These kids revamped their schoolyard. It could be a model to make cities healthier

Late morning on a sunny weekday near the end of the school year, a group of kids shot baskets into a shiny orange hoop in the schoolyard at the Add B. Anderson School in West Philadelphia. A year ago, all these kids had to shoot into was a trash can they would drag outside, one teacher tells me.

"That yard was literally just concrete," says Laurena Zeller, the principal at Anderson. "Broken concrete with a little weeds in between."

Now, the space has been transformed. There's a running track, a basketball court, picnic tables and lots of cheerful blue, new play equipment. Newly planted trees provide dappled shade. There are also two new rain gardens with colorful flowering plants. They're not just for looks – the gardens also keep storm water from polluting nearby Cobbs Creek