Local Families Frustrated As Slope Park Spinning Disk Is Welded

Growing up in the ’80s, I remember spinning around so fast on the playground merry-go-round that we couldn’t see straight. Kids would pile on so that there wasn’t any room to hang on, and then jump off in mid-spin, oftentimes landing in a giant heap in the dirt. Sure there were the occasional bumps and bruises, but we recovered, and always got back on, because that type of joy is what being a kid is all about.

Sadly, the chance to spin in neighborhood Slope and Vanderbilt playgrounds is over, after the city’s Parks Department recently welded popular spinning disk playground equipment so that they would no longer turn.

“Parks is making this adjustment in the interest of safety,” a representative explained via email last week. When asked about specific injuries that led to the changes, though, they declined to respond.

“What’s the purpose of the thing then?” questioned a Windsor Terrace parent after hearing about the disk. “Why not bring down anything the kids climb on in case they fall?

“Turn off the sprinklers, too, in case somebody slips,” she added.

Neighbor Rebecca Stein agreed.

“I think this is SO ridiculous,” she exclaimed. “Soon there will be nothing left to play with there and we will be expected to dress our kids in bubble wrap before leaving the house!”

Dan Janzen, PTA President at PS 295, which sits beside Slope Park, said that the spinning disk was “always a social center with a bunch of different kids on it.”

As a parent, that was the best part of the disk for me. Children young and old would gravitate toward it, and oftentimes end up playing together. Not many areas on the playground facilitate that sort of interaction.

In addition to the two playgrounds around South Slope and Windsor Terrace, similar modifications were made in five other parks around the city, says DNAinfo, who was the first to report the story.

This isn’t the first time equipment has been removed from Slope Park. Just two months after the renovated playground’s grand opening, a large platform swing was taken down after several children broke their legs. At the time, Parks said the “removal would be temporary,” but they have yet to install a replacement.

“How hard can it be to figure out what kind of stuff is safe to put in a playground ahead of time, then stick with it?” asked Dan. “It’s not like playgrounds are a recent invention.”

What do you think, parents? Did Parks make the right decision, or was putting the kibosh on the disks a bit overzealous?