New York City Introduces Adult Playgrounds: Brilliant or Bad Idea?
SodaHead Living
2012/07/01 16:16:00
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New York City has adopted yet another initiative to improve health and reduce obesity. At least this one doesn’t involve banning soda.
Over the next 18 months, as many as 24 adult-only playground are set to open across the five boroughs. They won’t have swings or slides—they are essentially outdoor gyms—but they will maintain the look and feel of traditional kid’s play spaces. (In some cases, the equipment will be built by the same manufacturers.)
While outdoor fitness areas have recently been gaining popularity in the US, they have long been commonplace in China and parts of Europe. New York City has been testing the concept at Macombs Dam Park in the Bronx, and so far it has been incredibly successful.
Unlike gyms, these adult playgrounds are free to use and they are able to pass exercise off as play. And from the city’s perspective, they are much cheaper to build than children’s playgrounds.However, we have to wonder if these parks will end up serving the people who need them the most or if they’ll just be overrun by gym rats.
Bus driver Daren Trapp, an observer at Macombs Dam Park, told The New York Times, “Oh no, I’m past my prime. It’s out in the open, and I guess I’m a private individual.”
What do you think SodaHeads? Are adult playgrounds brilliant or a bad idea?
Over the next 18 months, as many as 24 adult-only playground are set to open across the five boroughs. They won’t have swings or slides—they are essentially outdoor gyms—but they will maintain the look and feel of traditional kid’s play spaces. (In some cases, the equipment will be built by the same manufacturers.)
While outdoor fitness areas have recently been gaining popularity in the US, they have long been commonplace in China and parts of Europe. New York City has been testing the concept at Macombs Dam Park in the Bronx, and so far it has been incredibly successful.
Unlike gyms, these adult playgrounds are free to use and they are able to pass exercise off as play. And from the city’s perspective, they are much cheaper to build than children’s playgrounds.However, we have to wonder if these parks will end up serving the people who need them the most or if they’ll just be overrun by gym rats.
Bus driver Daren Trapp, an observer at Macombs Dam Park, told The New York Times, “Oh no, I’m past my prime. It’s out in the open, and I guess I’m a private individual.”
What do you think SodaHeads? Are adult playgrounds brilliant or a bad idea?
Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/nyregion/new-yor...
Top Opinion
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Bibliophilic 2012/07/01 17:34:57Bad Idea
+16I'd like them if they were actual playgrounds. An actual adult sized playground would be amazing. I have no interest in working out at a gym in the heat of the day. It is a good idea perhaps, but I just want to be able to play on an adult sized Discovery Zone!
Using force to get what you want is immoral. If you support such a thing, great. Donate to get it built.
What I'm saying is that the way it works is immoral. Attempting to use government to get what you want is merely the majority using force to get what it wants from the minority (using the force of government guns) and hoping that there are more of "you" then there are of "them".
Electing people to handle taxes is like trying to get your candy back from big kids playing keep away. Except you hope that they big kids will give some of what they stole back to you or give you some other kids candy instead.
Why is Stevia just coming onto the market? Stevia has been around for a long time, even in the United States. Early studies on stevia go back to the 1950's but the United States is a nation chin deep in bureaucracy, dirty-politics and corruption. In the 1950's the sugar industry fought to prevent the use of Stevia in the United States. Today, the manufacturers of Nutrasweet (aspartame) have practically bought the FDA to prevent it's approval as a food additive and therefore a sugar substitute. If you don't believe me, contact 60 Minutes of CBS. In the Spring of 1997 they aired a report on how Nutrasweet "bought" influence with the FDA to force the approval of a sweetener that is now blamed for the illnesses and deaths of thousands of Americans.
Also Europe is fighting with such problems. But some of our consumer protection organisations have an increasing influence on the consumer behaviour, up to the boycott of certain products. And products, which do not sell well are withdrawn from the market. They are, of course, still studying eventual long-term effects of steevia, and up to now, the issues are encouraging. The problem is that law is often slow to follow.
I can only hope that your health organisations can force the big industries to use steevia.
Of course this doesn't fit EVERYTHING that this generation is interested in, but it does a lot of things.