Golden: Twenty Three Local School Yards To Open

Brooklyn- State Senator Martin J. Golden (R-C, Brooklyn) today is announcing that as part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s PlaNYC, over twenty three local Brooklyn public schools are part of the five borough plan to identify, improve and open school yards, a plan that will provide new
recreational opportunities within the community for thousands of Brooklyn students along with their families and friends.

The schools include:

P.S. 207, P.S. 215, P.S. 238, P.S. 95, P.S. 163, P.S. 112, P.S. 247, I.S. 227, P.S. 101, I.S. 228,
P.S. 97, I.S. 187, P.S. 104, P.S. 185, P.S.170, P.S. 207, P.S. 222, P.S. 229, P.S. 186, P.S. 204,
P.S. 176 and P.S. 102.

These twenty three schools are part of $111 million allocated to begin and complete construction by the end of 2010. The New York City Parks Department will develop plans for each site in cooperation with the Department of Education, obtaining extensive community input in the design phase. Ultimately, this work will open school yards that were previously closed during after-school hours and on weekends.

Senator Marty Golden stated, “Mayor Michael Bloomberg has led New York City as a true educational visionary, wanting to provide the very best of opportunities for our students both in the classrooms and now in our school yards. Why should our school yards be locked after school and on
weekends? Why can’t our students play baseball, soccer, tennis or other sports in their school yard? That’s the New York City we envision living in and raising our families in.”

Golden continued, “PlaNYC is going to bring great changes to our neighborhoods. We will see record progress that has not been witnessed in a long time. Together, we will make New York City the very best it can be, a strong place to live, to work and to raise a family. Opening our school
yards and building playgrounds is an essential component to making the New York we dream of a reality

“This marks the start of realizing a central goal of the PlaNYC agenda - making sure all New Yorkers live within a 10-minute walk of a park or playground," said Mayor Bloomberg. "To make this goal a reality, we're renovating and opening 290 school playgrounds, constructing 8 new regional
parks, completing bike lanes, lighting ball fields, turfing asphalt fields, expanding the greenway network, and opening up the waterfront to the public in every corner of the City."

Recently, Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined Senator Golden, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, and other officials, in announcing another part of PlaNYC, a $40 million rehabilitation and renovation of
Brooklyn’s Drier-Offerman Park.

As a member of the New York City Council, Marty Golden ranked first out of 51 members in allocation of funding towards the renovation of parks and playgrounds in his district.

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