To Fight Obesity, Open Schoolyards, Promoters of Council Resolution Say

By SARAH GARLAND, Staff Reporter of the Sun | October 3, 2006

The benefits of unlocking school playgrounds during off hours would outweigh any extra costs, supporters of a resolution being debated in City Council today claim.

Most of the city's schoolyards — which together cover a space bigger than Central Park — are kept closed during evening hours and on weekends. A council resolution calls on the city to open all playgrounds during off hours, though it doesn't outline who would be responsible for the extra maintenance and security duty or how much it would cost.

"Given the fight to curtail obesity … I think all of that is worth it," the sponsor of the resolution, Council Member Gale Brewer, said. "I don't know the exact cost, but it's not billions or millions. I think it's worth whatever funding."

Ms. Brewer said the proposal would complement the Bloomberg administration's push to improve the health of city residents by promoting exercise for children. In a report released in July in support of her proposal, Ms. Brewer cited a city health department study showing that the obesity rate among preschoolers in city Head Start programs is more than double the national average.

The executive director of New Yorkers for Parks, Christian DiPalermo, said the proposal could cost millions of dollars, but is worth it.

"It would be a big benefit for our children. It's definitely in the millions, but it's a worthy cause," Mr. DiPalermo said. "We can find the dollars."

Of 1,020 schoolyards, 19% currently stay open during evening and weekend hours, according to Ms. Brewer's report. The city Parks Department and the Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit group, oversee those schoolyards in off hours, and Ms. Brewer suggested those agencies could help keep the others open.

A Parks Department spokesman referred a request for comment to the Department of Education, which would not comment before its planned testimony on the resolution at the council hearing today. In the past, education department representatives have said it is up to individual school principals to decide if their schoolyards can stay open during off hours.