Man, New York City playgrounds just can’t impress today’s overprotective parents. A couple of weeks ago, there was an uproar over a playground in Bedford-Stuyvesant because it included a mock jail cell. For some reason, local parents thought this was a poor message to send to kids in a crime-ridden area, and the jail was soon painted over. Now the complaints are flooding in about the new Brooklyn Bridge Park, where children can climb on steel domes that become hot furnaces in the sun. Fun, right? And so much more creative and artistic than a boring old slide or swing set. But some particularly unimaginative parents, apparently, cling to the traditional notion that playtime should not include the scalding of flesh.
Julie Lundberg said her 20-month-old son Bode Bulhak burst into tears after he touched one.
This is the kind of thanks the Parks Department gets for trying to do something a bit different and edgy once in a while. Maybe if your wussy kids can’t handle a little prison role-play, or a little hot steel, then you should go build your own playgrounds, and fill them with plush teddy bears and hypoallergenic blankets and skin-friendly equipment, and signs that say “Achieve your dreams!” Jeez.
Parents fuming over Brooklyn’s playground’s ‘hot’ steel attraction [NYDN]
