Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Tuesday the opening of a new student-designed community playground on East New York's P.S. 213 New Lots School campus.
The new playground, located along Hegeman Avenue, features an athletic turf field, basketball courts, a kickball field, play equipment, game tables, an amphitheater, a garden area with boulder seating, shade trees and benches.
It is the second of eight playgrounds the state plans to transform under the governor's Vital Brooklyn initiative, along with 22 community gardens and four recreation centers in Central Brooklyn. Cuomo launched the $1.4 billion initiative to address chronic disparities such as lack of access to health services, recreational spaces, systemic violence and poverty in high-need Brooklyn communities.
"Through the Vital Brooklyn initiative, we are expanding access to green space and outdoor recreation, putting the health and wellbeing of Brooklynites first," Governor Cuomo said. "By using student input to build this playground, we are helping to ensure it will meet the needs of the community it serves for generations to come."
The playground will serve the more than 330 pre-K through 5th grade New Lots School students who helped design the play area. Added green infrastructure design elements such as a special turf and new trees aim to reduce stormwater runoff and street flooding, as well as improve overall air quality.
"I am heartened to see a new student-designed playground at the New Lots School," said State Senator Roxanne Persaud said. "One of the many ways Vital Brooklyn is improving quality of life for residents is with new play spaces for young people, that take into account our responsibility for our impact on the environment."
The first of the eight schoolyards-turned-playgrounds opened last month in East Flatbush; six more will be complete by 2020.
- PS 145: 100 Noll St. - Opening Summer 2019
- PS 156: IS 392: 104 Sutter Avenue - Opening Summer 2019
- MS 354: KIPP Academy: 1224 Park Place - Opening Summer 2019
- PS/MS 377: Alejandrina B De Gautier - 200 Woodbine St. - Opening Summer 2020
- PS 152/315 Midwood HS: 725 E 23rd St. - Opening Summer 2020
- PS 115 Daniel Mucatel School: 1500 East 92nd St. - Opening Summer 2020
The state is allocating $10.6 million for the program.
