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Read the press release here.

Bronx Schools Call for Renovations to Desolate Playground

 School officials hope to see basketball courts and better cleanups at their recess area in Concourse.
Desolate Playground
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CONCOURSE — The students at Success Academy Bronx 2 Middle School might have a playground by name, but it looks more like a parking lot.

Not only is the play space, which consists of a large blacktop, strewn with trash and broken glass, but it's also bereft of any playground equipment or basketball hoops — making it difficult to do anything during recess, students said.

“All the kids in this school, no matter what age, they work so hard,” said 11-year-old fifth grader Mekhi Benton, “and if they knew that at recess they’d go out to a basketball court, it might motivate them to work harder.”

Fifth-grader Bryan Henriquez, 11, agreed, adding that the decrepit blacktop can make students envious of places with better facilities.

“Sometimes we become jealous because other people, they have basketball courts,” he said. “Other parks in Manhattan, they don’t have as much litter.”

Success Academy shares the building and schoolyard at 270 East 167th St. with Jordan L. Mott Middle School and the Bronx Writing Academy, and officials at each institution have expressed concerns about the lack of activities that the lot offers for their students.

Bronx Writing Academy Principal Kamar Samuels described the lack of structured play as a safety hazard to students using the yard.

“If we don’t have that in, our kids are just kind of running around and not doing anything structured, and that puts more of a burden on us in terms of maintaining safety,” Samuels said.

The yard is part of Mott Playground but has been designated for school use during the day, school officials said. They would like to see the Parks Department address the lot’s issues by locking it at night, cleaning it more diligently and installing basketball hoops.

Although there is a section of the playground with basketball courts adjacent to the blacktop, Success Academy Principal Laura Drechsel said this was difficult for the students to access, as it is open to the public and often crowded.

“We have gotten to use it a few times in the past," she said, "but it’s a challenge."

The school's portion of the park used to have basketball equipment, but this was illegally installed and had to be removed for safety reasons, so it did not fall on anyone, according to the Parks Department.

The department has no immediate plans to install basketball hoops in the yard, but Chief of Operations for Bronx Parks Larry Scoones said he has reached out to school officials and looks forward to working with them to improve the space.

The Department of Education is working with Parks and the schools as well to make sure that students have a clean, safe playground, according to an agency spokesman.

Parks referred to its inspection reports when asked about issues with garbage in the playground, which show that its overall condition and cleanliness have both been rated acceptable since October 2011.

Henriquez promised that, if his school did get to see renovations come to the playground, he and his classmates would make sure to take care of it.

“We would treat the new playground like an iPhone,” he said, “because you don’t want your iPhone to break, so you’ve got to maintain it.”