The rats are particularly noticeable in the recently renovated, $1.5 million playground off Ninth Street and Avenue A, The Villager reports this week.
So a group of parents have banded together, calling themselves the Tompkins Square Park & Playgrounds Parents’ Association. "'The fact that, in less than 12 months, the playground has gone from being a crown jewel of the New York playground system to a state of such disrepair is depressing,' said [group founder Chad] Marlow, whose 2-year-old daughter plays in the playground daily."
A Parks Department spokesperson said the city is willing to listen to the association’s concerns, The Villager reported.
Read the whole article here. Also, Bob Arihood has some excellent night-time photos of the rats in the wild. This may be my favorite shot from 2009. I added a few more rat links to Neither More Nor Less. Like these.
[Photo of dead rat in Tompkins Square Park by Bobby Williams]
34 comments:
So, assuming that she didn't hang out in the playground during her first year, we can date the downhill slide of the playground to the arrival of the Marlow daughter.
how very Park Slope.
I don't know what more can be done about the rats, I mean they've already brought in a hawk!
right jeremiah, we don't need clean parks. screw the kids. improvement and cleanliness is for loser hipsters who should all go home to ohio. is that what you meant to say?
i am rightfully leery of a parents group being able to wield power over the goings-on of tompkins square park.
not that i am pro-rat! just that one must always consider long term consequences.
@Ennuipoet - When they discovered rats in the island parks on Park Avenue, Mayor Koch deployed the NYPD SWAT Team, including helicopters. But that was Park Avenue.
UGH! You know, it's this crap that really gets me riled up. I'm a mother of a toddler, and I've lived here for over 15 years. I love and respect this neighborhood and I live here because of what it is and has been. But now I'm sure I'll be roped in with these whiny transplants who want to create a Park Slope II here.
Hey parents. 1) You can't keep your precious little ones in a bubble for their whole lives. How 'bout teaching them how to live with rats because 2) This city is filled with rats. Get over it. And 3) Stop being such douchebags and maybe the rest of the neighborhood won't resent you and your little precious ones so much. Why the hell are you here if you can't handle a little grit and wildlife? Move to the UES or Park Slope if that's really so important to you.
Whew. Ok. That felt good.
- Megan
Wow, sorry, but that's crazypants. Rats spread disease. Yes, there's always plenty of 'em in a big city and if you want to live on an island with 2.5 million other humans you're going to have to share space with some rodents, but rats CAN be controlled if the city wants to allocate resources to that and it's actually perfectly reasonable for people to not want the playgrounds their kids play in overrun with the little plague-bags. That's true for the affluent newcomers with kids, and it's true for working-class neighborhood old-timers with kids.
Well put Megan. I'd also like to add A) Teach your kids how to clean up after themselves by B) Learning to clean up after yourselves, and C) Put that dog on a leash and clean up its mess. DOH lesson number one, rats and mice go where the food is. Half eaten bags of chips, candy wrappers, cookies . . . I've seen all that stuff left on benches and thrown on the ground. Heck , I once saw a used diaper and half finished bottle of juice left on a park bench and I'd take the bet that it wasn't one of the crusty's who was responsible. The city can only do so much and the hawk needs a break. It's too hot for rat hunting!
Wow, what nastiness! Being upset is not about being in a Park Slope state of mind. I am a parent. Gee, I don't have a house in the Hamptons or Columbia County. It is not unreasonable to complain when you see 20-30 rats in the playground in the early evening. Should kids just play in the streets and get run over?
That said, parents complaining about sand in the drains and kids jumping from walls should supervise their own children and speak up when other parents are paying no attention. And don't throw diapers away in the park - the rats really love em!
No more rats now than before. The problem is: (i) Construction work is disruptive and brings them more out in the open. (ii) The TSP red-tailed hawk apparently prefers Smurfs to rats.
@ Glamma, what makes you rightfully leary? I understand the leary part, just wonder why its rightful? Because parent groups have a history of gentrifying neighborhoods? Maybe thats it, but its not obvious what makes your learyness rightful.
I'm sick of all the digs here into Park Slope, nice place to live, cool people. These posts are filled with snottiness. I don't mind rats at all, btw, no big deal, part of city life.
right, Anon 9:35, my skepticism about a new parent group means that i must be pro-rat, pro-disease, and pro-filth, and probably also in favor of violent crime and child torture. that must be it. why would anyone be skeptical of parent groups in this current cultural climate?
Go Megan!
why the Ohio hate? why don't you comment on Connecticut or Missouri or some other place.
I live up the block from Tompkins (no kids just dogs - don't know if I'll be slammed into a stereotype or not) but -OH MY GOD!!! - shouldn't we be happy that someone has gotten some attention to the rat problem. I've lived here over 10 years and the problem has gotten much worse. The city has cut back on extermination services - that's the bottom line - and we all need to make some noise to get rid of these vermin (not wildlife - vermin!)
Children should be required to watch this film before playing in the park.
http://twe.ly/k7ob
@Anonymous:
Leery = Wary because of realistic suspicions.
Leary = Having to do with a legendary early King of Britain (ie; King Lear).
Learyness = The state of being a legendary early King of Britain (ie; King Lear).
Uhh... isn't that playground across the fence from the pigeon lady's favorite crumb-and-run spot?
Just sayin...
I live near the park and used to live near WS Park, which didn't have nearly as many rats after the reno. The thing that is weird at TSP is that people feed the birds in the AM and I actually see rats intermingling with the birds... in broad daylight! That isn't normal rat behavior, is it? There are rat holes everywhere along Ave A. Something should be done to reduce the number of rats. Maybe we can get more red tailed hawks?
Alice, you have obviously never lived in Park Slope and/or are only familiar with post 90's Park Slope. The residents of the Slope did much to earn the hate they receive. The yupsters who reside here are obnoxious, self absorbed, and oblivious to anything that remotely has to do with anything outside of the little yuppy/suburban sterilized utopia that they have worked so hard to create. As someone who grew up in the Slope in the 80's, I can tell you first hand that they have utter disdain for anyone who isn't part of their program . Working class , lower middle class , and , immigrant New Yorkers were to be removed . Their homes and businesses were an eyesore. These days the blocks where old timers or old time businesses like bodegas do remain are referred to by them as 'the sketchy blocks' as the blocks that still haven't 'come up yet.' This is a land where you best get out of the way if you see a stroller mom or you're going to lose a limb. Where tots run free in bars whether the bar owner likes it or not , where ... Oh forget it .
I feel I owe the readers here an apology and a more detailed explanation. As a parent, I really should know better than to resort to name-calling and hostility.
I love this neighborhood. I think that helping to keep it clean and contributing to the neighborhood is a good thing. The spirit of this group has upset me very much, though, as is obvious in my more heated response.
If these parents are concerned enough to do something about the rat population, why not reach out to help educate the community on how to keep the rat population down? Why call 311 and complain, and then when nothing happens, get a bigger group to complain even louder? If you look at the city's site on dealing with the rat population, the first thing is says is that it takes effort on all fronts, including controlling trash and food waste. That's on us.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/pest/pest.shtml
Hawks who are excellent natural predators for the rats, but their population has been hurt by rat poison, as in Riverside Park. What happens if the city comes in to deal with the rats with poison? Is it safer to have poison all over the park where children, dogs, and red-tailed hawks could get to it? It turns out that rats won't even eat poison if there are other, better food sources.
What's also on us is watching our children to help them play safely on a playground. Suing the city because our child uses a broken swing is a terrible lesson to teach our children. Will you also sue when they climb on equipment and use in a way that was not intended, as children will do? http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/science/19tierney.html
This neighborhood has awesome strains of activism, and it has a very cool history of taking care of its own. The idea of crowding the neighborhood with parents who are all too ready to sue and are hoisting problems on someone else is really depressing - not a playground that has enjoyed heavy use by a very large population of children.
- Megan
Thanks Ken, that clears it up. It was a grammar question.
and I was referencing Timothy Leary, as in, how much LSD are you on if you have a problem with someone doing something about the rats.
As my post indicated though, that wasnt the word in question, it was the "Rightfully", so, let me know about that.
I love how these parents band together to do something seemingly positive, but only because it directly affects them. What next? Antibiotic slides? Suck a rat! Move.
Very well done, Megan. But you are entirely too nice.
It's one very reasonable thing to bring the city's attention to an ongoing rat problem that may, or may not, be related to playground renovations. It's another thing entirely for the head of this group to announce that you've put the city on notice about the sandbox and sprinklers in TSP too, saying things like, “If a kid smacks their head on that sandbox — particularly when it comes out of the wood that the city’s been notified of the risk — it’s a million-dollar lawsuit.”
If I were the person on the city payroll ultimately responsible for TSP, I'd take the guy's threats seriously and either have the sandbox pulled right outta there or post a set of rules guaranteed to make the sandbox and sprinklers unusable: no running, no jumping, no pushing, no playing with sand outside the sandbox, no...no...no...etc...not out of retaliation, but self preservation. The guy strikes me as an overprotective parent and a bully.
Actually Anonymous, it was a spelling question. Grammar refers to how words combine to form sentences.
As for the request in your next comment, please see my comment to Megan, that should provide your answer.
Park Slopers do stuff that benefits them.
I stopped reading after Megan. As an adult living in our city, raised in our city who spends far too much time in playgrounds...my two cents is that the current problem stems from inconsiderate transplants that call 311 when rat poison is placed near their precious self important brats. And the simple fact that their cell phone talking nannies do not clean up after their charges. I was taught to pick up my trash plus 2. As in whatever garbage I created as well as two pieces that were not mine. I think people think park staff are there to serve them-country club style. Stop calling the city, it's broke. Have a clean up day with your little army , maybe it will teach your children about really being a part of a community. Or move to a place with a fence around your annoying self .
In my experience, those with less power or money in our society never say "we don't like that our has neighborhood such-and-such health or quality of life problem, and if you don't want this problem than you're naive or inauthentic". They may not always manage to fight quality of life problems, but they do not romanticize them because life is hard enough already and the effects are too serious. Kids need and deserve clean, safe, disease-free places to play.
I'm all for community activism and less rats. But I hope in this new parent association, they are discussing the fact that parents let their children pee in the playground along the fence every single day! This attracts rats. And it's just as gross as the rats. Please start a don't pee in playgrounds association. Thank you.
I grew up in an inner city neighborhood not unlike the TSP area. The playgrounds were probably a nightmare compared to the TSP playscape - asphalt, crushed stone, lots of places to get banged, knocked down, cut bruised etc. while just playing. I don't think it ever occurred to anyone that we needed to put the city "on notice" in that regard. Rats - another story but they can be contained .
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