When news broke Monday that popular stroller company Maclaren would recall all the strollers they've sold since 1999, the eyes of the world turned to Park Slope. Would there be panic in the streets, stroller bonfires, and children reduced to walking? Naturally the Times was on the scene (the paper's Metro editor Joe Sexton is a life-long Park Sloper, which some say results in myopic Slope-centric news coverage) and found "a palpable sense of anxiety."
Dara Kass, mother of two and owner of four strollers, was in the Park Slope Starbucks to put everything in perspective: "There’s swine flu and Maclaren strollers. This is an alarmist neighborhood, so people are going to be anti-Maclaren until they fix the problem." In fact, not a singe parent interviewed by the Times was unaware of the recall, which was issued after a dozen children fingers were amputated by in the Maclaren carriage hinge.
However, the Times did find a few irresponsible, reckless parents who said they'd still use their Maclaren strollers despite the chance that precious Dylan could lose a pinky! Of course, none of those parents would let the paper print their names, "out of fear that they would come across as bad parents." Which is understandable; the last thing you want is the Park Slope stroller mafia after you, which is why this story has been filed from a heavily-armed fortified compound in DUMBO.
