After decades of out-of-date, rusted playground equipment in NYCHA housing projects, a playground on West 90th received much-needed beautification—but its remodel has attracted too much attention. Local residents of the building complex located on West 90th between Amsterdam and Columbus in - near the $64,000-a-year Trinity School - are fighting to keep their new playground beautiful and usable by preventing non-NYCHA residents from coming in. They've resorted to posting signs and taping up the entrance to stop children and from the Ivy League prep school from 'disrespecting' the playground.
They say that before that, the Cassone Playground was empty - now, the uniformed kids have taken over, leaving no place for the NYCHA housing residents' children once again. Cheryl Russell, 62, who has lived in the Stephen Wise Towers for 13 years, said: “Once they redid the playground, everybody and their mamas started coming They give these looks like we’re the visitors," she told . She says that more 'outsiders' than locals occupy the park, which is at the center of the issue.
"It’s okay if you want to come, but don’t monopolize," Russell added. Residents of the neighborhood who don't live in the housing complex say they've been shouted at and asked to leave. That goes for the plethora of nannies with strollers waiting out the day for their slightly older charges to end the school day, people with dogs, and pretty much anyone else that doesn't quite belong.
They are technical.
