Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s plan to ensure that all New Yorkers live within a 10−minute walk of a recreational space bore its first fruits when Hizzoner helped snip the ribbon on a new, $650,000 playground at Public School 226.
Bloomberg joined students, teachers, parents and City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe to celebrate the opening of the playground at the Bensonhurst school, 6006 23rd Avenue,, which is among the most recent sites to be renovated though City Hall’s PlaNYC Schoolyards to Playgrounds program, which is investing $95 million in improvements to transform 266 schoolyards into play pens in underserved neighborhoods.
A full basketball court, a multi−purpose field and a running track now grace the playground at Public School 226, whose opening coincided with the opening of similar spaces at Public School 205, 6701 20th Avenue; and Intermediate School 227, 6500 16th Avenue.
Other additions include a seating area, play equipment, painted recreational surfaces and an outdoor stage for students to use for their monthly performances and as an outdoor classroom.