Didn’t the original Russian commies talk about getting the kiddies early?
The movement to remake school playgrounds as urban climate oases
Stepping into the schoolyard at the Adolph S. Ochs public school in Manhattan’s bustling Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, you’re greeted by a canopy of trees. Painted sea turtles and birds adorn the pavement. Summer school kids run along the track encircling the green turf field, tossing balls back and forth. Other kids shoot hoops or decompress in the shade. After walking down nearby Ninth Avenue in the blistering heat, one finds it noticeably cooler here.
This schoolyard wasn’t always like this. Eleven years ago, it resembled many other city playgrounds: an open, unshaded expanse of black asphalt.
Now, it’s among 420 schoolyards across 26 states that the nonprofit Trust for Public Land says it is helping to transform from barren blacktop into welcoming oases for schoolchildren and local residents.
In late July, TPL hosted a two-day summit in New York City, bringing together school district leaders, landscape architects and environmental advocates from across the country to learn more about reinvigorating schoolyards. Keynote speakers extolled the benefits of nature-based play and keeping schoolyards open to the public when school isn’t in session.
Now, I’m happy to say that this is a good idea, replacing asphalt with grass. Having trees.
But these designs aren’t driven just by aesthetics and opportunities for play. Climate change is exacerbating dangerous heat waves and increasing the frequency of downpours in some cities. Green-roofed gazebos and rain gardens to catch storm runoff can let schools help their neighborhoods mitigate difficult weather conditions.
These people.
At schoolyards such as the one at Adolph S. Ochs, asphalt playgrounds can worsen flooding and overwhelm the city’s drainage systems. Switching out blacktop for porous pavement allows rain to seep through rather than pool on the surface. A green gazebo roof, acting as a sponge, absorbs rainwater and reduces the flooding risk. On 90-degree days, unshaded asphalt surfaces can surpass 140 degrees, but shaded surfaces have been found to be at least 30 degrees cooler than those without protection from the sun.
Oh, hey, they just discovered the Urban Heat Island effect, which, while man-caused, is not global nor doom.
The real message about urban heat islands should be: get out of the city as soon as you can! Go live in small towns where there are things like grass and trees and maybe even creeks and streams. Live in a house where you don’t have ‘neighbors’ living on the floor above or below, live in a home where your front door doesn’t open into a hallway.