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And here I thought all along that swing sets in parks were a GOOD idea

Remember the swing sets you played on in your local park or playground when you were a kid? I do.

Among my earliest memories are swinging in the local park in the small Nebraska town where I grew up. It had an old, dilapidated set of swings consisting of board seats hanging from chains fastened to a metal pole structure which may or may not have been solidly set into concrete anchors. I know there was sand directly below the swings, with lots of grass, trees, and bushes nearby in the town park.

I just saw a story out of Toronto, I believe it was, about some people in a neighborhood halting the construction of a swing set in a "parkette" built in the 1970s on the site of an abandoned warehouse. Seems the swing set would eliminate the last bit of green space in the parkette. (I'd never heard of a "parkette" before reading that story.)

I think, perhaps, we've lost some perspective here. Swing sets ought to be fun equipment located with lots of green space around them -- not equipment that eliminates the last green space around them.

Seems to me either the city needs to expand the "parkette," or the swing set needs to be designed with more green space. But, hey, I know little or nothing about city park/parkette/playground equipment requirements these days, and even less I'm sure about zoning and planning in Toronto.

Those were nice days, though, back when kids could play on real grass among real trees in honest to goodness PARKS, weren't they?
[tags]swing sets, city parks, city parkettes, green space, just a guy who reads the papers[/tags]