Kids will find a way to spin.
Really, all this is doing is encouraging two-year-olds to learn how to weld themselves, if only to free their equipment from the city’s shackling. Hope you’re happy!
It was “spinning disks” they welded, not the kind of merry-go-round pictured here. Which changes the story a bit, to be honest.
If they were immbolizing actual merry-go-rounds, I would figuer this was either “news” grabbed from a parody site or a Discordian action.
Hurt the kids, they complain. Keep the kids safe, they complain. What’s a bureaucrat to do?
Heh. On the one hand most playground equipment really is potentially dangerous. Back in the days of steel monkey-bars over unpadded concrete surfaces it’s surprising there weren’t more serious injuries. On the other hand the world is just that dangerous too and kids will play and climb and swing anyway even without playground equipment. On the other other hand at least the city can maybe marginally reduce its liability this way and make some bureaucrat feel a tiny bit better about his or her humdrum existence for a short time, so there’s that.
Yes, this. Deceptive photo is deceptive
Although why make that immobile either?
Meh. I broke my arm at a playground. Never did me any harm.
Edit:
Appears that what I broke my arm on was (unsurprisingly) removed years ago.
A group of concrete domes (maybe 2m in height? I’m remembering from 25+ years ago) with bricks half sticking out like steps so you could climb them.
IIRC the ground was concrete too - this was before the wood chips, before the rubberized floor stuff.
I’d been watching the bigger kids climbing up the domes and jumping from one to the other as we were going through the park, and I asked mum if I could play. I said I just needed 10 seconds.
Climbed up first dome, jumped to second, smacked arm into concrete. Crack.
Came back, “I think I’ve hurt my arm, mummy”.
“Yes, I think you probably have”.
And off to hospital.
Meh. It was only a greenstick fracture.
Finally, a city that understands the importance of children never learning their limits.
And when a kid falls onto one of the now immobile playground pieces and gets hurt the city will have all of it removed and replaced with soft hypo-allergenic foam padding.
And when that one kid has an allergic reaction to it…
What shall we call these now? Merry-stop?
sad-go-round
Merry-go-nowhere. The kids have to do the heavy lifting on the “merry” part of the deal, “Go-nowhere” is, of course, a fundamental skill set for any sensibly run municipality here in the bright, shiny 21st Century.
The neighborhood has drug dealers to help out with the “merry” part, and thank goodness the kids are safe!
sad-go-nowhere!
Merry-square.
Well, most outside play is all about motion. And motion is dangerous. Thus, playgrounds are a really bad idea.
This calls for an angle grinder, not a welder. A bit too heavy for two years old.
Depending on the weld position, a hacksaw could do the job, though. Let’s say I learned the injury potential of the hacksaw blades in a very early age, thanks to the virtue to never being insulted with getting “safe” fake plastic tools as toys. The real thing will draw some blood, but if phased in gradually, the cost paid will be negligible.
Edit: I still have and use the old hammer I got ages ago. Few years ago I broke, and then somewhat later welded with nickel-iron electrode, a moderately sized cast-iron vise I got for my 10th birthday. I also still use it.
It just occured to me that we’ve seen this kind of thinking before.
When the “Sound of Music” opened in South Korea movie theatres, the powers-that-be determined that it was much too long for moviegoer tastes.
The solution was simple: they took out all the musical parts.
Where’s my bag o glass, BTW?
I am just reading this book, which deals to a great degree with exactly this sort of nonsense:
Another description here.
Also describes how to question the safetycrats and how to push back for more sanity.
I recommend.
