Community News
Room to Play
Astoria school to get a brand new student-designed
BY BILL PARRY
City Councilman Costa Constantinides went
back to his old school to help break ground
on a new, student-designed playground
at PS 84Q, located at 22-45 41st St.,
in Astoria.
The playground will be built through The Trust for
Public Land’s New York City Playgrounds Program
and will include a running track, turf field, two play
equipment areas, basketball hoops, game tables,
benches and green infrastructure elements including
permeable pavers and specifically chosen plantings
and trees.
“As a PS 84 alumni and a neighbor who grew
up just across the street from this school, I have
many fond memories of this outdoor space, from
throwing a football to chasing baseball into the street,
this schoolyard was a place of happiness and I’m
incredibly proud to have helped make the investment
to transform this concrete lot into a vibrant green
open space that will better serve PS 84 and the
larger northern Astoria community,” Constantinides
said. “The new schoolyard will add many new play
elements like an amphitheater, a turf field, and even an
outdoor classroom. Even better, green infrastructure
elements are incorporated into the design which will
playground
make this play space more sustainable. I’m excited
to see this project get started and look forward to
its completion.”
Since 1996, working with the city, The Trust for
Public Land has designed and/or built more than 200
school and community playgrounds across the five
boroughs, benefiting more than 4 million New Yorkers
who live within a 10-minute walk of one of these sites.
The $1.5 million PS 84 playground will bring nearly
18,000 residents within a ten-minute walk of a park
when it opens in the fall of 2020.
“This new playground will transform a former barren
asphalt lot into a vibrant green space,” New York State
Director for The Trust for Public Land Carter Strickland
said. “Parks have the power to bring everyone together
in a publicly accessible space where they can have
fun on the play equipment or toss a ball run around
the track, hang out with old friends and meet new
neighbors. Furthermore, parks’ trees, gardens, and
other green infrastructure makes our communities
stronger and more climate-resilient.”
The green infrastructure design elements, made
possible in part through a partnership with the city’s
Department of Environmental Protection, is a hallmark
of The Trust for Public Land’s playground work. The
features help to improve the city’s resistance to major
storms by reducing stormwater runoff that can flood
26 JANUARY 2020 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
Courtesy of The Trust for Public Land
streets and overwhelm sewer systems, allowing
untreated water to end up in rivers and bays.
“DEP is proud to partner with The Trust for Public
Land and the entire PS 84Q community as they design
their new, environmentally-friendly school playground,”
DEP Commissioner Vincent Sapienza said. “The green
infrastructure elements to be built into this new play space
will absorb more than 530,000 gallons of stormwater
annually and improve the health of the nearby East River.”
The playground design was led by students, helping
them gain valuable knowledge and life skills like
budgeting, negotiations, and planning. In addition to
being a fun, recreational space, the playground will
function as an outdoor classroom for students to
explore nature, learn about environmental science
and take part in physical education and after-school
activities.
“The student-designed and environmentally-friendly
playground will be a first-class, state-of-the-art
recreational resource for Astoria,” Katz said. “The
construction of this playground represents a significant
investment in Astoria and will better enable both
schoolchildren and local residents to enjoy the outdoors
and be physically active. It was a privilege to work
with the de Blasio administration, Councilmember
Constantinides and The Trust for Public Land to make
today’s groundbreaking possible.”
City Councilman
Costa Constantinides
and other officials for
the groundbreaking
on a new playground
at PS 84Q
in Astoria.
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