Green community schoolyard opens at Jamaica school
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TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | NOV. 12 - NOV. 18, 2021 9
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
The Trust for Public Land
(TPL), in partnership with
the NYC Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP)
and New York Road Runners
(NYRR), celebrated the opening
of a newly renovated community
schoolyard at P.S. 223Q
in Jamaica on Monday, Nov. 1.
The schoolyard will be open
to the community during nonschool
hours and will serve
over 10,000 residents whose
homes are within a 10-minute
walk of the space.
Queens Borough President
Donovan Richards said the
P.S. 223Q schoolyard is a “first
class, state-of-the-art” recreational
resource for southeast
Queens.
“This investment will better
enable both schoolchildren
and local residents to enjoy the
outdoors and be physically active,”
Richards said.
The Queens Borough President’s
Office allocated $1 million
in capital funding to the
project. Richards said they
were proud to work with DEP,
NYRR, Councilwoman Adrienne
Adams and The Trust for
Public Land.
Carter Strickland, vice
president of the Mid-Atlantic
region and New York state director
for The Trust for Public
Land, said that in addition to
serving the entire community,
the schoolyard has a new
outdoor classroom so that students
have the opportunity to
safely study while connecting
with classmates.
“Parks and playgrounds
are essential for the mental
and physical well-being of
New Yorkers, and this project
is a key part of our work to
increase park equity and resiliency
by increasing open space
in neighborhoods that lag behind
like Queens Community
District 12, which has less than
half the park space per person
than city standards,” Strickland
said.
The schoolyard was designed
using The Trust for Public
Land’s unique participatory
design process with teachers
and students, and will include
an artificial turf field, running
track, basketball practice
hoops, tennis courts, play equipment,
new tree plantings, game
tables and benches, a green-roof
gazebo, a musical play area, a
playhouse and an outdoor classroom
with turf pod.
Green infrastructure elements,
like permeable pavers,
will capture 1.8 million gallons
of stormwater each year,
helping to reduce neighborhood
flooding and improve the
health of nearby Jamaica Bay.
This area of southeast
Queens is low-lying, former
wetlands, and is plagued by frequent
flooding, including most
recently during the remnants
of Hurricane Ida, which caused
deaths in the area. Green infrastructure
that absorbs rain can
contribute to the solution, and
the community playground
includes stormwater control
elements made possible in part
through DEP’s contribution of
$775,000.
These features reduce
stormwater runoff that can
flood streets and overwhelm
sewer systems, allowing untreated
water to end up in rivers
and bays. Each playground
absorbs hundreds of thousands
of gallons of water annually
and includes new trees that
bring shade and better air
quality to their neighborhoods.
The schoolyard was funded
in part through DEP’s Green
Infrastructure program.
“For more than a decade
DEP has been investing in
‘green’ strategies to divert
stormwater from the sewer system
in order to reduce neighborhood
flooding and improve
the health of local waterways,”
DEP Commissioner Vince Sapienza
said. “Thanks to the
environmental stewards at
P.S. 223, their new green playground
will capture nearly 2
million gallons of stormwater
annually — which will in turn
help to improve the quality of
life in southeast Queens.”
For nearly 25 years, TPL
has guided thousands of students
and parents to make
the most of their schoolyards,
putting 217 community schoolyards
where they are needed
most. Under TPL’s NYC Park
Equity Plan, the organization
is planning to build 100 more
in neighborhoods that have
crowded parks; TPL’s data
shows that communities of color
have 33% less park space per
capita in NYC.
Read more on QNS.com.
The newly renovated community playground at P.S. 223Q in
Jamaica Photo courtesy of The Trust for Public Land
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