This playground has been the talk of the town because of the two large fish sculptures at the center of it. They are big and beautiful, but not especially fun. 

Of course on the first warm spring weekend, the new playground was going to be crowded. We didn't expect it to be anything less, but that wasn't really the biggest problem. It's not much worse than the Domino Park Playground in terms of crowds, although its a relatively small playground for the volume of people.

There was absolutely no shade and that meant parents were crowding around whatever sliver of shade they could find left by the giant fish. People were sitting on the ground crouching under the fins and the tale to grab the little bit of shade they could find. It wasn't even that hot on Sunday afternoon, which means this playground will probably be totally unusable at midday come July.

The fish are the main visual attraction. They've been posted on Instagram and TikTok, and its rare that playgrounds go viral. Unfortunately, they just weren't that fun. Our toddler climbed up into the belly of the brown fish and then turned around because he didn't like being inside. He poked around the blue one before declaring that he wanted to go to the next playground, and left. 

That's the other problem. The playground is pretty easy for a three-year-old to leave on his own. 

Overall this was a pretty to look at but boring to play at playground. There just wasn't very much to keep our kid's interest, not enough climbing, not enough details.

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The park features two big models of sturgeon that children can climb in and play on. The new playground was funded by $3.5m from Hudson River Park, and another $1.3m matched by Friends of Board Chair Michael E Novogratz.