nearly 50 years<\/a>\u2014was shut down after coming to the attention of Portland Parks & Recreation.<\/p>\nThe official reason is that the \u201cslide\u201d\u2014a wetted 100-foot-long, 20-foot-wide strip of polyethylene sheeting\u2014damages the grass.<\/p>\n
\u201cHeavy plastic sheeting causes severe damage to natural grass when applied directly to the lawn, particularly during hot weather,\u201d public works supervisor Kyle Ricciotti wrote to the volunteer head of Friends of Brooklyn Park, Craig Montag, last week. \u201cOn sunny days, the plastic acts as a heat conductor, rapidly raising soil temperatures and causing severe turf damage or grass death in less than an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n
The slide has been a popular feature of the Brooklyn Park Summer Youth Program since it began in 1978. It\u2019s now staged by the Friends of Brooklyn Park, a citizen group that assumed control of the free day camp and began funding it when the city cut funding for the program in 2017. A neighbor has provided water for the slide since that time, according to an email Montag sent to the parks bureau on July 19, in which he asked for clarification of the city\u2019s decision to ban the slide.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city told us we could not use park water on the waterslide. So a next-door neighbor sends their water to us,\u201d Montag wrote, calling the waterslide \u201can institution 49 years in the making.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not a day care nor a supervised day camp, the program is all-volunteer funded and parents are encouraged to supervise their children \u201cto their own comfort level,\u201d according to the Friends of Brooklyn Park website.<\/p>\n
In his email to the city, Montag called the city\u2019s decision \u201cdisappointing, upsetting, mysterious and sad.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Ricciotti, who responded to Montag with an explanation on July 23, the continuous flow of water compounds the damage to the grass by heavily saturating the soil, creating extensive mud and causing significant ground compaction. \u201cTo ensure the park\u2019s grounds remain well-maintained and accessible for the entire community, we are unable to permit the setup of large plastic waterslides on the turf,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
The decision by the parks bureau also affects dunk tanks and other \u201chigh-impact water activities\u201d on natural grass across the city\u2014not just at Brooklyn Park.<\/p>\n
The inciting incident occurred three weeks ago when a staff member from Portland Solutions, the city\u2019s homelessness and livability office, found a person sleeping on the waterslide, which had been damaged by a fire.<\/p>\n
Friends of Brooklyn Park was notified the city doesn\u2019t permit such features as they can rapidly and significantly damage turf, parks bureau spokesman Mark Ross tells WW.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully you will lift your waterslide ban on Brooklyn Park,\u201d Montag wrote in his email to the parks bureau last week. \u201cOn Friday, moms, dads and kids asked if the slide would be out that day. \u2018I\u2019m not sure\u2019 was my answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Willamette Week\u2019s reporting has real-life impact that changes laws, forces action by civic leaders, and drives compromised politicians from public office. <\/p>\n
Support WW.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A popular and refreshing summertime tradition in the Brooklyn neighborhood has been suspended on orders by the city.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-308223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}