By Chris Fuchs
Mangled bars of orange- and maroon-painted metal are stacked in a pile next to a wrought-iron fence. Mounds of sand and broken cinder blocks dot the former playground like little ant colonies. Farther into the playground sits an idle fleet of payloaders that look like toy trucks.
Such is the state of the sprawling playground abutting PS 214 on 140th Street in Flushing.