From the Daily News:Parents are fuming about the new playground in Brooklyn Bridge Park, which features metal climbing domes for kids that critics charge get scorching hot on sunny days.
The steel domes are the main play equipment inside Brooklyn Bridge Park, which opened at the base of Old Fulton St. last month.
Park officials said they have hung signs warning parents to "exercise caution" on sunny days and insisted that several young trees planted near the domes "will supply shade in the coming weeks and alleviate this heat."
But critics said it was unlikely the small trees would provide enough shade any time soon - and worried the problem will get worse this summer.
"It's only April. Imagine what it's going to be like on a 90-degree day," said activist Geoffrey Croft from New York City Park Advocates, which has battled the city over too-hot black safety mats in playgrounds. "This equipment should be tested before it gets installed."
40 comments:
what a stupid administration.
What a stupid architect, and to think, he teaches at Harvard.
Dumb and dumber design - someone made a mint especially those who provided these useless caps.
Get the Park built without all this fru-fru already. It's like Tank park in Elmhurst on 57th Ave, it should have been completed by last year - but no the design was unusual and was ripped out to be redesigned and now is a mess. Who wins? The landscaper is making a mint and is dragging the progress to stay in the job for as long as possible. Big losers? Children and residents surrounding the Park. Apparently the dishevel of the park has attracted an army of raccoons from the nearby railroad tracks and have overrun the park feasting on all the garbage accumulating on the site and creating havoc at nearby surrounding houses.
As long as the children aren't frying in hydrogenated oil, Bloomberg is fine with it, I'm sure.
I got a couple of good ideas for city parks..
1. Sandbox filled with recycled glass shards. Sand is used to make glass so it only makes logical sense to reuse all those glass bottles that NYers throw away each day. Have fun whilst saving the planet!
2. There's this: http://worsethanyours.files.wordpress.com/2007/04/31.jpg
Instead of throwing our garbage into costly landfills, trucking or boating it out of state why not reuse all the refuse as a comfortable cushiony landing for urban kids! Added bonus, kids can play "treasure hunt" and recycle all items that they find!
3. Entire city as park, or also known as "Frogger". Allow kids to run in the street strategically dodging traffic. This is especially safe in the outer boroughs where over development and poor planning has clogged the roads to a virtual standstill. This game is fun for for kids from 9 to 92!
the slide link, whoops:
http://tinyurl.com/ya9fwc8
A new example of the phrase "you're in the hot seat"?
What ever happened to the old and beautiful NYC indigenous utilitarian park benches with the concrete sides and wooden slats?
Why did they get a park and Queens gets development?
Even bigger question - why are Queens waterfront park advocates, who see parks like this in other boroughs, just content themselves with facepainting at Queensbridge and pulling shopping carts out of the water at Hallets Coves, and sticking decals from developers over their kayacks?
What is wrong with this picture?
What a stupid architect, and to think, he teaches at Harvard.
As the saying goes: "Some things are so stupid, only an intellectual would believe them."
Why not bring back the old style playgrounds - with swings, jungle gyms, monkey bars, giant truck tires, see saws, etc.?
Why not just cover them with rubber or something?
As the saying goes: "Some things are so stupid, only an intellectual would believe them."
Why not bring back the old style playgrounds - with swings, jungle gyms, monkey bars, giant truck tires, see saws, etc.?
A wise individual wrote the above. Take heed.
Why not bring back the old style playgrounds - with swings, jungle gyms, monkey bars, giant truck tires, see saws, etc.?
My thoughts exactly. My generation and generations before survived and we didn't get burned on any of these new fangled and dangerous playthings. Those domes make every day a "Fry"day!
You know, it doesn't take an engineer to know that metal is scorching in the summer, freezing in the winter. When exactly are children to climb on these?
Come on guys! Jungle gymns, as seesaws and slides were metal and it never bothered kids...decades ago.
Toughen up bub and go out and play under a bus.
Ach, der "Fry"day mit der "Friday". Vunnerful, chust vunnerful. Zat's vy ve read dis block! Hahr-hahr-hahr.
See-saws can be made of wood and if metal, they usually don't have metal seats, but are covered with rubber or plastic. Jungle Jims are not meant to be lain on as these climbing domes can be, therefore coming in contact with the flesh rather than the soles of the feet.
Also, these old-style playthings were sometimes considered dangerous and banned... presumably, our knowledge of design and childproofing should have advanced in a generation.
Is anything green or any earthtone in this playground ?
No Monkey bars, See-saws or swings ?
This looks like a cross between a padded cell and the the old test field Grumman used for the Lunar Rover and LEM struts
The idiot that came up with this idea should give back the money that he was paid by the city. Use that money to offset all the lawsuits for this fiasco. Go back to simple ideas for a playground -- monkey bars, swings, slides. Less is more and definitely cheaper for the taxpayers.
what exactly does one do on these things - anyone know?
Fire all those incompetants who signed off on this idiotic and dangerous project!!!!
I grew up playing on seesaws, monkey bars and never managed to hurt myself. Heck, I remember equipment that didn't even have safety mats underneath.
It is quite sad the way we shelter our kids now.
But looking back at all this, whoever thought that metal domes like this wouldn't burn kids is an idiot.
Yes we did all those things - and without a HELMUT.
We didn't even have a antibacterial handsoap - and I know kids who really DID taste those mudpies!
We skated without knee or elbow pads and learned what thin ice looks like by falling through it.
We were let out of the house in the morning (when there was no school of course) like CATS - my girlfriend's mother even used to put her lunch outside on the milkbox - she wasn't allowed in the house until dinner.
Some kids often slept outside in tents in the summer to keep cool.
Our play time was unsupervised and we wound up doing unproductive things like playing ball, putting on plays or hosting carnivals for our friends.
My friends' pool was GREEN - and THEY went in anyway (my mother wouldn't allow me to).
We all ate peanut butter and jelly on white bread - and NO ONE had a bad reaction.
We fell, got cut and got up.
I am so very glad I grew up during those times -
"...and without a HELMUT."
Kohl? Or Schmidt?
The good old days were truly good. Kids went out to play and actually talked and interacted with each other. The helmet law is just a ploy for the city to make money by ticketing people who don't wear them. We had no money in those days, but we had lots of fun. We had one skate key that we shared with our friends and spent hours in the playground. We even played in the sandbox (yuck) and rarely got sick. That's because we were outside and weren't in front of a TV or a computer. Time to bring back the good old days. Lots of fun for little money. Kids didn't have to be entertained by their parents or things 24/7. We entertained each other. I'm still friends with the kids in Woodside that I grew up with. It was a great place to grown up. We were poor, but we had a great childhood.
Maspeth MOm says..
This whole thing stinks of someone at Parks & Rec giving a contract to their friend - who knows nothing about park design.
Look at the depictions of childhood in the illustrations of Norman Rockwell. No helmets, no knee and elbow pads. Motorists? No seat belts. Everything is so regulated now.
I got a $130 ticket for not wearing a seat belt the other day. Dig. I was driving out of a shopping center parking lot when I felt that the seat belt was too tight around my neck. It's length was stuck in the slammed door. Waiting for a red light - not moving - I opened the door and took the belt off to readjust it. It then worked fine and there was "play" in the belt as there should be. Ten seconds later, an unmarked cop car with lights flashing pulls me over. I'm wearing the seat belt now, but the cop says he saw me before without the belt. I'm pleading Not Guilty. This happened 10 blocks from where the illegal day laborers hang out.
This is all the fault of the liberals. Helmet laws. Seat belt laws. Death by a thousand cuts. The walls are moving inward. There's no more air to breath.
This whole thing stinks of someone at Parks & Rec giving a contract to their friend - who knows nothing about park design.
BINGO!!! An investigation is called for.
HELMUT!! George - tks - and I read it before I posted it too! HAH!
George said: "This is all the fault of the liberals. Helmet laws. Seat belt laws. Death by a thousand cuts. The walls are moving inward. There's no more air to breath."
oh no you don't George - you can't blame us - we are the "free spirits" of society!
It has more to do with those who sued for every little thing AND their LAWYERS!
No, no, no. Objectivists are the free spirits of society.
What kid would want to climb on a dome anyway? Makes no sense. A dome is not fun at all.
Maybe they put it in for aesthetic reasons, cause it looks Modern.
Idiots.
Don't knock the lawyers though, they didn't have a say in the installation.
Big Brother is a part of our lives now. Our liberties are slowly being taken away from us, piece by piece. Helmets, seat belts, muni meters, cameras on the streets, recycling, water and sewer fees. Everything is monitored and everything is fined. Now they want a tax on juice and soda -- too much sugar. Next it will be fast food -- too much fat. The government will soon tell you what you can and cannot eat, just as they can tell you that you can't ride your bike because you have no helment. The worst is yet to come. America is on a downward spiral. What was once a free country is almost a thing of the past.
Geroge said - "No, no, no. Objectivists are the free spirits of society."
WHY - because the majority at potheads?
Anonymous said "The worst is yet to come. America is on a downward spiral. What was once a free country is almost a thing of the past."
People years ago with a similar paranoid mental disorder would carry large heavy signs over their shoulders which read "THE END IS NEAR" and parade up and down in front of entrances to public places. This is the internet's equivalent . . . . groovy mon.
"We skated without knee or elbow pads and learned what thin ice looks like by falling through it."
Oxygen deprivation - explains a lot!
. . . . cute Anonymous
One of my sister's friends children is permanently brain-injured because he was struck by a car while bicycling in traffic. Although the larger point is stay out of traffic, if he had worn the helmet, he would not be permanently damaged emotionally and mentally.
I received a concussion by falling off a bicycle during a dizzy spell on a hot day. Permanent damage to the nerves that control eye muscles resulted. Those helmets are a good thing.
ok - I'm not making fun of helmets any more. Your point is well taken.
lmfao... what dumb ass came up with this dumb design? guess they don't have children who like to climb over everything.. and doesn't our mayor have any say how our money is spent??
Seat belts and helmets do protect lives. But why does everything have to be compulsory?
That's the point here. Government has become increasingly the nanny state.
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