Council Member Rafael Salamanca Jr. returned to his former elementary faculty to dedicate its new playground on Nov. 14, 2024.
Picture by Emily Swanson
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Council Member Rafael Salamanca Jr. spent his childhood at C.S. 150 in Longwood, working on the exhausting concrete playground. On Thursday, Nov. 14, he returned to his childhood faculty to chop the ribbon for a brand new $1 million outside area that features 4 basketball courts, a monitor, soccer nets, playground tools and extra for college kids and the neighborhood to take pleasure in.
“This means the world to me,” he stated.
Salamanca Jr. stated that when he visited C.S. 150 after his election to the Metropolis Council in 2016, he was struck by how little had modified since he and his sister have been college students. The auditorium was nonetheless scorching, and the playground was nonetheless a discipline of concrete.
Picture by Emily Swanson
Since then, Salamanca Jr. stated he has allotted over $30.5 million to District 17 faculties, with $3.9 million to C.S. 150 for a hydroponic lab, faculty know-how upgrades and an air-con system and different enhancements for the auditorium.
Having the ability to safe funding for these initiatives — and to indicate his 10-year-old son the tangible distinction he has made in the neighborhood — has been very significant, stated Salamanca Jr.
“I wanted to make sure I took care of home,” he stated.
The South Bronx will see extra of those sorts of investments within the coming years because the Faculty Building Authority focuses not solely on buildings but in addition on the outside areas that contribute to college students’ well being and well-being, stated SCA President Nina Kubota.
Kubota known as Salamanca Jr. “a tireless advocate” for varsity fairness and stated the SCA is investing greater than within the final capital plan for brand new and current swimming swimming pools, athletic fields and playgrounds all through the Bronx.
State Senator Luis Sepúlveda, who spoke on the ribbon reducing, stated it’s irritating to see prosperous faculties with music and dance studios whereas South Bronx faculties struggle for fundamental upgrades.
A high-quality training is about extra than simply lecture rooms, he stated. “I will continue to invest the bulk of my discretionary dollars in the schools I represent,” stated Sepúlveda.
Picture by Emily Swanson
The brand new playground at C.S. 150 is only one of many enhancements coming to the fast space, Salamanca Jr. stated. Pointing simply past the play yard fence, he stated the now-empty lot is slated to change into a senior housing constructing with a ground-floor neighborhood middle to switch the historic Fort Apache Youth Middle that helped convey youngsters off the streets and right into a boxing gymnasium all through the Nineteen Eighties and 90s.
“This playground is part of the redevelopment of the South Bronx,” Salamanca Jr. stated.
