Equality For NJ Playgrounds: Spend $1 Billion, Sen. Rice Urges

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Ronald Rice has spent the past 35 years as a state senator. And over those decades, he says he’s never seen his fellow lawmakers make any substantial investment to build playgrounds and other recreational facilities for kids in some of New Jersey's largest cities.

That needs to change, he says – now.

On Tuesday, Rice, a Democrat who represents the 28th District, called on Gov. Phil Murphy, Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin to set aside $1 billion of New Jersey’s $11.4 billion budget surplus to meet the after-school needs of “inner-city schoolchildren” throughout the state. Read More: $500 Rebate Checks Coming For NJ Residents (What We Know)

The 28th District includes the municipalities of Bloomfield, Glen Ridge, Irvington, Newark and Nutley.

“Our cities’ school playgrounds have been converted into parking lots for teachers afraid to leave their cars on the street,” the senator charged. “A netless hoop and a decades-old chess table do not constitute the caliber of equipment that shows inner-city kids that they are as valuable to us as the ones who live in affluent suburban school districts.”

“We’ve passed a lot of important bills that have done much good for our urban communities, but as I travel around my home city of Newark, I see that we have failed to help our kids be kids and grow naturally into a state of pride and joyful confidence,” Rice continued.

• See related article: 'Nature Is For Everyone, Not Just The Rich,' Sen. Rice Says

But according to Rice, with a huge windfall on the horizon thanks to an infusion of federal coronavirus relief, the Garden State finally has the money to ensure kids have a safe place to play in some of its most populated cities.

“This is a grass-roots demand from communities all over our state that watch money gush to every other sector of our society and every other faction of our population, but leaves our city kids to fend for themselves on the street, exposed to gun violence, gang activity and every other kind of harm,” Rice said.

“Our state’s annual budgets fund every possible cause and program, including our new invasive marijuana industry,” Rice said. “But they have never – not once – benefited these kids who sit on the sidelines and watch their suburban counterparts enjoy every imaginable after-school amenity.”

“But now with this year’s revenue surplus, time’s up,” he added.

Rice said that he’s been video-conferencing with members of the New Jersey Urban Mayors Association to seek insight on which after-school recreational investments would have the greatest impact.

Possible uses of the funds could include retrofitting and rebuilding playgrounds, pools and gyms, as well as offering programs and equipment to give kids “skill-building opportunities” beyond their academic experience, he said.

The senator implored Gov. Murphy and his peers in the state Legislature to become part of the solution – not the problem. He wrote:

“In this moment, I see our past and our future. I see a time from my youth, when parents admonished kids for hanging out on the corner and shooed them over to the school playground – a time when playgrounds still offered the activities and camaraderie kids need to thrive. I see our recent suffering through the double anguish of a devastating pandemic and a racial reckoning that each forced us to admit tragic flaws in our economy based on fundamental societal bias and discrimination. I can also look ahead into the future where so many of us have vowed to chart a course toward equality and a sustainable world society. We and our colleagues are the bridge between the problems and the solution.”

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