By Tara Bahrampour
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 11, 2006; VA16
The bright orange and yellow Cozy Coupe car and the retro brown Radio Flyer car in all likelihood will soon ferry around their final toddlers at Alexandria's Beverley Park.
For years, the park has been a repository for trikes and other toys that neighborhood residents would leave for all to use.
Many parents say the toys are what make the park -- affectionately known as "the Pit" -- a rare spot of welcoming communal life in an increasingly regulated world. "It's just great," said Stephanie Oppenheimer, a mother of two boys who use the toys regularly. "It's in the middle of the neighborhood, and the majority of us can just walk to the playground without having to carry toys."
But on April 27, Oppenheimer returned from a trip to find signs posted by the city declaring that the toys would be removed in a week. City officials cited concerns about safety and efficiency as reasons for the decision. Only official park toys provided by the city, such as the swings, seesaws and jungle gym, would be allowed to remain.
Oppenheimer was incensed. "What committee got together and said, 'Yeah, throwing away kids' toys -- that's a great idea'?" She posted the information on a community listserv and got responses from nearly 40 people who opposed the toy removal.
The playground was built in 1943 in a former gravel pit, hence its nickname. Bambi Coval, the mother of a toddler who uses the Pit, said she played there as a child, when teenagers played basketball in the space now occupied by toy cars and tricycles.
"The current dynamic at the pit has been a wonderful asset to parents and caregivers," she said in an e-mail. "I've never seen it used so much."
Meghan Rainey, president of the North Ridge Citizens Association, a neighborhood group, asked the city for a reprieve until the parents could meet with officials Monday night. The civic group hosted the meeting.
Roger Blakeley, deputy director of the city's parks and recreation department, said the new rule was designed to conform to safety codes and to save the city money on mowing, which could be completed more quickly if there were no toys on the lot.
"The city and city manager has been very clear that we have to improve on our efficiencies on how we do stuff," he said, adding that the time it takes to mow the park would be shortened by five or 10 minutes without the toys.
Blakeley said that small sandbox toys such as trucks and pails would be left alone, but that large toys such as tricycles and plastic playhouses would be removed.
"We're not the big ogres coming in there trying to ruin someone's life," he said. "We're trying to bring the playground into compliance with public safety."
Steven Tompkins, the city's playground safety inspector, said the plastic playhouses are not bolted down and have no ground surface protection underneath -- a national safety requirement for playground structures.
"They teeter. They totter. They tip," he said. "If [a child] fell off, they could hit their head."
Blakeley added that many of the toys are broken and could be considered litter. But Oppenheimer, Coval and other parents said they have been conscientious about throwing out or fixing broken toys.
Parents also said that having to lug toys to the park each visit would be a hardship for caregivers, many of whom walk to the park with children and don't have free hands to carry the items.
"There are a lot of nannies and caretakers that don't have cars," Oppenheimer said. "It pretty much eliminates the opportunity for nannies to bring toys for their charges."
In a last-ditch effort to save the toys, a group of parents met with Blakeley at the Monday night meeting, but they said they were unable to change his mind.
"I think people were a little taken aback because it appeared that his decision was already made," Oppenheimer said. "I thought it was going to be more of a forum, that people would talk [and] share their ideas."
"I think playgrounds are inherently 'use it at your own risk,' " she said, but she added that the decision seemed to reflect changes in society. "It seems like everything comes down to liability, and it's such a shame. I find it a tragedy that you can't just walk up to a park and use a tyke bike. I find it really sort of a sad statement that this is how we've become -- sue and point fingers."
City Council member Rob Krupicka (D), whose children sometimes play at the Pit, said he planned to bring up the matter with other council members.
"I just can't believe there isn't a resolution to this that lets the kids have the toys and keeps the city from being at risk of any liability," he said. "I'm going to keep pursuing this."
On a recent warm afternoon, the Pit was strewn with toy trucks and cars, a ball and a Frisbee, and a dozen or so wheeled vehicles for toddlers.
Grown-ups accompanying the children had mixed opinions about the city's decision.
"It's a good idea to clean up the broken toys," said Paul Popowitz, who was pushing his daughter, Marie, 3, on a swing. "Things that are broken and have parts missing, a kid could get hurt on that."
Anne Griffin, pushing her 3-year-old granddaughter, Rachel Stenzel, on a swing, agreed.
"It looks to me like sometimes it's become a dumping ground for some equipment," she said. "I'm glad that it's going to be addressed."
But Julie Coburn, who has been bringing her twins, Pete and Caroline, 6, to the park since they were babies, expressed surprise at the news.
"Why would they do that?" she said. "I've always thought that it was lovely. It's something that makes the neighborhood old-fashioned, isn't it? It's just the thing that makes the Pit the Pit."
Catherine Bolton, whose twins, Richard and William, 6, were also playing in the park, nodded. "Especially if you're trying to encourage kids to exercise, it's nice for them to have something to exercise in," she said.
Coburn, who said she had received her property tax bill that day, questioned how her tax money was being spent.
"I certainly don't want my tax dollars wasted for some guy to come down here with a car and gas to get rid of all the toys," she said. "I've got to say, of all the issues the city has kicked up, this is the least important."
As the sun slipped behind the trees, a small girl pedaled herself around the asphalt in a little green car that, as of next week, will no longer be there.
