The soccer field at the north end of Icahn Stadium on Randall's Island. (Flickr/dkjb)By Yepoka Yeebo
DNAinfo Reporter/ Producer
MANHATTAN — A group of private schools who saw their $52 million bid for use of most of the playing fields on Randall's Island rejected now control the fields by default.
Twenty private schools offered to contribute $52.6 million towards construction and refurbishment plans for Randall's Island, in exchange for a guarantee that they could have exclusive use of most of the fields on school days, according to an investigation by the New York Times.
A coalition of park advocates, community groups and parents from public schools successfully sued the city on the grounds that it had no right to hand public land to private schools.
However, the lawsuit inadvertently opened the door for the private schools to use the fields for free.
“What the litigation achieved is letting the private schools off the hook,” Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe told the Times. “The private schools were subsidizing a great public benefit without a requirement to do so.”
Despite legal wrangling, the city built the fields anyway, and private schools use them 56 percent of the time, while public schools use them 13 percent of the time, according to figures the Times got from the Department of Parks and Recreation.
Public schools have access to the fields, but have to take public transport — usually a combination of the subway and several bus transfers — to the island, while private schools can bus their students to the isolated fields.
“It’s changed our lives,” GloriAnne DiToro, the varsity lacrosse coach at Nightingale-Bamford told the Times, explaining that fewer student athletes left Nightingale-Bamford for boarding school. “I can’t say the fields are making them stay, but it’s helping.”
tobyb | June 15, 2010