Across New York City, workers are tearing out concrete and asphalt from schoolyards and replacing them with rain-absorbing surfaces that are more climate resilient, according to reporting by Aria Young of Feet in 2 Worlds.

This story comes to us from Feet in 2 Worlds, a project that brings the work of immigrant journalists to online news sites, podcasts, and public radio. This story was produced as part of Home, Interrupted, a podcast series by Feet in 2 Worlds that explores how the climate crisis affects immigrants across the U.S. and how immigrant communities are finding new ways to deal with a warming planet.

Cracked blacktop, rain puddles, and potholes: the conditions of many New York City public school playgrounds are not ideal ingredients for a playful childhood. At Corlears, an education complex comprising three schools on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, an outdated schoolyard is getting a makeover.

“There’s pit holes in the ground. There’s cracks where anybody can slip and fall,” said 17-year-old Dyonis Diaz, a senior at Orchard Collegiate Academy and vice president of the student council. “…when you look at [our schoolyard], it kind of just falls out of place.

New York schoolyards are becoming more dangerous as climate threats intensify. Concrete and asphalt surfaces are not water-absorbent. In rain storms, most playgrounds can create surface runoff and cause flooding. During heat waves, these playgrounds can overheat easily, raising surface temperature by as much as seven degrees.

The city has seen significant consequences from extreme weather events in recent decades. Heat waves cause over 13 heat stroke deaths annually, according to NYC Mayor’s Office of Resiliency. The New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) reported that the city’s sea level has risen 1.1 feet from 1900 to 2013, nearly twice the observed global rate.

Corlears is located by the East River near the floodplain. In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy devastated the neighborhood, leaving its streets 14 feet under water. Now, the Lower East Side community is a battleground for the city’s climate adaptation efforts as residents fight over resiliency plans for East River Park, a vast waterfront green space in the area.

While the neighborhood grapples with the climate crisis, Corlears’s schoolyard is in development to be transformed. The Trust for Public Land (TPL) is a nonprofit organization that works in partnership with the Department of Education to renovate outdated schoolyards and turn them into climate-resilient playgrounds. Since 1996, the TPL has transformed over 220 playgrounds in New York, bringing green infrastructure to communities across the five boroughs.

TPL designs playgrounds with a committee of students, leading them through a 10-week curriculum integrated with the design process. At Corlears, the students have chosen to prioritize flood prevention by building a permeable turf field that can absorb tons of rainwater in a storm.

“We teach them about the problem with combined sewage overflow in New York City,” said Tiffany Briery, a program manager at the TPL. “Even though it’s a playground they’re designing, they’re actually creating change citywide to help with a pollution problem.”

Just two blocks away from Corlears, P.S. 184M Shuang Wen School has gone through a similar process. In 2019, Shuang Wen’s playground was renovated by TPL, after being underwater during Hurricane Sandy. Their new $1.7 million playground features infiltration basins under an artificial turf, a green roof gazebo, a student-run rain garden, and much more.

Nine years after Hurricane Sandy, Shuang Wen’s new playground successfully weathered Hurricane Ida, which claimed the lives of 13 people in New York City.

“There was not even a puddle after the tremendous amount of rain that we had,” said Mary Alice Lee, TPL’s New York City playgrounds director in a City Limits report.

The Corlears Complex started playground construction in February 2024. The new playground will feature a volleyball court, a basketball court, a playset, and numerous trees to provide shade in hot weather.

While green playgrounds have proven effective in improving resiliency during climate-related events, many public schools and playgrounds do not have the privilege of renovation. Some lower-income neighborhoods lack access to green space to begin with. In so-called “playground deserts,” residents have no outdoor play areas easily accessible from their homes.

According to former New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer’s report, New York City ranks 48th in playgrounds per capita among the 100 largest American cities as of 2019. Brooklyn is the most underserved borough, with only eight playgrounds for every 10,000 children under the age of 10.

“Going outside and being able to walk, it’s a sense of relief,” said 15-year-old Assiatou Diallo, a sophomore on the student design committee. “Because staying home all the time and watching Netflix, it gets tired and lonely… You create memories outside with people.”

By the end of the century, the city could experience as much as 25 percent more rainfall and 1.5 times as many extreme rainy days, according to the NPCC. Without climate-resilient infrastructure, outdated public school playgrounds continue to be some of the most vulnerable areas in the city.

However, protecting green spaces is hardly a priority to city officials. This year, the city’s budget for parks and playgrounds is $41.5 million less than last year’s. Less than 1 percent of the city’s total budget goes to parks and playgrounds—a significantly smaller percentage compared to other major cities in the U.S.

“This is not just a one-and-done deal, is it?” said Miles Doyle, Orchard Collegiate Academy principal. “This is not going to solve climate change. This is one part of it.”

For more reporting by Feet in 2 Worlds, visit the project’s website here.

Carlos Correa stood, one arm crossed, the other with his hand on his chin. Next to him, Kyle Farmer crouched and gave a thumbs up. Christian Vázquez, on his knees, leaned back, giving a peace sign. Carlos Santana stood in front, pointing at the sky. And on either side of the group, Jose Miranda and Steven Okert stood, cheesing it up.

A day earlier, the Twins infielders unveiled their new celebration, posing in the middle of the grass as if they were going to take a portrait. Earlier that day, the infielders had been in the weight room, scheming up new ways to mark victories because, well, when you’re winning that much, finding creative ways to celebrate becomes a topic of conversation.

Things are good in the Twins’ world these days.

After 20 games, their record was 7-13. After 30, they’re now 17-13, thanks to a 10-game winning streak that has helped turn their season around. The winning streak is the eighth longest in team history and the lengthiest since 2008.

“Winning baseball is a lot more fun than losing baseball,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “Coming into the locker room and having good vibes in here after wins is great. We’re not sitting here counting every win we get. Every day is a new day.”

And all of those days, of late, have ended the same way: with another notch in the win column.

Seven of the Twins’ victories came against the White Sox, the team with Major League Baseball’s worst record, with another three against the Los Angeles Angels, who are also near the bottom.

The Twins knew that stretch would be a good opportunity for them — things get harder this weekend when the Boston Red Sox come to town starting on Friday night at Target Field — to dig themselves out the hole they had played themselves into.

And they sure accomplished that.

It’s been a collective effort, marked both by blowouts and close victories. Many lately have been of the comeback variety.

Much of it has come as the offense has finally broken out. Through their first 20 games, they scored a combined 67 runs (3.35 per game). Over the course of the winning streak, that number has ballooned to 7.6 per game (76 over 10 games).

“I feel like everyone is playing a little freer,” Twins starting pitcher Bailey Ober said. “You can just tell there’s not a whole lot of pressure being put on ourselves. If one of the guys doesn’t get the job done, we’re confident in the next guy to be able to pick us up. I feel like the biggest thing is leaning on each other and trusting our teammates.”

While there’s more time to plan celebrations, dance in the clubhouse or worship a piece of summer sausage, Jeffers said things haven’t changed as much around the clubhouse as it may seem.

“When you’re struggling, you’re putting in the work the same that you are now. Nothing has changed from a work ethic standpoint. Nothing has changed from a game plan standpoint,” he said. “We’re just playing better baseball. The awesome benefit of having such a long season is you can go through those ups and downs and come out the other end and have a stretch like this.”

Just a couple of weeks ago, the Twins were still preaching that it was early — and it was, though it felt as if it was getting late quick.

Now, their season is looks entirely different.

“It’s amazing how the emotional swings work in our game. But right now, I think there’s a lot of guys in that clubhouse feeling good about themselves, and they should,” manager Rocco Baldelli said.

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Joe Field needed something to write about.

“I came up with the idea for Free Comic Book Day when I was a columnist for an industry trade magazine,” says Field, who is the owner of the Flying Colors Comics and Other Cool Stuff store in Concord. “I was scratching for ideas when my deadline was looming, looked out the front window of my shop to see a long line of people and none of them were coming into my shop. They were headed next door to Baskin Robbins for Free Scoop Night.

“I thought ‘comics are cooler than ice cream — let’s do this!’ So I wrote a column outlining the idea.”

That was 2001 and the first Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) was held in 2002. It was a massive hit right from Year One, with hundreds of comic book shops taking place in the promotion of giving out free publications to those who visited the participating stores. It now stands as, by far, the biggest annual event at comic book stores worldwide.

“The first FCBD was on May 4, 2002, so this year’s event, also on May 4, is the 23rd annual Free Comic Book Day,” Field says. “Over the last 22 years, FCBD shops have given away tens of millions of free comic books in more than 2,000 shops in more than 60 countries the world over.”

Yet, this year’s Free Comic Book Day — which just happens to coincide with the annual Star Wars celebration on May 4 (“May the Fourth Be With You”) — will also be the last one that will be held at the place where the idea was first hatched.

To the disappointment of comic book fans all over Contra Costa County, Field’s Flying Colors Comics and Other Cool Stuff store, at Treat Boulevard and Oak Grove Road in Concord, is set to close in early 2025.

“This year’s FCBD at Flying Colors will be the final one in the shop where the international pop culture event was founded,” Field says. “When our last lease expired, our landlord would only give us three years and gave no option to renew. That lease expires in January 2025, and I tried to get an extension, but was told the owners of this center really wanted to put in a bagel shop. I can’t tell you how many sleepless nights this has given me and my wife, Libby, the co-owner of Flying Colors.”

CONCORD, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 16: Flying Color Comics owner Joe Field, right, visits with customers at his shop on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022, in Concord, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)

So, what’s the next move? Field says that they are looking for a way to continue on with the business in a new fashion and new location.

“We’re very hopeful and now actually pretty excited by what the future of Flying Colors could be,” he says. “There are a lot of unknowns — like how many of our faithful customers will want to create a new habit of going to a different spot to support us? How many new customers can we cultivate moving to a different spot? How strong will the market for comics and graphic novels be over the next bunch of years? Can we afford to do this when we are already technically past the standard retirement date?

“Our hope, our prayer, really, is that we continue to build community and continue to spread happiness through our comic book business. That’s when everything will be a success.”

Yet, there will be time for planning for “what’s next” in the days to come. Right now, Field has to concentrate on hosting the final Free Comic Book Day at the place where it all began.

“This Saturday’s event will be bittersweet,” he says. “This shop has been our home for more than 35 years, so as the days, weeks and months wind down to the closing of this location, we’ll cherish all the good memories we’ve made here and hope that the next version of Flying Colors will be a fresh start to something wonderful.”

Whatever happens next for Flying Colors, Field’s legacy in the industry he loves so dearly is pretty much set in stone following the unmitigated success of Free Comic Book Day.

“For many stores, it’s their busiest day of the year and one real push for outreach to new customers,” says Ryan Higgins, owner of Comics Conspiracy in Sunnyvale. “If even one out of 100 people who stop by on FCBD picks up comics regularly after that, it’s a huge boon to the shop.

“The industry is forever indebted to Joe for the day.”

Free Comic Book 2024

When: May 4

Where: Celebrated at some 2,000 comic book stores in multiple countries. Check out with your local comic book for details.

Information: freecomicbookday.com

CONCORD, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 16: Flying Color Comics owner Joe Field with a display of graphic novels at his shop on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022, in Concord, Calif.(Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)

Each day, unarmed security guards post at NYCHA senior buildings for eight hour shifts. But this service is poised to evaporate by June 30, a move the authority says will save $7 million. 

Adi Talwar

March 19, 2024: Lobby of NYCHA’s Bronx River Addition located at 1350-1352 manor Avenue in the Bronx.

One of the main distinctions of senior-designated buildings within the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is an extra layer of safety measures.

While most NYCHA campuses are equipped with security cameras, exterior lighting, or both, its 55 senior buildings—a subset of the authority’s 2,411-building portfolio—have an unarmed security guard posted at the entrance for eight hours a day.

But the $7 million-per-year service, which provides NYCHA residents ages 62 and older with more peace of mind, will come to an end on June 30 as part of a broader cost-cutting effort, NYCHA confirmed. The authority says it is facing a $35 million deficit in its 2024 operating budget. 

NYCHA has pointed to a drop in rent collection as a significant contributor to its budget woes, with about 70,000 households owing $482 million in back rent as of Feb. 29. Rent payments make up one third of its operational budget, and the year ending in March did not see monthly rent collection exceed 69 percent. 

RELATED READING: NYCHA Tenants Sue Over Early Exclusion From State Pandemic Rent Relief

In an April 25 public letter to NYCHA, Brooklyn Councilmember Chris Banks, chair of the Committee on Public Housing, expressed “extreme” disappointment in the planned cut to a service he said should be prioritized.

“Our seniors represent one of our City’s most vulnerable stakeholder groups,” Banks wrote. “While I understand NYCHA’s difficult budget position, their budgets should not be balanced on the backs of so many who have already given so much, and are now expressing fears of what these cuts may mean for them.”

The City Council held an oversight hearing in December focused specifically on safety issues and NYCHA’s seniors, where tenants testified about issues like broken locks and security cameras. 

Ana Almanzar, a tenant at the Bronx River Addition Houses in the Soundview section of the Bronx, told City Limits last month that her building recently got a new security guard. This was a relief, as she’d noticed people sleeping in the lobby and stairwell, apparently without authorization. 

The prospect of losing that guard so soon is concerning. “What do you mean they are going to remove them?” she told City Limits in Spanish this week, after a reporter informed her of the planned cut. “What are we going to do now, then?”

Bronx River Addition residents recently voted to opt into the Public Housing Preservation Trust, a new public entity that can issue bonds to fund repairs. But NYCHA still supports the complex financially pending an official transfer, a spokesperson confirmed. 

NYCHA did not provide City Limits with a written statement, but said by email that most of the affected buildings have security cameras, and that it will continue to coordinate with the NYPD to respond to crime and safety concerns.

Additional reporting by Daniel Parra. 

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Tatyana@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Emma@citylimits.org