For these veterans of the urban playground, the circus sometimes seems like a slice of heaven.

Monkey bars and seesaws, for example, are things of the past in urban playgrounds.

In few places is there greater need for rehabilitation of urban playgrounds than in Newark.

With a flourish, the camera careens down into an urban playground where a group of young men lean against a chain-link fence.

Even in the most urban setting like Manhattan, there are more than 2,700 acres of green urban playground," Mr. Miller said.

An urban playground, on the Valley's western edge, is the 46-sq-mile White Tank Mountain Regional Park.

But nature has not been kind to the crescent-shaped urban playground.

We pedal along the 5.5-mile-long seawall around Stanley Park, one of the world's great urban playgrounds.

Despite the precedent of Bob Cousy's legerdemain, Maravich's crowd-pleasing style was identified with that of the urban playground and its black stars.

In many ways, it is a prototype of the urban playground of the future.