New-York tribune., 1921-10-24
Coney Schools
Most Crowded
In Greater City
Candidates Urged to Go ON
Record for Better Fa-
cilities by Pledging Aid
in "Coney Island Tines
Hylan's Delay Deplored
Article Declares More Than
l,5OO Pupils Have to
Walk Half Mile to. Glasses

"Coney Islands school condition is
the most deplorable one in the greater
city. To relieve it prompt action is
necessary. Do you know the facts? If
you don't you will find them below
These facts are truth. They have been
gotten together by THE Times for the
express purpose Of getting you on rec
ord as to what you propose to do.
Voters here want your solemn promise.
Send it to The Times for publication
1t will be printed promptly. Silence on
your part may be costly"
Such is the invitation to candidates
that heads a special article in this
weeks issue Of "The Coney Island
Times' depicting the distressing re-
suits of Mayor Hylan's failure to keep
his campaign promise to provide a seat
for every child. The article shows that
Coney Island, with a permanent popu-
lation of 10000, has but two public
schools.
Quarreling Delays Work
1t points out that. while Mayor Hy-
Ian and the Board Of Estimate have
oeen quarreling over site for a new
school in Coney Island, private con-
Germs already have erected thirtv
seven new houses on one of the sites
selected by the Board of Education
The exact school conditions in Coney
Island are described in the article.
which follows in part:
Seven hundred children have to ride
to Gravesend daily, rain or shine, win.
ter or summer, to Public School o.
because their own school cannot ac-
commodate them. Nearly every chile
ten years or over between West
Twelfth and West Twenty-ninth
streets has to walk to the West End
Terminal, then ride to Gravesend,
bring q cold lunch and suffer annoy-
ances. Would the Mayor let his child
travel to Gravesend if he lived here?
Would Comptroller Craig? Has any
other community ever had to tolerate
this condition.?
A,JUV ak f1alI MIG
Zone thousand five hundred children
or more walk more than one-half mile
to reach Public School 80. A visitor
in the upper grade classes would find
on inquiry that three-fourths or more
walk beyond West Twenty-seventh
Street to West Seventeenth Street. The
car service is bad. Only small troll
ley car, running at long intervals, is
available to them.
The children arc not getting full
time or part time. Last term $500
children were getting only two hours
instruction daily. Over 1000 new chill
dren were admitted last month. The
spring and fall arrivals will add nearly
2.oO0 to this number in 1922. The 500
new buildings, which are going up or
just about to be erected, will swell
this number to many times the ca
pacity of Public School 80.
MANY doctors of Coney Island have
been protesting to the principal, John
); Lotus, and to the editor of "The
Coney Island Times" over the failure
of school authorities to safeguard the
health of the children.
Safety of All ENDANGERED
personal safety of all these $500
children is endangered daily on three
crowded streets like West Seventeenth
Street, Mermaid Avenue and Neptune
Avenue
"The old-time resident of Coney
Island, who has paid his taxes for
twenty years or more, who selected q
home as near the school as possible
to have Its advantages, wants to know
why. his children are forced to leave
Coney Island to go to school. The
answer the Board of Education cannot
afford to pay double carfare for the
newcomers does not appease him."