A 15-year-old boy was beaten and stabbed by a large group of teens in Brooklyn yesterday. According to police, the incident occurred around 6:30 p.m. yesterday at a playground on Madison Street, in Bushwick, behind PS 299. The victim and some friends were shooting hoops when a group of 10-20 teens came in with sticks and bottles. "They grabbed him and they pulled him down. They started kicking him and beating him with sticks,” one witness told the News, adding that she was terrified by the ordeal. more ›

Police have arrested someone for basically razing a new Queens playground and causing $100,000 in damage. Seventeen-year-old Allan Swafford, of the Bronx, was arrested yesterday, based on a tip to CrimeStoppers. more ›

Ugh, sometimes people are just the worst. Because why would anyone want to destroy a brand, new playground scheduled to open for this summer? Far Rockaway residents are devastated as some idiot(s) decided to drive a front loader into the playground and to rip away slides and other play equipment. Community board district manager Jonathan Gaska said, "They just wrecked most of the playground. Pretty much every piece of equipment was damaged. So you almost have to replace almost everything." more ›

In an effort to show the world how it appears from other perspectives, humans have given cameras to cats and to dogs—so strapping one onto a human child makes perfect sense. It also, if the following video is any indication, makes for an adorable afternoon diversion (warning: may cause motion sickness in the old). more ›

The Daily News' police sources claim that a man groped a little boy in a bathroom at a Central Park playground yesterday morning. According to the News, "The boy was leaving the bathroom at Ancient Playground, near the Metropolitan Museum of Art, about 9:15 a.m. when a man grabbed his buttocks and fled." more ›

Last night, a man shot three people at a Brooklyn playground. One of the victims, a 19-year-old man, was shot in the head while a 9-year-old boy and his father were both shot in the leg. more ›

Parts of McCarren Park are being overtaken by drunk homeless people who poop in public and scare the neighborhood children—and it's no laughing matter. The Brooklyn Paper today picked up the story that New York Shitty's been covering for months, giving it a glib little treatment pitting "neighborhood nannies" against "liquored-up vagabonds" who stink up the children's playground in the park. But the real issue here goes way beyond just poop, says Heather Letzkus of NY Shitty. more ›

Good news for fans of sitting near playgrounds without children! Back in June we told you about four twentysomethings who were ticketed by the police because they were sitting, eating doughnuts, in a Bed-Stuy playground unaccompanied by children. Two months later at least half of those tickets have been dismissed and sealed. Meanwhile in Manhattan, at least, it seems that cops are giving elderly women warnings about where they are sitting rather than tickets. Oh, and the Parks Department seems to understand that their signage can be a little confusing if placed in the wrong spot. more ›

The police may not be ticketing for smoking in the parks, but they are still ticketing parker visitors for crimes like...eating a doughnut in a playground. Yup, this weekend the police gave two young women in Bed-Stuy summonses for eating doughnuts in a playground while unaccompanied by a minor. more ›

Early this morning, vandals set playground equipment at the recently renovated PS 29 on fire. Building manager John Russo told Carrol Gardens Patch he was planning to call the contractor who built the playground to see if any of it was salvageable. "This is just heartbreaking. We haven't even finished painting yet," said parent Lisa Trollbäck. more ›

Some Brooklyn residents want local neighborhood kids to STFU, at least on Sundays. According to the Daily News, the playground at P.S. 139 in Ditmas Park has become a battleground. Homeowners in the area say they used to have "Sundays off," but now kids are flocking there 7 days a week (as a part of Bloomberg's Schoolyards to Playgrounds initiative). They now plan to file a lawsuit arguing that the playground has become a public nuisance, and declare that the Mayor would never allow this near his home on 79th Street. more ›

Mommy blogger Elyssa Stern allegedly offered to pay off a $45K dental bill by publishing a four page glowing review in the Observer's Playground magazine, which she is the editor-in-chief of. According to the Daily News, Stern is now being sued by the dental practice (Lowenberg & Lituchy DDS) after the article never ran, and the bill has remained unpaid. more ›

The three silver orbs that plagued the new Brooklyn Bridge Park playground are gone for good. The metal structures were meant to be fun, but they ended up burning children—when they weren't breaking noses—since their metal surfaces were heated in the sunlight. According to the NY Times, they were removed on Friday, and last night were replaced by two new items, described as "a new red house and fairy castle." We headed over there check it out (it's still under construction), and it seems some cute animal statues have also popped up. more ›

The metal orbs residing in Brooklyn Bridge Park have been a hot topic since their April debut. The playground equipment has been scorching kids on sunny days, and eventually tents were placed over them to block the sun—a plan that didn't really pan out. Now the orbs are being removed all together. more ›

A 1.6 acre "destination mega-playground" will open tomorrow at the end of Atlantic Avenue at Pier 6 of Brooklyn Bridge Park. GET EXCITED! (If you have kids.) But even if you're not saddled with the double-decade burden of parenthood, and still find kids cute, you should also GET EXCITED because starting tomorrow there will also be FREE ferry service between Pier 6 and Governors Island. So you can ride your fixie over there, grab a kid to go, and hit up the free Yeasayer show at "The Beach" without spending a dime. more ›

Following yesterday's mention of the burning metal mountain in Union Square Park's new playground, Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates sent us the above photos showing what he believes to be other dangerous additions to the play area. He told us, "We've been monitoring this brand new playground for some time and have gotten numerous complaints. This playground is one of the most expensive in the city and the design and choices of equipment are part of the issue." more ›

So much drama in the playground this year! First there was that whole thing about the prison-themed jungle gym in the projects, then over in Brooklyn Bridge Park they installed the world's most dangerous playground, complete with burning metal orbs... and now parents utilizing Union Square Park have some complaints. more ›

Prison themes and burning metal orbs may not be fit for playgrounds, and perhaps the Parks Department has the fear in them now when picking new pieces, but their latest unveiling is just... [blank stare]. CityRoom reports that earlier this week a new jungle gym was presented to residents in the Bronx, and it's shaped like the first rotary printing press—known as the "lightning press"—invented in 1846 by Richard March Hoe. Just what every child wants! more ›

Brooklyn Bridge Park is expanding their torture chamber playground with a sandbox, swing sets, and some other (hopefully) kid-friendly amusements. Brooklyn Heights Blog has some photos of what's being called the Sandbox Village and playground at Pier 6—do these things look safe to you? more ›

In today's playground news: no spaceships, prisons, or burning orbs are mentioned, but residents of Woodside, Queens want a certain group banned from their local play area. According to the Daily News, the Hart Playground—and more specifically its bathrooms—has been taken over by day laborers. One community Board 2 member told them, "People are afraid to use the park. [Men] come and they stay all day and they're urinating, drinking and washing clothes and taking baths in the fountain. It's not even an area where they should be without a child." more ›

Play time's over, kids! The $800,000 playground at Brooklyn Bridge Park was shut down this week, and scheduled to reopen today. Earlier this month the metal orbs were under criticism after reaching 128 degrees and burning children, then the same playthings broke a child's nose, and now the foam surfacing needed repair! The playground has only been open for a month, so this doesn't bode well. more ›

The scorching hot orbs at Brooklyn Bridge Park have taken the heat off the Bed-Stuy prison playground for a while, but now the latter is back in the headlines. The offensive jail design has been removed and replaced with a space-themed panel (so hot right now). more ›

Yesterday Brooklyn Bridge Park was under attack after the metal orbs designed for their play area got so hot (128 degrees!) they were scorching skin. The park promptly put tents over them, which only solved the problem until the sun shifted. Now parents want the evil orbs ripped out, declaring they're not just hot, but dangerous. more ›

It's not a prison playground, but Brooklyn Bridge Park's metal climbing domes have parents scorching mad. The domes, part of the playground at the new park, may have looked innocent enough on under the gray clouds on opening day... but now that the sun is out, they've turned into tools of torture! more ›

Yesterday afternoon, an 18-year-old man was stabbed to death near Prospect Park after a "confrontation with a group of men over a girl." According to the NY Times, the victim had been speaking with a girl when the men approached him around 5:30 p.m.. The group then chased him out to Parade Place and Crooke Avenue. more ›

A reader sent in these photos from Riverside Park—one from tot lot 110 at Riverside and 110th Street, and the other from tot lot 108 at Riverside and 108th Street. Is this some sort of exercise to get kids to think outside the (sand)box? We've contacted the Parks Department to see what they had in mind when dumping the sand so far away from its intended destination, and will update when they get back to us. more ›

We're on day three of jungle jail gate, and the opinions, outrage and depressing quotes from children continue to pour in. While many are calling for the prison-themed playground to be torn down, one 5-year-old resident of the Bed-Stuy Tompkins Houses, Destiny, says she likes it because it reminds her of her father (who is in jail for gun possession). Sigh. more ›