Liberty Court Residents New Tire Swing Victims
–July 6, 2010 4 comments

Liberty Court residents complain of sand in their face.
First an injury on the new and quickly beloved Tire Swing Park had the neighborhood up in arms. Now it’s a wind tunnel of sand being thrown in the faces of Liberty Court terraces at 200 Rector Place, say residents of the building.
According to a report in the Under Cover section of the Downtown Express, the injuries of wind swept sand onto residential balconies have resulted in torn corneas and will inevitably lead to property damages for those apartments facing the newly constructed playground.
In an email sent to Community Board 1,
“About half a cup a day is flying onto the balconies — more comes in through windows, landing of course on everything inside. This includes into peoples’ eyes and into bedding and foodstuffs.”
Residents of this building have threatened to take action against the sand issue and have aired their grievances with both the New York State Department of Transportation and the Battery Park City Authority Conservancy, who had partnered together to build the new playground.
Liberty Court or 200 Rector Place has had a tough break with the playground area. The area had been previously used as evidence holding post 9/11 and was an area enduring the demolition and construction of the Rector Street bridge and Route 9W construction.
Are you a resident in this building that can speak more to this issue? Let us know if this issue has affected you.
Although I am no longer a resident of this building, I did occupy 17H (which faces the playground) from 2004-2005. At no point in time did we ever experience any issues with flying sand. In fact, my daughter and I attended this park at least twice a day during our year of tenancy, and never had any issues of flying sand or tire swing issues. At that point, the tenants weren’t complaining about the sand, but about the community garden near it. It was ‘too ugly’ for them. This latest complaint is just another shining example of how the local population won’t be happy until the area becomes another patch of grass which all are prohibited to touch. And I’m sure the situation won’t be complete until numerous lawsuits are launched because of the flying sand.