But then I saw that a skateboard park (which seems to be 25 years in the making) is being constructed directly beside this playground. I'm not sure who the wizard was who drew this up (I assume it was Barry Braun), but these two facilities being neighbours begs a lot of questions, but only one really matters. Why?
Let me say first of all that I have nothing against skateboarders. Just leave your shirts on, please. But let's face it, the skateboarding culture kind of clashes with what parents bringing their kids to a playground want to be exposed to.
This is a classic case of the County being reactive instead of proactive. The skateboarding boom was pretty much peeking when I was in highschool (1994-99). A skate park should have been considered THEN. I don't care that much to look up participation statistics, but I'm pretty sure there were more teens walking downstreet with a board in their hand then, than there are now.
There will be swearing. There will be smoking. There will be spitting. And those are all fine, but not in a location where kids are directly exposed to it. I'd like to give the boarders the benefit of the doubt and dream that they would use discretion if toddlers were around, but quite frankly, I just don't believe that.
What I do believe, is that once parents take their kids to have some fun on the swings and slides of the new playground once, they won't bring them back again. Eventually what looks like a very nice new playground will be overrun with cobwebs due to inactivity. That is, if the skate park is EVER completed.
