One in Six NYCHA Playgrounds Is Closed Despite Mayor Adams’ Repair Vow

When Eric Adams ran for mayor, he pledged to prioritize the repairs of what were then 89 broken-down public housing playgrounds.

Yet the number of New York City Housing Authority playgrounds closed this summer has spiked to 117 out of a total of 695 playgrounds. That’s up from 71 closed last year , records obtained by THE CITY show.

NYCHA says 105 playgrounds are closed due to renovations in a nearby building or area. Only a dozen of the shuttered playgrounds are inaccessible to kids because they are being renovated.

NYCHA last year “paused” scheduled reconstruction at eight dilapidated play areas, citing a lack of funds.

“You would think fixing a playground would be the easiest thing to do, right?” asked City Council member Christopher Marte (D-Manhattan), who has earmarked funds for playground repairs in his Lower East Side district.

“It’s not renovating a building,” he added. “It’s not figuring out what type of molding an apartment has, right? This is just a few pieces of equipment that could be taken care of within a year.”

Altogether, one of every six NYCHA playgrounds is now closed, up from one in ten when THE CITY first reported on the issue in 2021 .

“We have repaired and reopened 35 of the 73 that were closed in fiscal year 2023,” said NYCHA spokesperson Andrew​​ Sklar.

City Hall spokesperson William Fowler noted the mayor has set aside $23 million to repair six playgrounds as part of the “ Walk to a Park ” initiative.

“For years, NYCHA has been ignored and abandoned — but this administration said no to that, putting improvements for NYCHA residents at the top of our priority list,” Fowler said.

‘So Much Work’

NYCHA, uses long-term capital funds to pay for bigger playground overhauls and also has a yearly so-called operational budget for maintenance and basic fixes, is in a deep financial hole, with the authority estimating $78 billion in physical needs that it does not have capital funding for. Shortfalls in rent collection since the pandemid aren’t helping.

The authority plans to spend $315,000 on operational  play area fixes this fiscal year, down from the $408,163 in fiscal year 2023, according to the Housing Authority. Additionally, $23,800 is earmarked for bigger ticket reconstruction projects.

But sometimes NYCHA just removes playgrounds and leaves the space empty, according to housing records and tenants.

That’s been the case at the Baruch Houses on the Lower East Side, where what had been six play areas in the 1980s are now down to one, according to Camille Napoleon, the tenant association president for the complex.

The remaining play area is littered with debris, rusty equipment and garbage that have been there for years.

“It needs so much work,” Napoleon said, noting the Baruch Houses’ 27 acres make it the largest public housing complex in Manhattan.

“NYCHA claims it doesn’t have money to fix the infrastructure of our homes let alone our playgrounds,” she added.

Parents at the Baruch Houses have to take their children to a Luther Gulick Park operated by the Parks Department two blocks away from the Williamsburg Bridge.

“It sucks,” said a longtime resident who identified herself as Ms. Kay. “It’s not good for my child or anyone in the neighborhood.”

In 2022, NYCHA told THE CITY the spot was closed due to fixes from Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

Housing Authority officials were not immediately able to detail when — if ever — the play area was set to be fixed or overhauled.

Private Management

NYCHA has long struggled to maintain and modernize its playgrounds.

Some are decades old, covered in layers of peeling paint and kept functioning by makeshift repairs, while others have been demolished or cordoned off and effectively abandoned.

The reconstruction projects on hold include playgrounds in five developments in Manhattan: Johnson Houses; Lillian Wald Houses; White Houses; Bracetti Plaza; and Lower East Side III.

City officials also plan to repair park space at Cooper Park and Lafayette Gardens in Brooklyn as well as Marble Hill Houses in The Bronx.

Meanwhile, dozens of NYCHA developments have moved to private management and refinancing under the federal Rental Assistance Demonstration program, bringing in some funding for playground repairs and upgrades.

Such conversions have moved 30 playgrounds to new management  — leading to some successful playground overhauls, including at Wise Towers on the Upper West Side.

The renovation by PACT-Renaissance Collaborative has been so popular that children from the nearby posh Trinity School have flooded the area, according to a report in WestSideRag .

“It’s extremely messy,” said Cynthia Tibbs, the tenant association president at NYCHA’s West Side Urban Redevelopment (WSUR) brownstones.

“But when it got to the point that parents were snatching Wise Tower kids off of the swings so their kids could be on them that was where the line got drawn in the sand,” she added, saying “there’s never been that much animosity between the races as there is with this playground.”

Some City Council members are upset that money they earmarked for NYCHA repairs for playgrounds and community centers isn’t being used right away to make the much needed fixes.

“The situation is appalling,” said City Councilmember Alexa Avilés (D-Brooklyn), who formerly chaired the Council’s Committee on Public Housing.

“Part of the problem,” she continued, “is how NYCHA is allocating its internal resources and managing projects.”

Adams has failed to deliver on his campaign promise, she said.

“I think what the mayor has demonstrated pretty consistently over the last two and a half years of his term is that he promised a lot and he delivered nothing,” she said. “The playground is just another great example of that.”

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