As part of his State of the City address, Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday afternoon will unveil expanded funding for more schoolyards and swim classes, NY1 has learned. 

The city will be opening 11 additional schoolyards for use during the summer, after school and weekends in underserved neighborhoods. The new investment increases the number of New Yorkers living within a 10-minute walk of a public space to nearly 85%, according to City Hall.  

“These little pockets are not so little when you’re a little person, they’re your world, they are the backdrop to your childhood and they’re going to go in neighborhoods that really need public space. In Queens primarily, Queens has the lowest percentage of park area for its residents,” Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi said in an exclusive interview with NY1.  

Additionally, Adams will be expanding free swim safety classes for second graders this year.

“By opening even more schoolyards for families to use afterschool, on weekends, and during the summer, we will put another 20,000 New Yorkers within a 10-minute walk of a park,” the mayor said in a statement. 

The new investment is expected to save working-class New York $1.3 million. 

“We’re going to add that ability to really educate 4,800 more second graders across New York City really focusing on those areas that are high density, low access to pools to make sure that those second graders every week get a swimming lesson,” Joshi said. 

The deputy mayor told NY1 that the city the has staffing needed, including lifeguards, to support the expanded classes. Joshi noted there were seven drownings last year and that the city is working to get that number to zero this summer.  

Adams’ final address of his first term in office will take place at the Apollo Theater in Harlem on Thursday. It comes as the mayor is facing a high stakes reelection and a trial in April on a five-count federal corruption indictment.