"And Just like the River I've been Running ever since"

No, Your eyes aren't deceiving you. That really is a Playground and it really says Jail.

Some say its in good fun and ask "haven't you played cops and robbers when you were a child?"

Before you answer let me give you the Backdrop and perhaps you will be as saddened and angered as I.


This "playground" is the community space in Tompkins Housing Projects located in Bed Stuy. One only needs to analyze the old "Bed Stuy Do or Die" "moto" to imagine the type of reality the members of the community are faced with. The daily news states the following "The Tompkins Houses are notorious for gang activity and have seen their share of violence, including the separate shootings in 2007 of a 13-year-old, a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old."
With crime such an obvious part of life for the members of teh community, how could anyone think this was anything sort of a message or premonition to the children of the housing projects? Why not add play tombstones as well?

This hurts me because as I look at this, I see the deliberation. I imagine the various meetings, the execs, the architects who sat there listening to the plight of the neighborhood and rather than create a solace where the children who are witness to these atrocious acts can escape their crime ridden realities, they would rather throw up their hands and say eff it, they're probably going to end up there anyway. Let's just give them a headstart.
To those who say it's all a part of life, we all played cops and Robbers answer me this, why is this design unique? Why isn't this jail theme replicated elsewhere? Why can't I go to the posh upper east side and lock up some of the blonde haired blue eyed little boys in some colorful prison, complete with bars?

Once I get past my anger at the sheer calculated nature of this project I am grossly saddened and disgusted to learn that it has been in existence since 2004. Residents said they would just take their children elsewhere. Why should you have to do that? Inaction breeds stagnance. Change does not come without some fight or struggle. While I want to place the blame for this solely on the contractors, I can't. They alone are fully responsible for its existence, but the residents, collectively have done nothing. The community leaders have done nothing. For 8 Years it stood in all its glory until Monifa Bandele took a picture and passed it along the the blog Black and Brown News who then called the Mayor's office, NYCHA and every other agency that would have been responsible for this atrocity. This should have happened years ago. 8 Years, that means 8 summer barbecues, 4th of July's and Christmases. Along the way I suppose it began to blend in with life, but it shouldn't have been given the opportunity to.

You walk into a smelly room and you think damn this smells rank, you have two options, find the culprit and get rid of it or dwell within the funk until your senses have adapted and are no longer offended. In choosing the latter one has to realize that they begin to stink as well.

Sam Cooke sang Change gonna come. Is it really?

Click here to read the NY times article