Sometimes you learn the hard way...
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/...%28NY+Local%29
Parents urge officials to remove 'dangerous' metal climbing domes in new Brooklyn Bridge Park
With temps soaring, Melanie Simon, 64, reacts after touching metal dome at Brooklyn Bridge Park in DUMBO.
Kira Foley, 5, broke her nose and lost a tooth while playing on metal domes at Brooklyn Bridge Park
BY Jeff Wilkins and Elizabeth Hays
Thursday, April 8th 2010
Quote:
The sleek play equipment in a gleaming new Brooklyn waterfront park doesn't just get scorching hot, it's also treacherous.
Five-year-old Kira Foley broke her nose and knocked out a tooth on the controversial metal climbing domes in the new Brooklyn Bridge Park, just hours after it opened late last month.
"[The domes are] not safe," said Kira's dad, Robert Foley, 39, of Brooklyn, who fired off a letter March 23 demanding testing data showing the equipment is safe for kids. "They look innocuous, but they're really dangerous."
Foley said he is still awaiting a response from the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corp., which is building the swanky park at the foot of Old Fulton St. in DUMBO.
Instead, all he's gotten is a call from the park's insurance company telling him how to put in a claim.
"It's not a money issue," said Foley, whose family is covered by insurance. "I just want them removed."
The Daily News reported yesterday that parents are fuming over the new playground - designed by landscape architects Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates - because the metal domes get so hot on sunny days that kids cry when they touch them.
"Within five minutes of being here, [my daughter] burned her leg," said Jennifer Bollard, 37, a mom from New Jersey who traveled to check out the much-hyped park with her kids, Julie, 3, and Jonathan, 7.
After The News revealed the problem, officials erected temporary tents over the structures. But within hours, the sun had shifted so that the domes were once again hot.
"They should take them out and put in something like a jungle gym. Remember those?" said baby-sitter Kaitlyn Hammond, 25, who refused to let her 2-year-old charge, Amanda, near the orbs.
"It seems like they built this to fit in with the aesthetics of the neighborhood, not for the benefit of the kids," she said.
Van Valkenburgh designers declined to discuss the matter.
Park officials insisted that along with the tents, they had posted warning signs and said that young trees nearby would soon provide shade.
Critics said it's not enough.
"They should never have been installed in the first place," said Geoffrey Croft of New York City Park Advocates.
Assemblyman Micah Kellner (D-Manhattan), who wants all play equipment heat-tested, agreed: "It's better to rip out the equipment than have a child who is horribly scarred or injured."
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http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/...ttraction.html
Parents fuming over Brooklyn's playground's 'hot' steel attraction
Domes of Brooklyn Bridge Park and letter (below) warning about them.
BY Elizabeth Hays
Wednesday, April 7th 2010
Quote:
Welcome to Brooklyn's hottest new playground.
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.
"It's outrageous," said James Wagman, whose son, Matthew, 6, gasped the other day when he put his hands on one of the shiny structures placed in full sunlight. "My first reaction was, 'That's nutty. Why did they put that in a playground?'"
Julie Lundberg said her 20-month-old son Bode Bulhak burst into tears after he touched one.
"It was a pain cry," said Lundberg. "He was saying, 'Ouch, Ouch,' and his hands were all red," she added. "They need to fix it."
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."
A joint Daily News and New York City Park Advocates investigation in 2008 found that black playground mats can top 165 degrees on hot days and cause scores of burns to kids each year.
Dr. Roger Yurt, director of New York-Presbyterian Hospital's burn center, said the park's metal play equipment could get even hotter.
"We know that the rubber mats are a problem. I would expect that steel in direct sunlight is even worse than what we've seen," said Yurt.
Parents wondered why the metal structures were installed in the first place.
"It's a pretty gross oversight," said Paul Catlett, 42, a tourist from Kentucky who visited with his son, Henry, 11. "Anybody who knows anything about steel knows it gets extremely hot with any kind of sustained exposure to sunlight."
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