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Q&A
Q&A on schoolyard and playground data with NYC Independent Budget Office
1:20:45
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123 sec
Council Member Shekar Krishnan engages in a detailed discussion with Steph Crane from the NYC Independent Budget Office about the data presented on schoolyards and playgrounds. They discuss the number of schools that could potentially be added to the Schoolyards to Playground initiative and the impact on accessibility for New Yorkers.
- Clarified that 676 schools with playgrounds could be added to the program for about $50 million
- Discussed the impact on walkability for students and residents if these schoolyards were opened
- Explored the average distance students would need to travel to reach a park or playground
Shekar Krishnan
1:20:45
Thank you very much for your testimony.
1:20:47
This is actually very helpful data to see and to have it broken out in this way.
1:20:53
So if I understood that this right, the 676 are the remaining schools throughout the city that are not part of the Schoolyards to Playground initiative but with playgrounds that could be part of it.
1:21:07
So in other words, for another $50,000,000, all of New York City's playgrounds with play yards could be opened up to the public?
Steph Crane
1:21:14
Yes, the six seventy six buildings have outdoor yards available based on publicly available data and there were four thirty one buildings that don't have an available yard based on the same data.
1:21:29
Then additionally there's the
Margaret Nelson
1:21:30
two 60 Sorry, go ahead.
Shekar Krishnan
1:21:32
Was that,
Steph Crane
1:21:32
And additionally there's the two sixty eight that are currently in the playgrounds program.
Shekar Krishnan
1:21:36
Got it.
1:21:37
If you opened up the six seventy six buildings that have schoolyards and made them part of this program, How would that did you all calculate how that would affect the access that New Yorkers have within walking distance to a player?
1:21:52
And I think you both looked at you looked at the 431 without an outdoor yard, but the six seventy six, if you bring them in, how does that impact walkability with if you open them up, how does that impact walkability for students to or for anyone to play yards?
Steph Crane
1:22:11
So you're asking if all six seventy six buildings with a yard were made available, how would that affect walkability?
1:22:18
Yes.
1:22:18
Well, so on average, students would travel I mean, if they attend the school in their district, they would be able to then use the yard that's attached to that school as opposed to having to travel five blocks on average to a park that's not part of their school.
Shekar Krishnan
1:22:39
And it would also impact, of course, all the other residents who live around there too that would now have whose walkability to a park would increase with the playground being open.
1:22:47
Right?
Sophia Stelboum
1:22:48
Yes.