Park Slope
Snip, snip, and shoot
Budding student reporters and activists need a place to contemplate and recreate and, thanks to Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio, they now have one at the Secondary School for Journalism at John Jay High School in Park Slope. High schoolers there helped transform an old parking space into a swanky cool new courtyard, where they can ponder, perambulate, plop, and shoot hoops between classes. The students started advocating to fix up the space with a letter-writing campaign five years ago. Now, the area has been transformed into a basketball court, with new blacktop, and greenery on the sidelines.
Get this — the entire redo, funded by the former councilman during his time in the city’s legislative body, only cost a cool $300,000. De Blasio told Standing O, “Students will reap the benefits of this yard for years to come and now finally have a place to relax between classes.”
And the principal had rave reviews.
“For years, this space was not a yard,” said Abbie Reif. “But through the students’ activism and Bill’s work over the years, we secured the funding needed to build the yard. Now the students get to see how their determination paid off.”
Standing O, along with all those pondering, perambulating, plopping, and hoop-shooting students thank the Public Advocate for his long-range vision and pretty generous gift.
Secondary School for Journalism at John Jay High School [237 Seventh Ave. between Fourth and Fifth avenues in Park Slope, (718) 832–4201].
