Here’s an interesting email that we found on the BoCoCa Parents group concerned what the writer alleges are dirty conditions at a local spot for kids called the NY City Explorers located at 388 Atlantic Ave. Here is the email:

This has been bothering me for quite some time since I emailed the owners to inquire about the cleaning schedule and standards at NYC Explorers and got absolutely no response.

I had been there for a birthday party once before and had fun, so I recently purchased a 10-pack play pass. I took my son over a month ago on a weekend to play, and a childless girlfriend of mine tagged along. The place was absolutely filthy, so much so that my friend commented on it. You could feel the grainy floor beneath your bare feet, which felt like it hadn’t been swept/Swiffered/mopped/whatever in weeks. Needless to say our feet were black with dirt when we left! There were a ton of broken toys (including 2 out of 3 strollers), dolls, pillows and carpets that looked completely ragged and dirty, and stained chair upholstery in desperate need of a shampoo.

A lot of their toys and accessories are from IKEA (I know this because we have a lot of them in our home) so clearly they are not designed for commercial wear and tear, which is probably why they break so easily and look so “used.” But broken toys are completely unsafe and I was shocked to see anything of this nature out on the floor for children to use.

I emailed the owners to explain my experience and ask about their policies and never heard back…I am by no means a neat freak, my son eats Cheerios off the floor and loves to play in the dirt. So for me to be this bothered by what we saw, it had to be bad. We’ve been to NYC Kids Club and Apple Seeds, and in both those places you could eat off the floor.

Their website notes they’ll be closed from August 31-September 6 and have a “grand re-opening” on September 7, so perhaps they are cleaning and re-tooling the place.