Photo courtesy of vmax137 flickr.comBy Alicia Cruz
The Black Urban Times
More than two months after the New York Daily News began reporting injuries of children playing on steel dome playground equipment at the new Brooklyn Bridge Park, officials have finally blocked access to the steel domes after a toddler suffered second-degree burns while playing on the domes last week.
Officials from the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corp., which designed the new park, declined a request for an interview from the News, but did say that the equipment, which was installed by landscape architects Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, will be closed "as alternate, all-weather play equipment options are evaluated."
This isn't the first time structures built by Van Valkenburgh Associates have come under fire. A similar metal dome the firm built during the redesigning of the northern end of Union Square Park also drew sharp criticism from critics and park users.
The recent injury of 13-month old Paula Spolar followed several other complaints from parents who say their children were also burned after playing on the sizzling hot steel equipment.
"It's not rocket science," Brooklyn mom Raewyn Khosla, 41 fumed to the News.
"Playground 101 is don't put anything dangerous in a park for kids
Reports by the New York Daily News motivated park officials to erect temporary tents above the steel domes in order to shield the equipment from the sun, but they did little to prevent little Paula's injury since officials did not plan on moving the tents with the sun's path.
"She was walking by it and wobbled a little bit and just touched it," Paula's mom, Karen Spolar told the New York Daily News.
"It's unconscionable that there is a frying pan in the middle of a playground."
Park officials responding to concerns about the equipment initially argued that trees planted near the steel domes would provide shade to cool the steel domes during hot days once they matured, but critics said that could take years.
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