Battery Park City

Today we visited some more playgrounds. First we stooped at Washington Market Park. It was a very nice place, lots of shad some climbing toys and squirting water stuff. None of these fun things were listed in their website, but their website did win some awards.

After we got some snacks at the nearby farmers market, we set off to our goal Teardrop Park. There was a lot of info on the park on the Internet. The Downtown Express like it. GoCityKids said it was close to some nice bathrooms. The Harvard School of Design like it a lot. Yelp said it is hard to find, I like to find hard to find places, they are rarely crowded.

But, the Internet review that got my attention was from The Project for Public Spaces, they pointed out that the park is built to look like nature as opposed to being a fun place. The kids had a great time, but I could easily tell that it was not designed by anybody who ever spent time with an 8 year old, or had even given thought to how a good playground works. There was no fence, or even a sense of edge to the park. I could not find a nice place to sit and let the kids play. I had to run around and make sure the kids did not warder off.

Normally, you can put a bolder 10 or 15 feet from the bottom of a slide, but, if you put water anywhere near a slide it will be used as a lubricator (accelerator). All the caregivers at once had to get the kids off the slide. There was an overwhelming sense that some little kid was about to bash their skull in.

That did not happen. Today....

So we walked south a little to Nelson A Rockefeller Park The GoCityKids review really hits it, this place was sweet. They missed the fact that they lend out toys, games and stuff like Hulla-hoops.

Fun, lots of fun, no bashed skulls.