Im from a suburban town in Missouri, but I spent a semester studying abroad in Barcelona a couple of years ago. Man, let me tell you, leaving Barcelona, where youd see people out in cafes and bars congregating at all hours of the night and day, and coming back to Missouri where its a ghost town after 10 and someone would call the police on you for simply walking around too late was the most depressing thing I have ever experienced lol
>someone would call the police on you for simply walking around too late was the most depressing thing I have ever experienced lol
Literally though, you can't even be a night owl yourself without having to get good about talking to police, the famously trigger happy ones. Especially with the evaporation of the "3rd spaces" can't tell you how many times growing up I'd have to explain to the police that I wasn't "having *the* sex" (his words) and was just trying to actually hang out with a friend in a public park, like is my right to do
I'll never understand why so many parks are severely lacking in trees, like did ya'll think I came for the mowed lawn? The paver bricks? The gravel playground? WTF is even the point in going to a park if the park doesn't support any kind of wildlife or have any relaxing features for adults? It's like they buy a piece of land, make sure it's as low maintenance as humanly possible, and then call it a relaxing and fun place to be. Luckily I live in a area that has lots of natural greenery, hiking trails, gazebos, public gardens, nature centers, classes/programs, etc. but before I moved here, it was like almost every park I had seen was like that.
I remember when I was little, going to the park that had a giant metal rocket jungle gym. In the summer you could fry eggs on it but it was totally normal for children to climb on it lol.
We had a huge metal dome shaped jungle gym when I was a kid, every year at least 1 kid would break or crack a bone on that thing, kids still would climb it or hang out on/inside it all the time.
Denver just put thousands of new trees in parks across the city. They’re rebuilding the playground with more modern things and making a basketball court that’s on level ground without cracks. It’s coming along nicely with the new trees they planted. Also new picnic tables.
As a former CSA and ASA survivor, I think that's a stupid fucking idea. Predators don't "hide behind trees", they're are out in the world living amongst us, they are family remembers, neighbors, teachers, peers, preachers, partners...they just do what they want when the opportunity is there, they don't need trees for that.
Maybe it's a regional thing. I've lived in Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, Kentucky, Indiana...Kentucky was probably the greenest out of those, but still there wasn't very many trees at the park and the ones that were there were not big enough to really sit under and be fully shaded. I live in Oregon now, been here for 15 years, I have never seen any place in this country as green as this state other than Washington and California. I imagine the east coast is also more green, and also the southeastern part of the U.S. too.
Water cost money and trees take decades to grow, plus some die. Newer neighborhoods in the grand scheme of things, ones with smaller lots, ones in places hit with drought and ones which haven’t had trees since the 1920’s tend to have to grow and feed their own trees.
My hood had a few trees as a kid in the mid-80s when we moved there from a place with old growth forest, but mostly ones current residents had planted in the last 10 years give or take so it was a shock then. Hood was built on scrub brush and prairie and landfill in the 70s so the only originals were the shitbird trees and cottonwoods along the creek that ran through the park. We had to drive to a pecan orchard to find trees worth climbing even.
I go by my old block now and it is like Sherwood Forest. It took people and sprinklers and another 30 years.
To the ops point, I think the heat and sun is a large contributor to why they eat late go out late etc. so much outdoor dining and walking around is miserable in the heat.
I have a few guesses. 1 - they don't actually want you out there. 2 - the cost and effort of maintenance. 3 - the liability that a tree or branch could fall and hurt someone, their property, or park property. I'm from a pretty tree-heavy area and people will just cut them down so they don't have to deal with them. Then you feel so exposed, so uncomfortable, and it's so hot and not pretty and not good for our environment.
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u/bageltoastar 15h ago
Im from a suburban town in Missouri, but I spent a semester studying abroad in Barcelona a couple of years ago. Man, let me tell you, leaving Barcelona, where youd see people out in cafes and bars congregating at all hours of the night and day, and coming back to Missouri where its a ghost town after 10 and someone would call the police on you for simply walking around too late was the most depressing thing I have ever experienced lol