‘Enough is enough’: Lawmakers saw chains off locked Brooklyn playground
A trio of lawmakers on Tuesday had the chains cut off of two closed Brooklyn playgrounds in direct defiance of Mayor Bill de Blasio who continues to refuse to open up the city’s playgrounds from their coronavirus-induced shutdowns.
The chains were cut off of three gates at Midwood’s Kolbert Playground with an angle grinder roughly a half-hour before de Blasio, while speaking during his daily City Hall morning press briefing, said the public did not have the authority to reopen such playground areas.
Afterwards the chains were hacked off the gates at Dome Playground in Borough Park.
“People are not allowed to open up a playground that’s not yet available to the public,” de Blasio said as video of the defiance was being spread on Twitter.
Hizzoner was answering a question about a fed-up bolt cutter-wielding group that let themselves into the Middleton Playground in Williamsburg Monday after city workers had welded a gate there shut to keep people out.
Still, neighborhood elected officials Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein, state Sen. Simcha Felder and Councilman Kalman Yeger the next morning organized to have chains power-sawed off the gates at Kolbert Playground on Avenue L and East 18th Street and Dome Playground at 38th Street.
“Enough is enough,” Yeger said at Kolbert Playground, alongside the other politicians. “This tiny little oasis of joy is being withheld from the children of our community. And enough is enough.”
Yeger said it was senseless for the city’s parks to be open, but not community playgrounds.
“If it was truly, truly case that for public safety, for public health, parks had to be closed, then let all the parks be closed,” Yeger said. “And if it’s not the case, let all the parks be opened. The hypocrisy has to end. And today it ends right here at Kolbert park.”
Felder said that keeping the playgrounds closed makes for a dangerous situation with children instead playing in the streets.
“What are we waiting for [to open the playgrounds]? Some kid to run out in the street and get killed and finally say ‘oh, we should open the playgrounds.’ That doesn’t make sense,” he said.
The senator also said that the city could disinfect the playgrounds like how the Big Apple’s subways get scrubbed down daily in the midst the coronavirus crisis.
Eichenstein added, “Mr. Mayor, what are we asking for? We are asking for you to give our children a safe place to play. Let kids be kids.”
“The kids have been locked up at home now for three months and not being in school,” he said.
As the chains were sawed off the gates at Kolbert Playground, area residents and their children cheered and some shouted, “Open the park!” before they trickled in.
Eager children ran for the playground monkey bars and the swings once the gates were opened.
“It’s great to be back in the park,” said Kany Tavaldyeva as she pushed her 2-year-old son, Leo, in a swing at the playground.
“During this pandemic, we used to play outside of this playground and all the kids’ knees and hands were damaged. So we are glad to be back here,” Tavaldyeva said.
Rimma Smorodina, 31, who entered the playground with her 5-year-old daughter, Polina, called it a “great feeling to be back today.”
“We sat at home for three months. Our windows face the park and my daughter watched through the window every day and she said, ‘Mommy, I’m missing the park. I would like to walk, play with kids,’” said Smorodina.
Felder, Eichenstein and Yeger all gathered in front of Kolbert Playground on Sunday and urged de Blasio to open the gates.
“The people have spoken and they are sick and tired of being ignored. With everything going on in the world, why is our mayor intent on making criminals of mothers and children in need of a safe space to play?” the lawmakers said in a joint statement Tuesday.
“If they lock these gates, we will cut them open again tomorrow, because we serve the people. Who do you serve, Mr. Mayor?” the statement said.
De Blasio said Tuesday during his press conference that playgrounds will remain closed “until we get to Phase Two” of the state’s four-phase reopening plan, which he refused to commit to allowing the city to enter this coming Monday, June 22.
City playgrounds have been closed by state order since April 1 due the coronavirus pandemic, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday during his own press briefing that it’s “up to the local governments” to decide when to reopen the play spaces.
“Playgrounds are a decision that would vary across the state,” Cuomo said. “It’s up to the local governments and they have to figure it out.”
“If you have a dispute among local officials, they have to sit down and figure out,” said the governor.