Long Island City’s latest waterfront playground already packed to the gills

Hurray! The amount of kids that have been flocking daily to the new park shows just how much we needed this space. And it looks good, the facilities are nice, the colors, too.

My only concern is that 15 foot (or higher) red structure for climbing, which looks dangerous to me. Kids, pls be careful!

Thank goodness we now have a place for the children to play while dotting parents can look on. (There are more adults in these pictures than kids.) None of the other 5 parks in walking distance could suffice because they don’t have nearly enough bright colors as this one. My only complaint is that there is not a changing station or mothers nursing area to compliment the park. Perhaps we can buildoze some more greenery and add those facilities as well.

Parents are supposed to supervise their kids. Don’t be morons!

I don’t need parenting lessons from a fool.

They did a great job with the park and the kids love it. I guess now they will bring down blue park.

For the sake of meaningless arguments common to this blog, you are actually all wrong, there are 10 children in this photo and only 7 adults.

It was controversial because they ripped out half the great lawn for it. Some of us wanted the lawn. They could have built a playground anywhere. I know everyone is going to say, see we needed it, it’s so crowded. Yes, but it didn’t need to be right there. The lawn and quiet open green space is even more precious around here. The playground could have been built in a hundred other spots.

What is this supposed to prove? That LIC parents are not neglectful parents?

When I was a little kid, my dad used to take me to a playground at Astoria Park. He’d light up a White Owl and park himself on a bench under a shade tree with his Daily News a good 150 feet or so from me. The other parents, if they were even there, similarly left us alone to play with the other kids on the steel equipment (HORRORS!) with asphalt surfaces.

When we exhausted ourselves or fell and skinned our knees, that would usually be the end of the day. My dad would put a little spit on a tissue and dab at our wound. “You’ll live,” he’d say. Today, my parents would probably get hauled off to jail for being neglectful. I’m so grateful they raised me the way I did, and not like these fragile little flowers getting propagated all over NYC these days.

Childrearing today often seems more about consoling the needs of insecure parents and not their kids, who by nature would love to run free and explore the world without their parents up their a$$es. And that’s why I think some people are reacting the way they are on this thread.

I have one. He’s 16. He was riding the subway alone when he was 10.

Put up a bridge to run across the East River. Now that would be fun.

That’s because jungle gyms are not for 2 year olds.

I think the parents are hovering because the gym is a little precarious. I saw it up close yesterday and the colors and space of it are great, but the actual apparatuses leave something to be desired.

I’m sure that’s just what the folks who come to relax in the hammocks have in mind: screaming children five feet away from them. Sounds very relaxing! The lawn looks awful! It was so beautiful before when it was a big open space and if I recall, children had a blast running around and playing with one another. I hope they rip up the playgoround on the other end and replace it with a lovely dog park for the dog owners who contribute so much to the community.
And #17 you are so right. I remember growing up and going to Andrew’s playground when there were steel monkey bars where I used to swing upside down from. I once even hit my head on one the the bars and look at me, I’m still alive! I’m surprised the parents here don’t put helmets on their kids and dress them up in padded suits. More than half the adults I’ve spoken with are furious at the new playgroud. That says a lot!

Half the reason parents take their kids the park is to socialize and meet other parents. Those parents are probably hovering so they can get closer to the other parents and ask the ultimate parent icebreaker “How old is he/she?”