So much open, green lawn at Rensselaer that never gets used, despite being directly across the street from Capital Prep Magnet School.
Why don’t these organizations collaborate?
The kids would get more land to run around on during recess. Instead of appearing as a lonely “tower in the park,” the Rensselaer property would look activated, at least for a few hours each day.
Thanks to Google Maps, here is an explanation as to where these sites are in relation to each other:
L Peters
Getting children across a street to play in the playground could be a safety issue. Probably need a crossing guard and maybe fencing too. How about putting the grocery store there instead?
Kerri Provost
1. Capital Prep *chose* to place themselves in this particular school building. Hurray for re-use. However, they should be pushing for safety improvements to all the streets surrounding them, especially Main Street, which children are already crossing if they are arriving via city bus.
2. With that said the road that children would have to cross to access this site is Winthrop Street. I would recommend that you walk the area to experience the vast difference between crossing Winthrop Street and crossing Main Street. One is a traffic sewer. The other is more like a driveway at this point.
Kerri Provost
3. Winthrop Street is a one-way. There is a crosswalk at the end of it. From the perspective of someone who commutes primarily by foot, this is one of the safest places to cross a road in the downtown area. Nobody is asking the students or teachers to cross Main Street.
Richard Nelson
Oh but the grass! The green, green grass. Hundred of little feet will turn it to mud. Of course too I wonder if the powers that be use pesticides on all that green grass? But you know what? I think a play area for children is a great idea.