Mayor Mufi Hannemann today announced that Honolulu has been named one of 93 “Playful City USA” communities by KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit group dedicated to bringing play back into children’s lives.

“I’m very proud of Honolulu’s parks and public spaces, and of our island’s natural beauty, which we are committed to nurturing,” Hannemann said. “When the economy was better, we carefully set aside funding to build or replace play equipment around the island as part of an initiative to improve play spaces.”

Each of the 2009 Playful City USA communities demonstrated creative commitments to the cause of play in the areas of quantity and access, according to KaBoom! Quantity relates to the number of usable, open spaces; quality involves subjective factors that encourage repeated use and make playspaces engaging, exciting, interesting and fun; access entails the ability to get to a playspace, (such as roads or trails) and a lack of barriers to the playspace (such as traffic or locked gates).

KaBOOM! Noted that Honolulu is working to provide clean, safe and fun playspaces for all ages. “Honolulu took a stand and determined that the future of their community — their children — deserve a commitment to the cause of play,” the group said.

Hilo was also recognized as a Playful City USA community.

For more information, visit www.kaboom.org.