Travers Park

Travers Park is a convert|2|acre|m2|sing=on community park and playground in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York. It is located between 77th and 78th Streets, on the north side of 34th Avenue.coord|40.75373|-73.88929|display=title Every Sunday from May through November it is host to a farmer's market, that is part of the Greenmarket program operated by the New York City Council on the Environment.

Since 2004, it has been home to "Summer Sundays in the Park," a performance series that features a wide range of music, both stylistic and ethnic. The series includes a musical produced by The Theater for the New City, and a show by the Swedish Cottage Marionettes, based in Central Park. The series is sponsored by the Jackson Heights Beautification Group, its committee, Friends of Travers Park, and beginning in 2008, the Queens Community House.

The park underwent a major renovation in the mid-1990s and a series of green planting areas were created through the northern half of the park that continue to flourish today. Many of the plantings and fencing protecting them are the work of Friends of Travers Park, which continues to maintain the plantings and providing community input to the New York City Parks Department.

Travers Park is a heavily used park. It is located in City Council District 25, which ranks 50th out of 51 Council Districts in the city in terms of park space, according to the non-profit group New Yorkers for Parks. The district that ranks last is District 4 in Manhattan, New Yorkers for Parks reports. That district, however, runs up Manhattan's East Side and for a considerable stretch borders Fifth Avenue, just across the street from Central Park. On a sunny spring or summer day it's not unusual to see multiple activities occurring on the asphalt athletic area, such as biycle riding, cricket, baseball, softball, soccer, tennis, basketball. There is also a handball and a full-court basketball court. It is a great park, not only for the amiable people but because everyone seems to be united as a family. There is a place for toddlers, a section for a few waterworks and then a section for all the games. Due to the hardness of the surface people get injured, for this reason it is not an ideal sports venue, but as with many things in New York City, its parkgoers make due.

A movement to expand the park has grown during 2007 and 2008.

Jackie Robinson, the first black player in Major League Baseball, who lived in neighboring East Elmhurst, was frequently seen practicing in this park.Among great soccer players, on March 3,2008 Zinedine Zidane and Steven Gerrard visited the park as a Adidas sponsored movement to advance soccer in the US, filming a section from the commercial string 'Dream Big'.