A gate at a closed Williamsburg playground was welded shut Monday to keep out those who repeatedly cut the lock to get in during the coronavirus shutdown — only for a bolt cutter-wielding mob to let themselves in hours later.
The welding by city workers at Middleton Playground infuriated parents, who say the playground should be opened up, not sealed even tighter.
“How long can we keep our kids in prison?” asked one mom of six in the predominantly Hasidic area of Brooklyn, who declined to give her name. “I don’t feel like I live in a free country.”
Workers at the playground, which is bounded by Lee Avenue and Lynch and Middleton streets, declined to comment. But one was heard telling a parent: “We don’t know when it will open, but hopefully in a week or two. For now, it is closed.”
The Parks Department later said that welding was a short-term fix after locks had been repeatedly busted — at least 25 times in the span of just a few weeks — and that the playground would go back to using locks Monday afternoon.
“At this playground, a temporary measure was used to shut the playground after it was breached,” said spokeswoman Anessa Hodgson in a statement. “It will be unwelded today and replaced with a lock.”
But within hours, dozens of Hasidic locals crowded together — most without masks — to cheer as three men snipped open one of the gates with bolt cutters, a video tweeted by @HQSatmar shows.
City playgrounds have been closed by state order since April 1, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo took the option out of the hands of Mayor Bill de Blasio as the pandemic ran rampant through New York. At the time, the governor’s office said they took the step to prevent the gathering crowds where the virus, which has killed over 100,000 people in the US over the past few months, could spread.
The mom of six said that after three months of a coronavirus shutdown and with the weather warming up, she was running out of ways to entertain her kids.
“We did everything already. We baked, we did puzzles, we read, we cooked,” she said. “It is gorgeous weather why shouldn’t they be outside?”
An area man, who also declined to be identified by name, questioned the hypocrisy of adults packing city parks, often without masks or regard for social-distancing, while kids are being locked out.
“Other parks are jam-packed with adults, and the park for the kids is closed,” he said. “The adults can crowd a park but you can’t allow kids to play? It doesn’t make sense. ”
Community activist Gary Schlesinger called out a different kind of double-standard, noting that the city did nothing to discourage recent people-packed protests demanding justice for George Floyd, the black man killed May 25 when a white Minneapolis cop knelt on his neck.
“You have tens of thousands of people marching with no social distancing and it feels like a tale of two cities,” he said. “Parents of kids which are the majority of people who live in this community are very angry about this because you are talking about large families confined to small apartments for weeks and weeks. The mayor’s office should be cognizant of this, but to him it’s the complete opposite.”
Kids in the community last week took to the streets in their own protest to demand Cuomo open up sleepaway summer camps, but the bid was shot down by the governor.
“We are dealing with families who have been imprisoned in their homes for three months, and they can’t go and breathe fresh air?” said David Niederman, president of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn. “Kids cannot have what they need, which is fresh air.”
State Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, whose district includes Williamsburg, said that if protesters and barflies can be trusted to police themselves, kids should be too.
“These kids have parents that can instruct them on safe distancing and making sure they are not only safe distancing and make sure the playground isn’t full,” Lentol told The Post. “There’s an honor system. You see what they do at bars, they’re adults. There’s an honor system for protests.
“We’ve given them [kids] enough information to do what’s right and let’s trust them to have at least a little bit of fun.”