Context

Our initial idea was to create a lock and gate system that would limit access to the park. What motivated this idea was seeing how current parks such as Hippo Park in Central Park (NYC) had a large fence around it and it's illegal for an adult to be in the park without a child. Setups like Hippo Park demonstrated the importance of regulating who is in the park and encouraged us to find a better way to make parks safe. We realized however that in areas like East Liberty where parks are empty to begin with, it wouldn't be beneficial to restrict access. We, therefore, thought of an opt-in solution that would allow parents to feel connected with other guardians and begin to create a sense of community where there wasn't one before.