conuly

Sometimes, when I read articles on "modern playgrounds" or the comments to them, I wonder if these people and I frequent the same playgrounds, I must admit.

For example, one common complaint in the comments is "Waaa, what happened to all the merry-go-rounds???" but the only merry-go-round* I ever saw as a child was in Belgium. Now that I'm a grown-up, I know of several playgrounds with merry-go-rounds (in three different styles! the custom-made bike merry-go-round in Battery Park City, one without handles that's tilted and that has plenty of free space underneath so children can't get trapped, and one that you jump and hang from), but I never saw them as a kid.

Or people complain about having fewer swings or see-saws, and while I see the point (especially when it comes to see-saws, which were my favorite as a child), I sometimes think that the problem isn't safety concerns (or not JUST safety concerns) but a different philosophy altogether for playgrounds, less free-standing equipment with ONE USE ONLY and more connected equipment that can be used in different ways, that lends itself to more imaginative play, and that allows more children to play on it at once. (And in the article I posted before, there was one comment whining that that equipment is "fun, but you can't follow your toddler around and it's not safe!" Well, dude, go to a toddler-geared playground and sit down on the bench!)

It's also worth noting that right now, lots of people are complaining that playgrounds are too safe, which means that in some areas, newer playgrounds are being built to be more dangerous-looking (if not actually more dangerous) because of that complaint, so of course, you can't just look at your local playground to see what the trend is. I think we're at the swing of the pendulum, actually.

That said, we went to this playground Thursday. She's right, there's nowhere near enough shade. Most of the playground wasn't being used because it was so hot!

However, this playground is a perfect example of new equipment that's as stretching as old. This one had what I think of "new-style" equipment - very ropes-focused and curvy. (I call this new, but what my mother calls new is the stuff that was common when I was young, wooden blocks with bars attached. And there's all the mostly-metal structures with lots of bridges that comes between my mother's new and my new. That's still current, of course.) And whatever people say about "jungle gyms are too small now", the spider-web style jungle gym was probably at least nine feet high. And the design of it means, I suspect, that it's more of a challenge to climb than the old-style all metal ones. Plus, it doesn't heat up so much in the sun, which is an advantage when the designers are too dumb to put in shade.

You can just see the "spider-web" in the back of this photo. It's the blue thing. The monkeybars are more visible in the front - if they're like the similar ones at Union Square, they turn slightly from side to side as you use them.

(A word on the sprinklers in that playground. They were made by this company that uses poles with hidden sensors to turn them on. You have to rub your hand over the flat part until it decides to work. There are no labels, of course. It's a stupid design, made stupider by the fact that they also include a pump that, as near as I can tell, either does nothing or was broken. Because I was the only one who knew how to turn on the sprinklers, I was the only one who had to keep getting up to do it.)

*To me, merry-go-rounds are the ones that are child-propelled. If they have horses and music and you pay to ride them, they're carousels. But I'm aware some people call carousels merry-go-rounds.

That's this one. The toddler playground was closed for resurfacing. (And why is it that safety surfaces are invariably black? That just makes their heat-absorbing properties worse! Don't start me on the lack of shade in playgrounds either.)

Now, you know I've talked a lot before about absurd age-ranges on playgrounds. A playground marked for ages "5-12" when it's really more like a 3-9 set-up, or that bizarre one in California that claimed to be suited for kids aged 2-12 (no such thing).

This is one that works for a wide range of ages, this playground. Most of the structures are just hard enough to challenge an older kid, with an easier method for younger kids. Only one structure really was not Evangeline-safe - a platform with no way down but down the ladder or the firepole, and the whole thing some 7 feet up. (Alas, we were *up there* when I saw there was no way to get to the lower level that had a slide! So I had to call for help, and another woman lifted Evangeline down for me.)

The real plus of this playground, though, is that it's not just a random group of play structures. There's a "fort" that really works like a maze, and the sprinkler runs down a channel and makes a little bit of a pool at the end, and the whole place looks like it's just made for kids to run around and pretend in, instead of simply proving that they can climb really high.

More playgrounds should be built with that in mind.

Nearest bathroom is at Tavern on the Green, and they *will* let you use their toilets. Yay!

Went here today. Right by the Met.

Ana had great fun - she played in the sand, mostly, but she did do a few "adventurous" things. She braved the rope swings, for example, with help from me. Well, that was about it. She didn't, oddly, gravitate towards the tire swings, nor the slides. I suppose it's just been a while since she's had a big sandbox to play in.

Pros - it's a huge sandbox. Even though it's geared for older kids (though all the standard swings are baby-swings, oddly), you can bring a younger child there just to play in the sand.

It has a lot of toddler/infant sized slides. You don't have to clog up the bottom quarter of a normal slide for your kid to have fun, and the younger slides are non-steep enough that you don't have to hold the older babies, really (unless they want it).

It's huge. Lots of room to run around.

Cons - it's a huge sandbox. Gritty pants, anybody? And most kids got into the sand before taking off their shoes. Why do kids do that, anyway? I remember doing that!

The more fun parts can be hard for younger children to do - the rope swing, the climbing areas.

It's huge. Even though there appears to only be the one gate, if your kid is prone to wandering off, it's hard to keep an eye on them. Ana's starting to really grasp "Don't leave this area", but she's only three. I still want to at least be able to see her - and with a giant structure in the middle of this playground, it can be kinda hard.

Like a lot of older playgrounds, there's a lot of asphalt in the non-sand area (hardly any of it, when I put it that way) - and with the trees, it's getting a bit buckled. Whether this is good or bad depends on your view of childhood, but I'm going to stick it here.

My thoughts: I liked it. I think I remember going here as a child, even - nostalgia value :)

But I think next time I go, I'll go on a special trip with Ana and a friend, and either leave the baby at home, or have another adult so that one of us watches the baby while the other watches the bigger kids. Or I could wait until Ana's older, but I want to do this every-playground thing yearly :)

Ideally, the playground works for ages 5+, I should think - though other than the rope swing, none of it is all that exciting for the daredevil types.