Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Close call prompts petition


From DNA Info:

When Alexa Weitzman lost sight of her 20-month-old son on Sunday for several seconds while playing at a popular neighborhood playground, her heart sank, she said.

As she looked around Katzman Playground, at Yellowstone Park, she saw that its three gates, adjacent to busy streets, including Yellowstone Boulevard, were wide open.

The toddler was quickly located, but the Forest Hills mom said the experience prompted her to start an online petition on Change.org on that same day, in which she asked the Parks Department to install a locking mechanism on the gates.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

All I see when I pass playgrounds is kids running around and parents staring at their phones.

Anonymous said...

Keep an eye on your kids!

Anonymous said...

Oy! Such problem in de' veld!

Anonymous said...

Crazy is as crazy does. That's why so many kid's are messed up today parents don't do their responsibilities and blame others.

Anonymous said...

NYC Parks just finished a makeover to a children's playground at Alley Pond Park on Winchester Blvd in Queens 2 weeks ago. I was looking at the newly rebuilt park the other day and was surprised that the design of the park included so many non gated entry and exit areas. The rebuilt park probably cost us over 2 million dollars and nobody noticed that this was a problem.

Anonymous said...

How about watching your kid when in the playground? Locking gates won't prevent other things like abduction by strangers.

Countervail said...

That place is packed on weekends. Just because you can't pay attention to your kids, don't make the park being about your mistake. It just needs some razor wire to finally make the transition to Riker's east.

OR, young families, stop moving to the area and overcrowding things. Like, a one-bedroom apartment is meant for two people at most. Not two adults and two young children.

Crusseau said...

But, but, cell phones.

Anonymous said...

How are these kids ever going to merge into traffic?

Anonymous said...

Try a leash.

Anonymous said...

Huh? There were no gates when I was a kid and yet somehow we all survived. Next.

Anonymous said...

And what if there is a "situation" in the playground? Then everybody will be up in arms that all the gates were closed and nobody could get out.

(sarc) said...

Some people should not breed!

Can you say "facebook update".

What happened? The nanny had a day off???

Anonymous said...

The mother should have been fined.
How do you lose sight of your 20 month old baby?
Really? Was Facebook so much more important than her child?
Typical "not my fault I'm the victim mentality".

Sergey Kadinsky said...

A couple of things:

1. Parks is aware of the petition and has reached out to the petition's author and Councilwoman Koslowitz to discuss measures to make the park safer.

2. As a parent, I do my best to keep an eye on my little girl. When I see parents addicted to Candy Crush and Facebook at the playground, I also feel frustrated. If we can turn our phones off while watching a movie in a theater, we can do the same at the playground.

Anonymous said...

Amazing how they want the rest of us to be locked in or out so they don't have to be as responsible.

Anonymous said...

You can't fix stupid.

Anonymous said...

*Amazing how they want the rest of us to be locked in or out so they don't have to be as responsible.*

Isn't it? The hallmark of nanny state on display.
Money hungry politicians come up with solutions to problems that don't exists.
Pretty much everything is against the law nowadays.

Anonymous said...

Sergey for council.

Don't be surprised.

JQ LLC said...

Let's hope the city doesn't consider using drones to remedy this.

I said too much.

It's funny that in the era of nanny states we also have helicopter parenting.

Molan Labe said...

put your friggin phone down!!!!!
not only should you be watching your precious child
not so precious for too many these days
BUT you should be on the lookout for predators, pedophiles, thieves and other scum looking for victims
cause then we will have petitions for more police because you are all OBLIVIOUS & STUPID
u should know its against the law to be in a nyc playground without child
if u see that
ask them to leave or call 911 if they dont

Anonymous said...

so people can be locked IN the park? put your phone down and pay attention to your brat!

Anonymous said...

>Sergey for council.

Not the worst idea I've heard on this website.