A group of students walk past the vacant lot that the Clinton School for Writers and Artists wants to convert into a play space. Photo: Bogdan Mohora

Reported on June 18, 2011

Four days a week at 11:30 a.m., roughly 300 middle school students descend on West 33rd Street for recess. The students from the Clinton School for Writers and Artists play among parked cars and pedestrians on the closed street, fenced in between police barricades and just a stone’s throw from the Lincoln Tunnel entrance.

“It’s impractical,” said Miles Chapin, 56, co-president of the Clinton School Parents’ Association and father of a seventh-grader.

Chapin said that some of the challenges are managing a lunch hour that is divided into three shifts and dealing with business owners, upset that access to their buildings is disrupted while the street is closed. When the street remains open on Fridays, the auditorium that doubles as a lunchroom becomes overcrowded with energetic kids.

Providing outdoor recess space for students is a struggle public schools face.  In the current climate of relocation, closures and consolidation of public schools, many are making due in less than ideal facilities.  In a densely populated city faced with limited open space, schools, like the Clinton School, sometimes close a city street to make do. 

“There are many other schools that have play streets, P.S. 11, our old location, being one of them,” said Susan Kramer, board member of the parents’ association.

As soon as this school year, students at the Clinton School may have a new place to play though.  If parents and administrators have their way, a vacant lot adjacent to the school will be converted into a play area. They’ll be able to get their kids off the street and provide a safe place for recess while keeping the street open for businesses.

On Wednesday, Community Board 4’s transportation committee unanimously passed a resolution to support transforming the vacant lot into a recreational area for students of the Clinton School.

“I felt so gratified leaving the meeting that there was no opposition in the room,” said Miles Chapin.

The Clinton School hopes to use the lot by fall 2011 and the next step will be to get approval from the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.   The parents’ association argued in a written proposal to the transportation committee that student health and safety are at risk because the school building lacks outdoor recreational space.

The Clinton School moved to West 33rd Street in September 2010 and since then closing the street in front of the school to allow students to use it for outdoor recreation has been the only solution.

Marisa Zalabek, parent of a seventh grader at the Clinton School and faculty member at the National School Climate Center expressed concern over the potential for abductions, stating that middle school children are at the most vulnerable age for that kind of crime.

“It’s a straight shot to the Lincoln Tunnel,” Zalabek said.

The proposal also said that converting the lot owned by the Port Authority would improve the health and well being of students by getting them off the street as well as serve the interests of businesses. Planting greenery in the lot to help clean carbon monoxide from the traffic-heavy area was one possibility, according to Zalabek.

In a letter to the Port Authority, Principal Joseph Anderson wrote: “Neighboring businesses have concerns about the ability to receive deliveries during the time the street is closed.”

At the June 15 transportation committee meeting, Bill Young, a representative from Port Authority, confirmed that the space could become a parking lot for commuter and charter busses, but that no deals had been made.  If the request is granted for bus parking, the parents’ association believes the busses will bring new safety and health issues to the school.