NYC Community Schoolyards Are Built for Detention

For the past two decades, TPL has led an ambitious program to renovate more than 220 asphalt schoolyards in New York City. Each schoolyard receives dozens of new trees, fresh play equipment, an outdoor classroom, garden beds, gazebos and, very often, a turf field engineered to capture stormwater.  

That’s important because New York has what’s known as a combined sewer system, with both rainwater and wastewater from buildings flowing together to wastewater treatment plants. When it rains, even a moderate amount, many treatment plants become overwhelmed. The combination of stormwater and sewage is then diverted untreated to pipes that discharge it directly into rivers and bays. It’s something that happens more than 50 times a year, fouling local waters with harmful levels of bacteria and sidelining the burgeoning community of kayakers.  

As required by the federal Clean Water Act, New York City has spent years and billions of dollars to address the problem through a combination of gray and green infrastructure. Gray infrastructure includes pipes, tunnels and holding tanks. Green infrastructure, which is far less expensive, involves planting thirsty vegetation and trees in pocket parks and on traffic medians and installing rain gardens, green roofs, bioswales (vegetated trenches), and porous pavement.   

That’s where TPL’s Community Schoolyards program comes in. The transformed schoolyards help prevent flooding and sewage discharges, while giving schoolchildren a vibrant place to play during recess, one that counters urban heat with cooling shade. Per an agreement with school administrations, schoolyards are opened to the public after school and on weekends, so that young families and older residents alike have a neighborhood green space in which to blow off steam and socialize. 

According to UCLA’s Luskin Center for Innovation, surface temperatures of asphalt playgrounds in full sun are hot enough to cause first-degree and second-degree burns. On a 93-degree day, for example, rubber surfacing can heat to 162 degrees Fahrenheit, asphalt to 145 degrees, and climbing structures to 115. But shade can reduce heat by 25 to 35 percent throughout the day. That’s especially important for young children and the elderly, who are more vulnerable to heat stress.  

“People can leave their home on hot days, turn off their air conditioners and go outside and play in a place that is reasonably cool,” points out Tamar Renaud, the New York State director of TPL. “And the gazebos mean that parents can sit outside and it’s comfortable.” 

For the city, sponge-like schoolyards are a critical component of its green infrastructure campaign. In fact, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has funded more than 70 of TPL’s 220 schoolyards since 2012. Those renovations feature trees and other vegetation, but also engineered systems below ground that infiltrate stormwater slowly.  The 70 Schoolyard projects with DEP funding absorb anywhere from 200,000 to 1.7 million gallons a year, depending on size. Taken together, they capture 67 million gallons (enough to fill more than 100 Olympic-size swimming pools) annually. 

Last summer, the city and TPL celebrated the opening of a new Community Schoolyard at the Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School in Harlem. The renovated schoolyard is projected to absorb 750,000 gallons of stormwater per year. “Climate change continues to bring more intense rainstorms that can sometimes overwhelm our streets and sewers,” said Rohit T. Aggarwala, the DEP commissioner and the city’s chief climate officer. “So green infrastructure playgrounds like this one in Harlem play a crucial role in protecting the city from flooding and improving our local waterways.” 

Lisa W. Foderaro is a senior writer and researcher for Trust for Public Land. Previously, she was a reporter for The New York Times, where she covered parks and the environment.