Known for its expansive playgrounds and miles of hiking trails and parks, Staten Island is the borough of Parks. Staten Island is a dream come true for the oft squeezed New Yorker, not so for the children of Willowbrook and Manor Heights.

In 2007, then Mayor Michael Bloomberg created the PlaNYC initiative to ensure every child lives within a 10-minute walk of a playground. This ambitious plan called for revamping the park system and creating partnerships with public schools around the city, turning their unused space into neighborhood playgrounds.

PS 54 in Willowbrook is one such example. Although relatively small considering the thousands of children in the neighborhood, the school’s playground offered community children a chance to unwind, exercise and play during the summer, after school and over the weekends. Hopscotch, basketball and cycling are just some of the activities that children enjoyed daily.

All this changed last week, when without warning the community, politicians and public school officials decided to remove a portion of the already small amount of playground space allocated to the community and turn it into a permanent gymnasium for school use. Although this may be beneficial to the students at PS 54, it is very disappointing for community children. Councilman Steven Matteo personally allocated $175,000 in discretionary funding to ensure a successful project. To add insult to injury, most of the already cramped playground will be closed until construction ends, suddenly leaving community children in the lurch.

A trip to the former playground area is now met with frustration and anger. “I used to come here all the time” says Willowbrook mother Stacy Weiss, adding that her daughter Cindy used to look forward to playing in the park after school and now she cannot. Rebecca Strohli, a local mother of three agrees. “The playground was a lifeline every summer. I don’t have the car during the day because my husband goes to work. The only outlet my son has is this playground and with the construction, it’s gone.”

The sentiment is shared by many in the community. They feel that more should be done to include the community which the playground serves before making unrepresentative decisions that affect it. “Most of the children attending PS 54 don’t live in the immediate community. They are bussed in from other neighborhoods” says Rebecca. This is confirmed with available DOE data.

When asked for comment, the councilman wrote on his official Facebook page that “the project will construct a needed standalone gym at the school for its students” and confirmed the permanent closure of the playground section. The councilman also pledged to request that the remainder of the playground be open on weekends for use when construction it’s not actively taking place. This would still preclude use during the long summer months.

According to a recent news article, a spokesman for the School Construction Authority (SCA) claimed that even during construction, “there will still be plenty of playground space that the community will be able to use”. Parents are quick to dispute this notion. A trip to the playground area confirmed their concerns. About twenty percent of the park will be permanently removed and a majority of the play area is currently off limits to children for at least a year.

Community members are asking that construction be halted until an alternative playground area can be identified. According to local residents, there are number of other options, stating that the Susan E. Wagner High School on Brielle avenue in Manor Heights and Westwood Park on Wooley avenue in Willowbrook may be good alternatives for the existing playground.

“Just shutting us down is very unfair” says Rebecca, “my children now won’t have a local playground this summer. Why weren’t our needs considered?” Political observers note that this type of legislative secrecy runs afoul to our democracy’s most cherished value: transparency. Abe Mysker, a noted community activist agrees. “This type of wheeling and dealing smells of nepotism to satisfy a specific community while ignoring others. Sort of like Robin Hood, only, stealing from the poor and giving it to the rich.”

(By Yannick Kramer / YWN World Headquarters – NYC)