Mary Alice Lee and Maddalena Polletta work hard to build playgrounds at New York City school yards through the Trust for Public Land (TPL), but sometimes they face difficulties during the process. In this article, they talk about some of the challenges and how they get past them.

Q: What are some of the challenges to building playgrounds in New York City?

Mary Alice: It's interesting because you think that when you say you're going to build a playground in the community everyone is going to be excited.  But, that's not always the way it is.  For example, some neighbors might be concerned about the noise from basketball late at night so we need to think about placement of playground activities.

Maddalena: A lot of the challenges are at the beginning of the process because people are very hesitant about the playgrounds.  This is because they are concerned about the playgrounds getting ruined. The biggest challenge is convincing them to listen to other communities that have already built a playground and are happy with it. These people can share their experiences and address community member's fears that the playgrounds will be destroyed or vandalized because this usually doesn't happen. The playgrounds are respected and treated well because they are open to the community after school and on weekends.

Q: How do you overcome these challenges?

Mary Alice: We make sure to really listen to everyone's opinions about the playgrounds. Building the playgrounds is a compromise and we make it our job to pay attention to everyone's concerns-from the teachers to the custodian to the neighbors. By taking everyone into consideration, the design of the playground is better and more people are excited to use it when it's done.

If your local school is interested in having a new playground, Mary Alice and Maddalena would be happy to talk to them about the program and application process. Since the program is looking for schools that are connected to the community, there are a lot of opportunities to get involved in your neighborhood. TPL would be happy to work on more sites in Harlem because it's a great neighborhood that needs more open space! Email Mary Alice at maryalice.lee@tpl.org or Maddalena at Maddalena.Polletta@tpl.org for more information!

Read more from Mary Alice Lee and Maddalena Polletta by clicking the links below:

• How non-profit Trust for Public Land protects open space in New York City
• How the Trust for Public Land helps build playgrounds at New York City schools
• Elements of the Harlem playgrounds constructed by NYC Playground Program
• Why it's good to build parks and playgrounds in NYC
• How the playgrounds built by the NYC Playground Program are "green"
• How schools and communities can work together to build playgrounds in New York City 
• Trust for Public Land's involvement in NYC community gardens