Upper West Side School suspends recess at Wise Tower playground due to ‘No Trespassing’ signs – West Side Rag

By Gus Saltonstall

Just over a week after signs reading “No Trespassing” and “Wise Towers Residents Only” appeared in the courtyard and playground of a New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) complex on the Upper West Side, a nearby school sent parents an email saying it was suspending activities on the premises “for the time being.”

The Stephen Wise Towers playground and courtyard is located at West 90th and 91st Streets, between Columbus Avenue and Amsterdam Avenue. Trinity School, named one of the top 25 private schools in the United States last year, is located nearby at 139 West 91st Street.

According to several Trinity parents, the UWS school has been using the courtyard and play area within the NYCHA complex for years.

But on Tuesday, Kristin Crawford, Trinity’s lower school principal, sent an email to the school community announcing that the facility would no longer use the outdoor facilities and playground at Wise Towers.

“Trinity School has made an agreement to play at Llama Park during recess,” she wrote. “We are suspending our recess play there for the time being. I suggest that families do not play there after school and on weekends either.”

Before Tuesday’s email, Trinity used Wise Towers’ playground a few times a week for its kindergarten classes, parents said. The school also uses Central Park once a week and has a small outdoor playground called Little Trinity on its campus, as well as an artificial turf field.

The Wise Towers playground recently underwent a major renovation, and tenant representatives expressed concerns to West Side Rag in January that since the new playground reopened, it may be overrun by non-residents who may be taking space away from the children who live there.

The playground is called “Llama Park” because of the Nivola horse sculptures located there.

A NYCHA spokesperson later told Rag that the signs were put up by Wise Towers property management in response to “local residents’ concerns about how to use the new playground equipment.”

Shanifah Rieara, a parent at Trinity, told West Side Rag she was “shocked” when she received the email from the school.

“We know that parks are a precious commodity in New York City. Yes, Central Park is a few blocks away, but open spaces are just so sacred,” Rierara told West Side Rag. “But they’re also the New York urban experience, they’re so communal. Shared space is how we build community. So it was really upsetting to see these signs put up.”

“It was upsetting to get that email yesterday saying we have to stop using the room immediately,” Rieara continued. “I pick up my kids from school pretty regularly. Trinity has a staggered dismissal time, so depending on what section your child is in, there may be a half-hour delay.

“Between those school closing times, you’d go to the playground and hang out. It’s always been that way,” she said. “I have a middle school student who’s been going to the school since kindergarten, and we’ve always done that — long before the renovations.”

Wise Towers property managers, who oversaw the installation of the signs, did not respond to multiple requests from The Rag for comment.

“Yesterday I picked up my kindergarten student after school,” Rieara said. “She said, ‘let’s go to the Lama Park,’ and I had to say we couldn’t. She had questions and I really didn’t know how to answer them. So we just sat on the stairs.”

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