McCarren Park offers public bathrooms, but for some people they aren’t public enough. The Brooklyn Paper reports today that the park’s playgrounds are being used as bathrooms by the area’s homeless population. Parents and nannies aren’t pleased, to say the least, at encountering adult human feces scattered about. It’s a perfect shit-storm of controversy, not to mention a study in contrasts:
One of the inebriated men asserted he is “not a pedophile” and that he uses the sprinklers in the playground only to wash himself.
“If it is extremely hot, I use it to take a shower,” said Isaac, who did not give his last name. “Is it a problem for me being there? I don’t think it is a problem.”
[ … ]
“This lovely pile has been sitting on the playground next to the equipment for at least two days,” said Greenpoint parent Robin Hagert, who posted several photographs of passed-out individuals and human feces on the social networking site. “No one has cleaned it up. So sad!”
Now, Intel Noreen happens to be a resident of north Brooklyn. She is not a fan of public defecation, particularly in her neighborhood. Doubly particularly in one of its few green spaces. Her heart breaks for people so down on their luck that they lack a home or a bathroom, it truly does. She would also venture to describe herself as strongly against children playing in excrement. However, she would stop short of agreeing with this statement, from Heather Letzkus of New York Shitty (who, to her credit, said this in service of a point about homelessness).
Yes, yes, surely the parents of the Sudan, having prevailed upon their local community board to take strong action against the extra litter they’re seeing lately, are right at this very moment cluck-clucking about how marginalized those folks in Williamsburg are.
McCarren Park’s Human Poop Problem Is Really A Homeless Problem [Gothamist]
Greenpoint drunks ruining McCarren Park playground with filth [Brooklyn Paper]
