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Stuy Town Residents Upset Over Side Boob From Sunbathers
By
Ben Yakas
Published May 12, 2013
Modified May 12, 2013
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By
Ben Yakas
Published May 12, 2013
Modified May 12, 2013
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Topless ladies are entirely legal in our city parks and sidewalks, but that doesn't mean people are always happy to come face to face with them. Some residents in Stuy Town are reportedly upset over college-aged women who have taken to sunbathing in the playgrounds around the housing complex as the weather has started heating up in recent weeks. “A lot of side boob on the playground this weekend,” one resident wrote on The Stuyvesant Town Report.
The Stuyvesant Town Report called for action after seeing the playground near 20th Street Loop fill up with sunbathers the first Friday of the month:
Playground 10 was almost half taken yesterday with sunbathers, effectively pushing out the kids who wanted access to that playground. What was more absurd is that yesterday was on the chilly side, making these self-entitled yahoos look very stupid indeed. This playground should NOT be used for sunbathing. (And neither should the fountain area.) We've heard that complaints were made, and now it's time for management to make sure Playground 10 is for playing, not for sunbathing. And please, management, show some balls and don't wait to enforce this once the Oval Lawn is open for sunbathing. Think of the children!
This past Friday, the Post found a similar scene, and none of the young ladies seemed remotely interested in changing their habits: “A body’s a body, and they need to get over themselves,” said 23-year-old Hofstra grad Katie Friedman, who moved to the development in August. “I pay just as much rent as they do,” Friedman said. “Just because I don’t have a child doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be able to be here.”
“This is so ridiculous,” said 21-year-old NYU student Melissa DeBlasio. “The sun’s out. It’s summer. People are going to be tanning.” 21-year-old Marymount Manhattan College student Kaya Gieniusz added, “There’s just a lot of rules here, and they enforce them randomly. We pay outrageous money to live here. Let us sunbathe for a few hours.”
Stuy Town Report seems to think that things will calm down once the Oval Lawn opens next week: "No one is against sunbathing...given their rightful place and time," wrote the blogger. "Sunbathing shouldn't be happening in a playground meant, primarily, for children. Nor should there be sunbathing around the Oval Fountain, blocking people from walking around it. The Oval Lawn, when it opens up in a week, is meant for sunbathing."
However, this may have inadvertently sparked off a prudish campaign against any sort of naughtiness: “This used to be a very strait-laced community,” said Susan Steinberg, head of the tenants association, who wants to ban all two-pieces. “The sunbathing is tasteless, it’s not very classy, and it doesn’t belong in a mixed residential development.”
Tagged
manhattan
playground
side boob
stuy town
sunbathers
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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