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Mittens On, But No Place to Play

Ohanian Comment: This seems like a reporter in search of a non-story. One might ask why kids can't play in the auditorium. In Vermont, schools turn two classrooms into play areas when kids can't go outside.

Like most children his age, Karl Greenfield looks forward to recess, when he can go outdoors and play with his classmates. But after every snowstorm, instead of throwing snowballs or making angels, he sits indoors in an auditorium.

"You don't get to do anything," complained Karl, a bouncy second-grader at Public School 87, near 78th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.

That is because P.S. 87 has no playground of its own. Instead, it uses a park maintained by the city's Parks Department. And unlike the Department of Education, which clears its playgrounds after every snowstorm, the Parks Department only shovels a path for pedestrians.

On Thursday, after five inches of snow fell on the city, Karl spent yet another recess indoors, leaving him and his mother angry.

"It's a disgrace," said Ina Greenfield, a real estate broker, as she watched park employees sprinkle salt on the sidewalk at the end of the school day. "He won't be focused tonight. He won't be able to sit down and read. Already, he's very unhappy with me."

Councilwoman Gale A. Brewer, who represents the Upper West Side, said a similar situation had arisen at P.S. 191, on Amsterdam Avenue and 61st Street. In fact, 268 school playgrounds are run by the Parks Department and few are plowed, except when school custodians take it upon themselves to do so.

"The Parks Department does not generally clear playgrounds; we clear the perimeters," said William Castro, the Manhattan commissioner for the department. "After the first day, if we are able to, we clear pathways in the major parks."

He added, "I'm not sure it's cost-effective to go in and clear playgrounds and spent a lot of money and resources when it's typically too cold for kids to play outdoors and when the snow typically melts in a day or two."

Karl's mother would disagree. "My son would be delighted to go outside and throw snowballs," she said. Because the 900 students are kept indoors, she added, "the kids are sicker, they learn less, they are impatient and unhappy and frustrated."

"People hire dog walkers when they are indoors all day," she said. "Children have the same muscular needs, or else they can't concentrate on learning."



— Denny Lee
New York Times
2004-01-18
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?tntget=2004/01/18/nyregion/thecity/18snow.html&tntemail0

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