At PAL Event, Erik Bottcher Cuts Ribbon to Mark $350G Grant for McCaffrey Playground

On the overcast morning of July 25, young children gathered at W. 43rd St.’s McCaffrey Playground, where they patiently waited out a series of speeches before the Police Athletic League’s (PAL’s) summer camp activities could begin. Featured speakers included City Council Member Erik Bottcher, State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, and Midtown South Community Council President Brian Weber.

Bottcher then noted that he had secured a $350,000 grant to renovate the playground in this year’s budget, which will bring new amenities such as outdoor exercise equipment. We want to “re-envision some of this space down here, and how it could be better utilized,” Bottcher said. “We want to bring life and more activity.”

Bottcher also brought up his recent efforts to expand the mental health pilot program B-HEARD (Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division) throughout his district, which encompasses the park. B-HEARD essentially ensures that mental health specialists, EMS workers, and certain members of the FDNY respond to mental health crises–instead of police officers that are untrained in those fields.

“My City Council district, from Spring St. up to 55th St., is experiencing a humanitarian crisis,” Bottcher said. It has taken the form of “untreated severe mental illness, people from suffering from narcotics addiction, people suffering from street homelessness. We, as a city, can do so much more. We are the richest city in the richest country, in the world.”

Hoylman-Sigal began his speech–which was more of a general thanks–by giving shout-outs to on-hand representatives from the Manhattan D.A.’s office and the Garment Center Business Improvement District. He gave special note to Brigdet Brennan, NY’s Special Narcotics Proescutor, who was dressed in the green of the PAL. “They say ‘youth is wasted on the young,’” Hoylman-Sigal told the kids. “I don’t think it is, here. Enjoy yourselves.”

Weber, the Community Council head, said that the playground had been “activated” as a “safe place for families and children to come and play.” He called the news of the grant for the park “fantastic.”

Then the assembled politicians, cops, and staff aides lined up to cut a bright-green ribbon. The kids sat down in front of them. The minute the ribbon was sliced, a DJ started blasting upbeat hip-hop music, and the kids gathered in anticipation around a counselor.

One program manager told Straus News that the kids would be playing street hockey and basketball, and that the DJ would provide music for some dancing action. He said that the highlight of his job was watching them “laugh and have a great time.”

The PAL, a nonprofit, was formally founded in 1932 as the Junior Police Athletic League. It was an extension of the “Play Streets” initiative kicked off by then-Commissioner Arthur Woods, which still exists as one of the PAL’s main programs today. It was founded as part of the NYPD’s Crime Prevention Bureau, which was later known as the Juvenile Justice Aid Bureau. It was reorganized as the Police Athletic League in 1936. Robert Morgenthau, the long-time Manhattan District Attorney, served as head of the PAL from 1963 until his death in 2019.

Outside of Playstreets and the PAL’s summer camp, it also has after-school programing and early childhood programs, which are a version of Head Start.