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Releases & Statements
Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum followed up on her report All Work and No Play , which uncovered the serious lack of physical education programs in New York City schools, by visiting the Robert Simon Complex School building on the Lower East Side . The facility, which is home to the PS 64, Tomkins Square Middle School , and the Earth School , an alternative elementary school, lacks sufficient recreational space because its playground is being used as a parking lot for the School Safety Division motor pool.
“This is the perfect example of the problem addressed in our report,” Gotbaum said. “Forty-three percent of the kids in our elementary schools are overweight or obese, yet the DOE and the NYPD prioritize parking over their health.”
The playground was turned into a parking lot in the 1980s when the School Safety Division moved into the building. At the time, the only school there was PS 64, which was operating at low enrollment. Since then, however, Tomkins Square Middle and the Earth School have moved in, and the enrollment at the three schools in the building has risen to 800. Moreover, the School Safety Division has moved its headquarters elsewhere. Yet the parking lot remains.
“The whole point of the Mayor’s education reforms was to cut through the old bureaucracy and make positive changes for our children,” Gotbaum said. “But the DOE and NYPD can’t seem to get rid of a twenty-year-old parking lot that’s worn out its welcome.”
The facility has a tiny playground acceptable for one or two elementary schools but not both at one time. Building renovations have rendered it nearly unusable. There is no outdoor recreation space appropriate for the lunch break or after school activities of the middle school students.
Several foundations have offered to pay for the creation of a new play area, and all three schools have written to the Police Department and Chancellor Klein to request the removal of the lot. In December 2003, Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm visited the site and pledged her support, but the DOE has been unable to come up with a time-frame in the months since.
“This is a no-brainer,” Gotbaum said. “It’s playground or parking lot. Why is it taking the DOE and NYPD so long to make up their mind?”
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