Confused cries of “Leave me alone!” rang down our street, and I gripped my daughter’s hand a bit tighter. Ahead, directly in our morning path, a cluster of New York police officers were carefully but firmly leading a disheveled elderly woman down the stairs of a brownstone toward a waiting ambulance. My 5-year-old silently took in the sad scene, and I hurried past the ruckus as quickly as the icy sidewalks would allow. I braced against the cold, then braced myself for questions.

Like many NYC kids, my daughter often gets an education before we even reach the schoolyard. On this morning, I had to explain that people sometimes become confused and need medical help, yet their confusion makes them not realize they are sick. Previously, I’ve had to give sidewalk lessons on homelessness and poverty. As my daughter learns to read, I’m sure I’ll have to explain some New York Post headlines. The city doesn’t have a “Pause” button you can hit while your child walks to school.

But lately the folks at Equinox gyms and Titan advertising have made parents’ jobs even tougher. Since January, poster-size ads featuring sexed-up images have appeared on phone booths around Equinox’s Upper West Side branch at 76th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. The racy ads are unavoidable on the routes young children (including mine) take to reach PS87, PS452 and the Anderson School, as well as three middle schools and the privately run Collegiate School. DNAinfo.com reports that parents who complained to Equinox got a rude response – hardly surprising from a company that once promoted itself with staged photos of nuns lustily sketching a nude man.<!--more-->

Titan Outdoor Holdings, which put the Equinox ads in children's paths, doesn't have an untarnished reputation, either. Titan made news last year when the Metropolitan Transit Authority revoked Titan’s contract to place ads on buses and commuter trains after Titan failed to pay $18 million it owed the transit agency. Amy Berlin, a spokeswoman for Titan, said the company had received no complaints about the Equinox ads from parents – but she noted the Equinox campaign was near the end of its run, and the ads would soon come down.

If my 5-year-old daughter is confused by the Equinox’s lite porn, she hasn’t said anything. She was more concerned about the woman being led to the ambulance. She wanted to know: Who would care for that woman? What would happen if she had children? If she had pets? Would everyone be all right?

I stumbled through my answers, offering reassurances. It was a bitterly cold morning, but I felt the warmth that comes from proximity to a child’s innocence. New York may throw any number of unsuitable scenes in your path, kid, but the city has not hardened your heart.