who knows what things are in the park<\/a>,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n\u201cI find them unsanitary. It\u2019s the rats,\u201d the mom said, with Jex adding that his wife thinks rodents nest in the pits.<\/p>\n
She and Alon Jex surprised their sons, Paz, 6, and Kohav, 3, with a trip to Urban Dunes for the first time on Friday to try something \u201cnew in the neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sulla Sim \u201cloves\u201d playing in the public sandboxes \u2014 with her mother\u2019s blessing. Stephen Yang for the NY Post<\/p>\n
Urban Dunes launched its pay-to-play pits earlier this week on East 91st Street, off Lexington Avenue, as a way to bring the sensory experience to the concrete jungle.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs parents raising kids in Manhattan, we realized something surprising: there\u2019s almost no place in the entire borough where children can play with real sand \u2013 especially in the winter, and definitely not in a clean and safe environment,\u201d Vana Kozlina, the Manager at Urban Dunes, told The Post.<\/p>\n
Urban Dunes offers 90-minute sessions for $30. Stephen Yang for the NY Post<\/p>\n
There are an estimated 75 parks throughout the five boroughs with sandboxes, play areas with sand as a safety surface, or a combination of both, according to the Parks Department.<\/p>\n
Crews clean and maintain the public pits by regularly raking the top inches of sand, sweeping and removing sand around the drains and outer areas, and leveling the grains.<\/p>\n
Sand is also continuously added to maintain a minimum of 6 inches below the top of the sandbox.<\/p>\n
Still, many parents aren\u2019t convinced that the public boxes are clean enough for their precious tots.<\/p>\n
Paz and Kohav\u2019s mother reluctantly lets them play in public sandboxes. Stephen Yang for the NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve all been there as New York parents: you finally get to a park sandbox and most of the time feel uneasy about the condition. It\u2019s often used as a giant litter box, forcing you to negotiate with your kids to stay way out of it,\u201d Kozlina said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot to mention if your trip to the park or playground is after a rainy day or in March, only to find the sand soaked or frozen. And if we do let our kids play in those sandboxes, twenty sandy minutes later we\u2019re back on the subway, brushing mystery grit out of everything,\u201d the owner added.<\/p>\n
To eliminate outdoor dirt and grime, staff rake the sandpits daily and sanitize the toys.<\/p>\n
Shoes and socks are also prohibited inside the sandboxes, along with food and drink, according to the Urban Dunes website.<\/p>\n
In addition, every guardian is required to sign a waiver before stepping into the sand, promising that their kids are not bringing in any sicknesses \u2014 and that Urban Dunes is not responsible for any damages, injuries, or even death.<\/p>\n
Remy Kim-Ang, wearing glasses, is not allowed to play in public sandboxes. Stephen Yang for the NY Post<\/p>\n
The hygiene promise appealed to Jane Kim, who doesn\u2019t let her 3-year-old daughter, Remy, set foot in any Parks Department sandpits.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe always asks to,\u201d said Kim, who lives in Queens but was in the neighborhood to visit the girl\u2019s grandmother.<\/p>\n
\u201cHalf the time it\u2019s wet, it\u2019s not drained, it\u2019s not maintained, I\u2019ve seen questionable things in there like critters and kids eat in the sandpit \u2014 if you have food allergies, that\u2019s an issue too,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m kinda grossed out by public sandpits in Central Park, so I thought this is a really cute, clean, contained, smart idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Seah Kim couldn\u2019t care less about letting her daughter, Sulla, 3, play in public sandpits.<\/p>\n
Seah Kim, of no relation to Jane Kim, was at Urban Dunes on Friday purely because the 42-degree weather was too biting to take her 4-year-old daughter Sulla outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe loves it, she loves it!\u201d said Seah Kim, a pharmacist who lives in the 70s. <\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, it\u2019s not the cleanest, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s dirty enough to make her sick. I\u2019m good with it,\u201d she continued. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe always look for indoor kids\u2019 play areas, and I know there are a couple in Brooklyn, but I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any around the Upper East Side.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The plebs can pound sand! An exclusive indoor sandpit has opened up on Manhattan\u2019s monied Upper East Side…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":411552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,13089,5248,405,403,7619,5226,5225,5228,5227,7620,67,586,132,5230,26318,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-411551","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-luxury","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-city-life","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-parks-department","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-upper-east-side","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-us-news","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115629769619455055","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}