There’s trouble in the playground.
Protests from parents have New York University officials rethinking plans to close two popular sandboxes in a private playground in Washington Square Village.
Parents said they had little warning before the sandboxes — which are reserved largely for NYU faculty and their kids who live in the high-rises — were closed for health reasons.
“I don’t think the family thought there was anything so bad with these, so I think they’re kind of upset,” said Sarah Mueller, a 24-year-old nanny for an NYU professor’s two kids.
NYU officials said that the sandboxes had been giving children rashes, and that attempts to control the problem were getting too costly.
They estimated annual costs as high as $100,000.
But after feedback from parents on how to lower the tab — including having one sandbox instead of two, or making the sandboxes more shallow so that less sand was needed — officials said they would reconsider closing them.