NY: Where do you expect people to live?
New York City covers about 302.6 square miles in total area. According to New York City government information, there are more than 1,700 parks and recreational sites in the city, there are also about 2,667 playgrounds citywide. Add to that, 2,700–2,900 K-12 schools. That’s roughly 7,167 “places where children congregate”. That’s an average of 23.68 such landmarks per square mile, but you can’t count all of the city, because depending on the borough and zoning classification, NY has industrial areas and commercial space. It also has the parks themselves. For example; Central Park itself is 843 acres.
When you do the math, evenly distributed, every residence in New York City is about 875 feet from one of these places. Which is why the story in yesterday’s New York Post, “Ex-hotel still houses sex offenders near NYC playground after bombshell report” shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, nor is it such a “bombshell”. The real absurdity is the fact that people are expressing outrage when simple math makes clear that avoiding proximity in a city like New York is impossible. When parks, playgrounds, and schools are this dense, there are no places that fall outside those boundaries.
When you step back, what this really exposes is a growing disconnect between public perception and reality. The belief that distance, on paper, translates into safety in practice is a huge myth. Study after study has found that correlation. Research examining real-world outcomes has consistently shown no meaningful relationship between how close someone lives to a school, park or playground and whether they commit a new sex offense.
The “bombshell” reporting the Post should be covering is that proximity makes absolutely zero statistically significant difference.
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Always wondered about this. 1. Fl. law you can not live within 1000 feet of daycare etc. That is a State law. Now you county has an ordinance that you cant live within 2500 feet. You move to a distance of 1500 feet and violate state law. If was a county ordinance you violated.
No, if you violate the County Ordinance but are compliant with the State Statute, you only violate the County ordinance. It’s possible to violate both if, as in your example you were 998 feet from a daycare, but they will usually prosecute you for the state offense because the penalty is generally greater.
FAC
Although it’s a school and not a day care, I live less than 1000 feet. I have been here before that ordinance, thus I cannot be made to move (Well you never know I guess) but if I did move, I would then be held to that law for where I could live going forward.
Also, I have been off probation for more that 20 years, only the registry is holding me down. And the fact we can be charged and arrested for paperwork errors, and lists of other reasons that no one else on earth can be charged with, is just insane. Especially when done to many of us retro-actively onto the registry itself.
Cherokee, Florida Statutes § 775.215 establishes residency restrictions for individuals convicted of specific sexual offenses in the state of Florida (including offenses in other jurisdictions if you now live in FL). Covered individuals cannot live within 1000 feet of a school, child care facility, park, or playground. Effective July 1, 2026 add public swimming pools to that list. Child care facilities include any child care center or child care arrangement which provides child care for more than five children unrelated to the operator and which receives a payment, fee, or grant for any of the children receiving care, wherever operated, and whether or not operated for profit. So schools and day care centers are covered. It doesn’t matter if you are on probation or not. That’s irrelevant. Note that if someone moves after July 1, 2026, they are subject to the statute retroactively, so if you’re thinking of moving, move now. If you’re planning to stay, make sure you lock in your lease for a very, very long time.
This b.s is just wild
And we also know that some communities will build a playground just so we cannot live near there by whatever distance is in the law. My HOA I lived in while on probation, they built one and tried to make me move because of it. I contacted my then lawyer, and he sent a cease-and-desist letter stating they could not make me move since I lived there before the playground. He further wrote that if they kept harassing me, he would take the HOA to court. I won that one. (Didn’t cost a dime as all he had to do was to send a letter and it went away)