Coming across an unusable playground

[Myrtonos]

Say you come to a park and find that children cannot use it, say because of broken glass, graffiti and vandalism, what do you do? Make it your mission to fix it?

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I think I’d try to clean it up and see if I can get a group together to help me depending on how bad the vandalism is. If it’s so bad that the equipment can’t be repaired then I’d still clean the area up and remove the things that can’t be fixed.

 

[Tom]

Say you come to a park and find that children cannot use it, say because of broken glass, graffiti and vandalism, what do you do? Make it your mission to fix it?

You could, but I would first contact your local parks department to see if it was ok for you to do clean up and or repairs. They might even be able to provide some supplies (trash bags, paint, etc.). I think with things like that it's best to be in coordination with the owners/managers.

 

[Myrtonos]

If you contact that department, they could come over and fix it themselves. If they are doing that job, they should not leave the park until the cleaning-up is done.

 

[Aspychata]

Municipal budgets have been cut and sadly playgrounds are at the bottom of the list. But it can be a liability issue to the city too. Guess l would fill out whatever paperwork needed to get the city to move on it. If that's not happening, then clean it, try to get the park renamed and beautified to create a community interest and that would help with grassroots effort of cleanup. Maybe check online to see if feds have any grants to help with this, especially if it's a low-income neighborhood.

 

[Gerontius]

There is not reason not to fix it--Doing paperwork is nice, but the kids of the neighborhood might like it better if it was open sooner.

Bet you could go ask a bunch of parents to ask other parents & next thing you know, the kids & parents alike would be working on it. Wouldn't cost much and it'd be ready to play on.

 

[Myrtonos]

I have, from time-to-time, encountered public restrooms very much like parks full of broken glass, graffiti and vandalism, and they are worse than such parks.

 

[Kalinychta]

I’d probably quicken my pace. Sounds like a bad neighborhood.

 

[Fino]

You mean if we were forced to do something about it? Otherwise, I'm fairly certain none of us would do anything about it but feel sorry for it.

 

[Myrtonos]

No, definitely not forced to do something about it but what you would choose.

 

[Callistemon]

You mean if we were forced to do something about it? Otherwise, I'm fairly certain none of us would do anything about it but feel sorry for it.

Hiya! Be careful thinking you know what other people would and would not do. I know plenty of people who take a plastic bag in their backpacks when hiking or going to the beach, and take out any rubbish they find, that will fit in the bag. A considerable amount of people voluntarily do this, from every now and then right through to regularly. Not as many as litter, I'll grant you, but it's important to acknowledge that there are some people who care enough about the planet and other people to take action, and even if it's small actions it adds up, especially if enough people do it.

In Australia we have plenty of litter louts, but also Clean Up Australia Day, which grew from just one person wanting to make a difference, to millions of people a year dedicating a day to removing plastics and other rubbish from the environment.

I get it that we'd not have to do things like this if only people in general did the right thing. And then we'd not need locks on houses, or on cars or anything else, security grilles, safes, security guards, police, armies, military weapons, insurance against theft, arson, etc.

I hate littering, because it's such a casual and lazy form of disrespect and lack of love for the world and the living things in it and it would be such a small thing for people to be responsible for their own rubbish and not put wildlife at risk of horrible injuries/illnesses/deaths, mess up the world for other people etc. If I ever caught that proverbial leprechaun and got three wishes, one of those wishes would be that litterers would come home and find all the litter they'd thrown away in their lives magically in a pile on the floor of their own homes (in some cases probably filling their entire living space), and from then on, anything that wasn't recycled or otherwise disposed of responsibly would end up exactly there all over again, each day. That way it would soil their own nest, not the world for everyone else, and force them instead of other creatures to bear the consequences of their own actions. Poetic justice, so to speak.

Yeah, and world peace and social justice, too, for that wish list.

Many people make life miserable for others, but there's also a determined bunch of everyday people who have things they have chosen to do that are deliberately positive, and counteract the evil and thoughtlessness that's very real in this world. It's like Amnesty International says, better to light a candle than to sit in the darkness.

What gives me hope is decent everyday people doing acts of kindness, and being constructive in the face of the horrible stuff that goes on in this world. We can't be paralysed and give up. And I personally think it's likely that a significant number of people in this thread would lend a hand to help make a children's playground usable again, would pick up a broken bottle so a child or dog doesn't step on it, have done these sorts of things - random acts of kindness, and deliberate actions to make the world safer and better for others. I bet you've done things like that too, @Fino! And you teach music - and how helpful is music for many people, in so many ways, for living in this world.

Posting here is also helpful for the general mental and emotional wellbeing of people in this online community. Meet cool people who have all sorts of interests like old clocks, astrophysics, cooking, playing piano, IT, animals, society, etc etc etc, and who are also human and working on mental/emotional health, relating to other people etc, instead of pretending they have "arrived" and only other people need to do that stuff. Tell each other stories, have each other's backs, share useful life hacks and strategies, learn to express things that are important to you, and that people don't have to pretend not to have conflicts or disagreements with each other, but can often work through those instead in a way that can help both sides to become better at life and other people (OK, you don't have to be able to do that with everyone, but it can still be pretty standard).

Maybe we need a thread where people report on the kinds of things they've quietly done to make a difference. Could be an inspirational thread and a good antidote to the international news.

 

[Forest Cat]

I`m all for cleaning it up, we have something here I live called "dugnad", people get together and work on a project for free. For example, cleaning up a playground. I pick trash every spring, I walk around the area and fill up a bag with things the snow hid. It's nice, it's a spring ritual and everything looks so clean and nice afterwards.

But I want to point out one thing, if the playground is owned by the city, people have paid taxes to keep the playground in working order. So if you clean it up on your own, you are paying to work for free. It could also be illegal to clean it up on your own, if you do that and have an accident and injure yourself, the city/owner could be responsible, so some places you are not allowed to do things like that.

 

[Aspychata]

I`m all for cleaning it up, we have something here I live called "dugnad", people get together and work on a project for free. For example, cleaning up a playground. I pick trash every spring, I walk around the area and fill up a bag with things the snow hid. It's nice, it's a spring ritual and everything looks so clean and nice afterwards.

But I want to point out one thing, if the playground is owned by the city, people have paid taxes to keep the playground in working order. So if you clean it up on your own, you are paying to work for free. It could also be illegal to clean it up on your own, if you do that and have an accident and injure yourself, the city/owner could be responsible, so some places you are not allowed to do things like that.

Good points. Sometimes the city isn't aware a park is not usable. Or they don't do anything until a tax payers complains.