Minneapolis abruptly removed a popular downtown playground. Residents want it back.

A popular playground used to be the highlight of the Loring Greenway, a carefully tended garden trail connecting downtown Minneapolis’ Nicollet Mall to the Loring Park neighborhood.

But an inspection by the city last fall found structural problems. Seemingly overnight, all play structures were torn out of the ground, leaving shocked neighbors looking down at a pit of sand and wondering if any equipment could have been salvaged.

“Unfortunately, there was little notice when it disappeared,” said John Van Heel, president of the nonprofit Loring Greenway Association. “And also unfortunately, there was no plan ahead of time to replace the playground when it needed to be replaced.”

Now at the onset of spring, the great Loring Greenway sandpit looks no better than last fall. Neighbors eager for a plan packed a meeting at the Loring Community Arts Center on Tuesday night to hear short- and long-term solutions offered by staff. Many were grandparents, who populate the nearby condos, and parents with tots enrolled in the area day cares.

City project manager David Bauer suggested just letting kids enjoy the site as a sand pit this summer. The city might bring in a storage cabinet of beach toys and a sprinkler to get the sand wet and buildable if residents were amenable.

He discouraged people from dragging in any “backyard” remedies, like discount swing sets some grandparents have been eyeing online, because the city requires professional installation of play equipment for liability reasons.

Another option is to get the Park Board to set up a “pop-up park.” This is an anti-violence summer program that involves park staff pulling up in neighborhoods with a van and setting up a tent with music, video games and crafts.

Consultant Tim Solomonson of Midwest Playscapes presented three concept plans for a permanent replacement playground.

They ranged from $200,000 to $400,000, with the main cost difference boiling down to surfacing material. Wood mulch covering the whole site would be most economical but least accessible, Solomonson said. A partial or full rubber safety surface would be 20 times more expensive by the square foot.

The concepts were illustrated with placeholder play features that are interchangeable depending on residents' desires and space constraints. The Loring Greenway Association plans to post the plans and a survey on its website.

Depending on how quickly the neighborhood comes to a consensus, a design could be finalized sometime this year, with construction next year.

Council Member Katie Cashman said replacing the playground was important enough to her that if Mayor Jacob Frey didn’t include funding for it in his proposed 2026 budget, which comes out in August, she would push for it as one of her council budget amendments, due in November.

The city will also apply for a $100,000 Play Area grant from Hennepin County, Cashman said. But information about possible funding won’t be available until late summer.

The fastest way to raise money is to assess the approximately 1,350 nearby property owners. According to a spontaneous show of hands and murmurings across the meeting Tuesday night, a number of residents were eager to get on with it.

“It’s heartbreaking to all the families that we’re going to have at least a year when we’ll have to find other places for our kids to play,” said Andrea Nieves, who has a 3-year-old. “There’s so many kids who benefit from this, kids in the apartments, grandchildren visiting from out of town, and so the sooner we can get this moving, our kids would be so grateful.”

Bauer has also set up a fund at the city to accept private donations.

The Loring Greenway playground was originally built in the 1970s, when it became a hub of activity, spurring subsequent developments around the Greenway, according to Van Heel. Playgrounds have a life expectancy of 20 years; the Loring Park neighborhood association funded its last replacement in 2002.

The city’s September inspection found outdated designs now considered head entrapments, too-tall fall heights, rotting wooden support beams and crumbling stone pavers.

Nearby Loring Park also has a playground, but it stands farther from downtown residents and typically serves older children.