A city-owned lot in Spring Garden and part of Fowler Park in Perry South became new playgrounds last week in separate, one-day building frenzies by hundreds of volunteers.

Both North Side playgrounds were projects of the national nonprofit KaBOOM!, in partnership with local organizations. KaBOOM grants $10,000 for each playground toward a match by a local partner, who is responsible for bringing volunteers.

Residents of these neighborhoods, plagued by vacancies, crime, blight and vandalism, say children need safe places to play but that the effort and expense may have been for short-lived gain.

"It's nice they're doing this," said Don Boggs, while watching the swarm of activity during the build on Spring Garden Avenue Tuesday. He has lived in Spring Garden all of his 46 years. "But I'd be amazed if it lasts more than six months."

Older youth "have torn up all the playgrounds around here," he said, citing one on Tripoli Street that no longer exists and one farther up the avenue that has had to be repaired.

"That's my worry," said Sue Sharpe, a lifelong resident of Spring Garden, who was a volunteer on the playground build. She said her 7-year-old daughter would use it. "I just hope the bigger ones don't destroy it."

Pittsburgh police Cmdr. Catherine McNeilly, of the North Side station, said cameras in playgrounds may be the answer and that she is working toward that end. The Central North Side "tot lot" on Alpine Street generates the most complaint calls among North Side playgrounds, she said. The complaints are about the activities of young men congregating there.

"We dispatch a car and disperse them, and they always return," she said. "I cannot figure what the attraction [of a playground] is."

One source of the problem are friends of renters whom the landlords don't know and don't monitor, she said, adding that the men are transient, but the problem is tenacious.

"It is so frustrating. I would love to have cameras transmit" to police cars and the zone station. "I think that's where we're heading. Hopefully by next summer."

In light of recent shootings on the North Side, she said concern about loitering on playgrounds is relevant. "They're connected."

Mark Fatla, executive director of the Northside Leadership Conference, a partner in the Spring Garden playground, said he would prefer "to focus on the best in people.

"Look, everything's at risk," he said. "The majority of times, these things work out just great."

Spring Garden's playground fits between two buildings on a 40-by-100-foot lot where two houses once stood. One building beside it is slated for demolition.

In Fowler Park, an old playground with faulty equipment and years of disuse is being relocated to a 50-by-60-foot area that is more visible .

Janet Gunther, president of the Perry Hilltop Citizens Council, was circumspect about the chances of that playground's future, although being more visible may make it safer, she said. "It's a tough call, but I don't want to be critical of any effort to give our youth a place to play."

Fowler Park is city property across from the Pittsburgh Project, which took over operation of the swimming pool two years ago and will oversee maintenance of the new playground, said Derrick Weston, the mission advancement manager for the Project, a social service agency that works with neighborhood youth. The Project was a partner in yesterday's playground build with the Junior League of Pittsburgh.

By mid-afternoon yesterday, the new 3,000-square-foot play space featured a yellow steel frame supporting green plastic slides -- one traditional, one spiral; a climbing wall with multi-colored foot- and hand-holds about the size and texture of pumice stones; a green plastic tunnel, a purple steel ladder and purple plastic monkey bars.

Nearby was a yellow steel frame for a swing set with two black bucket seats for younger children and two black sling seats for older youngsters. A foot of oak mulch provides padding for climbers and swingers who lose their grip. The volunteers also built five wooden picnic tables and two around-a-tree benches.

Elizabeth Rosemeyer, acting executive director and development manager of the Pittsburgh Project, said the playground was designed by a group of 5- to 12-year-olds that will be able to start using it on Tuesday after the cement bases cure.

Will Thompkins, director of community outreach for the Pittsburgh Project, said it will be a popular place. "There are 1,500 children within a five-block radius of this site," he said.

Asked if the new playground also might attract vandals, Mr. Weston said that possibility "came up in earlier discussions. We kind of knew it was one of the risks coming in, but the benefits outweigh the risk. This is something the neighborhood has a need for and hopefully, people will take some pride in it.

"The major difference is this playground will be part of our programming," he said. "We already have relationships with students," through after-school activities and summer day camps, he said. "The kids you'd otherwise worry about [vandalizing] have gone through our program and respect it."

"If we have to clean graffiti, sand tables and repaint things," said Mr. Weston, "that's a small price to pay for the children in the neighborhood to have a place to play."