The LuLac Edition #4,489, March 31st, 2021

 

WRITE ON WEDNESDAY

Our “Write On Wednesday” logo.

This week The Times Leader issued a very cogent response to the construction of a skate park for people who enjoy that type of thing. Take a look on the reasons for the support.

SKATEBOARDERS DESERVE A PARK, BUT DON’T DAMAGE EXISTING PROPERTY

In the “This is why we can’t have good things” category: Because people keep proving they don’t appreciate and take care of said things, such as Wilkes-Barre’s Barney Farms tennis courts.

No one is going to argue that the Diamond City — or any other municipality — does a consistently outstanding job of creating, maintaining and updating municipal parks. Bigger cities in particular tend to drop park maintenance early in the “can’t afford it” process when money gets tight.

It’s unfortunate of course, because even small parks have been proven to provide many positives to municipal residents. But it’s also understandable. Cut essential services like police and fire protection, road repairs or snow removal and the howling is almost instant and ubiquitous. Neglect to spruce up a park and you likely will get little griping until the deterioration grows into an eyesore, or into a hazard.

So criticizing what some people did to Wilkes-Barre’s Hollenback Park tennis courts comes with a caveat: The park didn’t look its best to begin with. Part of this may be the old “broken window” theory: People see property deteriorating, so they figure they can do what they want with it, causing more deterioration.

 But that’s self-defeating logic for those doing any damage or altercations to a city park, which is what happened at the tennis courts. Someone decided the perceived disuse justified makeshift re-purposing, and they tried to turn it into a skateboard park, damaging the court surfaces.

 All those people did is send a message to taxpayers that suggests skateboarders won’t respect city property, making the average resident less inclined to support a real skateboard park. We had a similar situation when the levee was thoroughly revamped to create two gateways to the river with lots of concrete and masonry to carve out public spaces. Skateboarders started abusing the facilities, forcing modifications to the property.

According to one story — never verified — from a city official, a skateboarder even threatened to keep damaging the property until the city built a park for the sport. Ah, blackmail through vandalism: How could that fail to win hearts?

Skateboarders deserve a park. Mayor George Brown is trying to arrange funding to not only build one, but build a first-class facility.

Brown showed considerable restraint, in a Tuesday story by staff writer Jerry Lynott, regarding the damage done at Hollenback. He voiced dismay and vowed to remove the makeshift obstacles, but shifted the conversation to his effort to create a real skateboard park, possibly with the help of the Luzerne Foundation, at the city’s Hollenback Park.

Skateboarders — and all who use public park property — would serve their own ambitions best by respecting what taxpayers provide. Indeed, they could prove they are worthy of additional investment in new facilities by helping maintain the old ones, volunteering to keep things clean, maybe even working to line up some free help and supplies for maintenance if an appropriate deal could be worked out with the city.

You want a skateboard park? Earn it by respecting the public parks we already have.

— Times Leader