and park officials to increase patrols, remove tree debris and clean up litter. Problems, however, continued and neighbors saw the need to organize efforts.

To turn around the decline and safety issues at the playground and recreational area, neighbors created a new Friends of Chimborazo Playground group.  This group aims to improve the safety and quality of the playground and recreational area and provide a safe, beautiful place for community members of all ages to play, gather and enjoy.

The Friends of Chimborazo Park seeks new members and community input on park improvements. The group is new partner of the Richmond Recreation & Parks Foundation.

“Geographically, Chimborazo Playground sits in the very heart of our community, so it should be as vibrant, diverse and beautiful as our community, and a place where neighbors of all ages can gather,” said Bridgette Huff, a founding member of Friends of Chimborazo Playground.

The group is partnering with the Richmond Dept. of Parks & Recreation (RDPF) for the new redesign of Chimborazo Park.

An upcoming focus group meeting with the RDPF will be held on May 5 at 6:30 pm in St. John’s Parish Hall.
 “We want the community to share their ideas for how to improve the park.” Some ideas include better lighting at night to address crime, water fountains, public art, a community garden and benches for pétanque players. The group will share the community’s ideas with the RDPF at the next focus group meeting.



The group also plans to work closely with the Church Hill Pétanque Club. Nearly 50 pétanque players gather at the Chimborazo Playground & Recreational area two to three times a week to play.

To learn more about becoming a member or how you can help, contact bridgette@imaginechimbo.org or visit imaginechimbo.org.

from The Friends of Chimborazo Park