Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Worlds Colliding

Greenwood Park, in Brooklyn New York, is cool. Granted, I've never been there, but it just looks cool. 1,300 square feet of bocce courts, fireplaces and 60 beers on tap—plus the whole indoor/outdoor  biergarten has been converted from an old gas station—again, more coolness. Greenwood Park offers all kinds of food, happy hour specials, and is available for private parties. What could be cooler than that? The Greenwood really is an oasis of food, drink and outdoor fun in the heart of the most populous of New york City's five boroughs.

Sweet deal, right? Well, not for everybody. It seems there's a little brew-ha-ha stirring between a group of teachers and local parents in the Greenwood's neighborhood. The NY Daily News is reporting that the Greenwood has banned children from the park after 4pm, at the request of a number of beer-loving teachers. This has pissed off a number of, also beer-loving, albeit stroller pushing, parents in the area. The gist of the argument is this: Since they are around kids all day, the teachers want to stop in and have a drink without a bunch of kids running around; while the parents want to stop by and have a drink after, say, picking their tots up after school.

I'm a parent of two little kids, and my wife is a teacher, so I can see both sides of the argument. I'll admit to leaning towards the teachers at first. That is until hypocrisy's cold hand smacked me across the face this past Saturday, when we took the kids to Albany's own biergarten—Wolf's (and took them there well after 4pm, might I add.) Regardless of either argument, here's the reality of the situation: The kids played and jumped and made noise, the beer drinkers drank and swore and made noise, and neither groups seemed, really to affect each other in any way, shape, or form.

See, we really can all just get along.

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