Since I now live closer to the PS 217 playground it's more convenient than taking the kids to the Tot Lot. Over the last couple of weeks as the weather has started to get nicer the state of the the Playground has gone from.. a few scattered bottles to a complete mess. Every time I get there it is a complete mess. I try to be positive and check the garbage cans. Now if they were overflowing the problem would obviously be those who are supposed to maintain the garbage cans in the playground. Every time the garbage cans have been half full or close to empty. Today I learned a few things:
- Mike an Ike candy now comes in $.25 boxes. I love Mike and Ike's and so does my 15 month old, who managed to pick up 4 empty boxes in various areas by the play set.
- Apparently the people who come to the playground like Pepsi products, because there was 15 empty bottles that were primarily Pepsi products (Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Diet Pepsi)
- The people that frequent the basketball courts and the traffic are strict water drinkers-- I counted at least five clusters of empty Poland Spring bottles. No Gator/ Power Ade to be found.
- By one of the hoops was was a bunch of styrofoam takeout boxes. I guess they had time between hoops games to eat but not throw out their lunch/ dinner/ breakfast.
- There was too many chip bags to count. I gave up after 20. Besides, every time I had to take an empty Mike and Ike box out of my 15 month month olds mouth hand-- i lost count.
Part of me felt like I should have been picking up the garbage instead of carefully cataloging it for this post. However, I had to stop at one point because my 5 year old threw his bagel wrapper on the ground. I told him to put in the garbage. He asked why, since there was all that garbage on the floor. Also, my 2.5 year old wanted me to teach him how to slide down the pole.
Now that I am done ranting I have a couple of questions:
Is this the way the playground always is?
Does the playground have a cleanup crew visit it once a week to clean up like the Tot Lot?
Do you think signs at the playground encouraging people to clean up their garbage would help?
How about a patrol men stationed outside the playground with summons in hand for littering?
It's hard to imagine that the playground has turned into the place not to go so fast. The playground opened up in the last year.
1 comment:
i believe parents need to teach their kids to pick up after themselves. i too have been disappointed in the maintenance of the playground. Unfortunately, the park dept. will not maintain this playground bc it is a schoolyard. I read somewhere on FFN that there was suppose to be a group from the school to maintain the park. Then I heard because of union rules the school maintenance crew will not clean it. So basically, it is up to the community to figure out a way to keep the park clean. Last summer there wer broken glass bottles all over the playground. I have since stopped going there and head to prospect park or the smaller park by campus road and avenue H. At least I know that this park is cleaned everyday.
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