The beloved swing in front of 777 Valencia St. was removed by city workers recently. For background, read Mission Mission’s coverage of the saga.
Gloria Chan of the Department of Public Works was kind enough to look into it for us. Here is what she said:
“We did remove that swing. We’ve gotten several calls from the residents there. There were concerns with safety. Obviously, the way it’s being constructed, it isn’t well put together. More important, it swings out into the traffic lane, so it is extremely dangerous and it’s on the public right-of-way. People are concerned about the safety of those who use it.”
Apparently some people saw children using the swing and were concerned with safety. It should also be noted that if something had happened, either the property owner or the city would have been held liable for injuries.
Playlets are the solution!
a playlet is like a parklet, but its a tiny playground with one swing on it, going in the direction of traffic (so no way to swing into traffic), it would be out of the walking flow too, and you could make the ground of the parklet be the recycled rubber crash pad they put into normal playgrounds. Basically, build it to modern standards for a playground swing – totally doable.
Playlets: when parklets grow up and get better at fun.
+1.
+2
Don’t hate the player, hate the game: liability laws in the US are insane.
What kind of school yard tattletale calls the city and reports people having fun?
This kind: http://www.missionmission.org/2012/01/13/fun-hating-grinch-cuts-down-valencia-swing/