On March 21st BBN was the first news outlet to report the story 'Jail Playground at NYC Public Housing Property.’ By March 23rd all of New York news media leaped on the story that some in the press referred to as the City's ‘JungleJail-Gate.’ Today, we report that the playground at Tompkins Houses in Bedford Stuyvesant (Brooklyn, New York) has been replaced with an Outer Space design. It took less than one month for change to come.

Read the original BBN report'Jail Playground at NYC Public Housing Property.’

Though BBN was the first news outlet to report and circulate the story to its network, it was the collective effort of an observant community activist who first saw the offensive jail theme and notified a photographer who took the time to capture the image; an engaged community of residents; and the full, unrelenting, four-day force of an interested New York City mainstream press corps to bring about change from the City (NYCHA) in a relatively short period of time.

For many years residents of Tompkins Houses complained to NYCHA about the Jail theme structure and nothing was done. It took the collective-all-at-once pouncing of forces for the City to replace the jail jungle gym theme with a more encouraging and proper design for young children to play on.

There are too many to name in this update, but for those who helped to bring about the change including: community and faith activists, Bedford Stuyvesant residents, concerned New York City residents who don’t live in the impacted neighborhood, journalists, Bloggers and local news outlets, we thank you for doing your part.

To the parents and children of Tompkins Houses, enjoy your new playground!

Additional reporting on the new Outer Space playground can be found at:
-- Gothamist.com

-- Animalnewyork.com for more images of the new playground.

-- New York Daily News

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