Tire Swing coming back to West Thames
The notorious tire swing in the new West Thames Park will be back up again – this time, with new and improved signage.
A written warning and illustration will caution children not to swing in full force at risk of hitting their heads against the wooden beam.
A handful of Community Board 1 members met on Monday night to discuss the play device that has been the subject of controversy since the park’s reopening in May.
Bill Schoenmaker’s child hit her head on the swing’s wooden beam on opening day of the renovated park. Schoenmaker furiously took the swing down himself the next day, only for the D.O.T. to reinstall it four days later. At the community’s request, the swing was taken down again on July 7 after an uproar among B.P.C. parents who deemed it a danger to their children.
“We haven’t seen a significant danger yet,” said C.B. 1 member Anthony Notaro.
Will it be taken down yet again? To be continued.
Issues at Vesey Street Pedestrian Bridge
The escalator has been out of service for two weeks, according to C.B.1 Quality of Life Committee Member Ruth Ohman. As for the elevator, “It was out, then it came back, and then it was out again another day. What’s going on?” she asked Robin Forst, L.M.C.C.C.’s director of community relations, at the July 15 meeting.
Robin Forst replied that the maintenance of both amenities falls on the N.Y.S. D.O.T., recommending that the Board should consider drafting a resolution if the problem persists.
“It’s ridiculous that these elevators and escalators are constantly out,” said C.B. 1 Quality of Life Committee Chair Pat Moore following the meeting. It’s especially problematic for pedestrians carrying heavy luggage and those in wheelchairs.
Gateway Plaza Residents
Residents from Gateway’s 200 building have sent us several noise complaints due to construction in their building. But they won’t give their names.
“The high-pitched grinding, drilling and hammering on this (and adjacent) buildings…continued every day at different times during the past thirty-seven weeks including today, July 8, starting at 10:30 a.m.,” according to the letter.
“People have really had it with this noise which has been going on for nearly three years,” it continues.
“It just seems like it’s never-ending,” said one Gateway Plaza resident who lives in a different building. “My windows are filthy from the dust.”
Palin tweets against Cordoba, coins word “refudiate”
The latest Tea Party voice to oppose Cordoba House’s plans to build a community center and prayer space near Ground Zero is a big one: Sarah Palin.
Palin, in a series of recent Twitter posts, encouraged her followers to oppose the controversial plan, posting “Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts” on Sunday. But the not-so-wording of an earlier post has attracted much more attention as her sentiment; she urged New York residents to “refudiate” the mosque, apparently so moved by the situation she felt the need to create a new word altogether to express her frustration.
Palin quickly changed her post after her invention attracted unwanted attention, replacing “refudiate” with “refute” but maintaining her staunch opposition to the as-of-right project. Later, she defended her mistake by reminding the public that Shakespeare also created words on occasion. Well, at least we know she writes her own Twitter.
