The City of Long Beach dusted off its shovels and revealed a new dinosaur-themed playground at Recreation Park at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 14.
The renovated park includes improvements to play equipment, an upgraded seating area with new benches, the creation of separate play structures based on age, and improvements for children with differing abilities.
“Today, we are actually celebrating our eleventh playground that we have redone and reopened just in the last few years,” Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia said during the grand opening.
The playground is one of the largest in the city and includes two separate playing areas for children ages 2 to 5 and another for children ages 5 and up. Scattered throughout the play area are three different soft-plastic dinosaur sculptures that children can climb up or slide down.
Between the play areas are swings, monkey bars and a “Dino Excavation Area” that allows children to dig around to uncover planted dinosaur bones in the sand.
“I think everybody was really engaged by the excavation area, you know, being able to dig up the dinosaur bones in the sand that really seemed to capture everybody’s imagination,” said Long Beach resident Tim Pierson, who wore a Jurassic Park T-shirt for the opening.
The park improvements were made possible by $1.9 million of funds from Measure A. This voter-approved sales tax helps fund “public infrastructure and public safety services,” according to the city’s website.
Other parks that have been improved from these funds include Colorado Lagoon Park, Cherry Park and Martin Luther King Jr. Park, among others.
“This project has been in the works for many, many years now. Unfortunately, it was delayed because of the pandemic,” Councilmember Suzie Price said of the park, which was initially scheduled to open in March. “But that additional time gave us an opportunity to engage with other communities and make sure that the park had some features in it that are really unique and exciting.”
Tim Pierson holds two of his children, Emse (left) and Timothy Jr. (right), near the Dino Excavation Zone of the newly remodeled Recreation Park Playground on its opening day, June 14, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | SIgnal Tribune) 
A young boy poses for a picture inside the maw of a model Tyrannosaurus while his father takes a photo during the reopening of the Recreation Park Playground on June 14, 2022. The remodel of the park gave it a Jurrasic Park theme with other dinosaur models and a fossil dig site. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
Long Beach Councilmember Suzie Price takes off her heels to get into the sand of the Dino Excavation Zone of the remodeled Recreation Park Playground on June 14, 2022. The Playground has a dinosaur theme, and this section allows children to dig for bones. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
A father pushes his daughter in on a swingset at the Recreation Park Playground in Long Beach on June 14, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
Two young boys climb up on a piece of playground equipment in the Recreation Park Playground during its grand reopening on June 14, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia cuts through the ribbon at the grand reopening of the Recreation Park Playground on June 14, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)
Accessibility was a priority for the park, including a sign language board with 15 different American Sign Language phrases for children to communicate with those who are not hearing.
Additionally, the city is looking for ways they might be able to further improve Long Beach’s parks. Displayed near the sign language board is a QR code where residents can share what they’d like to see in future parks.
Recreation Park is located at 4900 E. 7th St.
