Posted on 10/02/2008 3:34:41 PM PDT by andrew roman
What if you decided to patronize the local neighborhood park and discovered that baseball, football, softball, wiffle ball, volleyball, basketball, soccer, kickball, handball, tennis, frisbee, kite flying, model airplane flying and ping pong were all banned there? Sounds like fun, no? (I’m not sure about go-fish or European-style tiddly-winks).
And what if I also told you that if you were contemplating a nice bike ride through the park, you could just forget it? Bicycles, skateboards, roller skates, roller blades, shopping carts, golf carts or any other motorized-wheeled modes of transportation are also banned – although, to be fair, baby carriages, wheelchairs, standard two-legged walking, and the free intake of the oxygen-nitrogen compound that comprise the air we breathe, as of this writing, are permitted.
Welcome to Lyndhurst, New Jersey and Town Hall Park.
Michael Lamendola of the South Bergenite writes:
Last week, the board of commissioners tabled a lengthy ordinance regulating everything from mobility use in the park to using the new facilities within it. The regulations run the gamut of officially banning certain sports in the park to prohibiting the use of the new amphitheater without a permit. Although lengthy and precise in its ability to allow police to govern and enforce violations in the park, officials said the ordinance needs to go back to the drawing board for add-ons.
Add-ons?
Back to the drawing board?
What did they forget? The anti-flatulence and public belching provision? The no-perspiration addendum?
Mayor Richard DiLascio, a former Republican who recently converted to Democrat, said:
"People think of some strange things to do, I can picture someone climbing up on stuff, on the band shell and everything else. What we didn’t put in here [the ordinance] is something we talked about and I don’t like to call it ‘catch all’ because that’s not legal, but we need something a little broader in scope in terms of general behavior that might be considered dangerous to either self, others or property."
This is one of those instances where I concede that I must be missing something. I acknowledge that my mind and I are sometimes not on a first-name basis, and the light bulb is often in need of a new filament (I have yet to switch to one of these new environmentally sound, ridiculous looking squiggly light bulbs), but I am positively befuddled here. I am, therefore, affording myself the opportunity to be informed by those far less ignorant than me. Clarity is a tasty morsel, indeed.
Someone please explain to me the rationale of having a park – inclusive of trees, fields, paths and all the archetypal “park” amenities – if almost all recreational activities normally associated with a day at the park are forbidden?
Why date a supermodel if you can’t talk to, touch, be seen with, be near or tell anyone about it?
This is reminiscent of the all-too-commonplace stories of elementary schools banning certain activities at recess – tag, dodge ball, whatever – as a means of “protecting the children” and sparing them the various stigmatizing eventualities that could potentially scar them for the rest of their natural lives. One must believe that during recess periods, kids are let out into unsupervised jungles of lawlessness and dog-eat-dog rules without any adult supervision whatsoever. What exactly happens during recess these days? Do teachers unlock the gates and jump out of the way into closets and cigarette-smoke filled lounges while the untamed beasts explode onto the playgrounds to engage in free-frolicking incivility and depraved violence? When I was a boy, there were teachers everywhere during recess periods. When exactly did that change?
Are we then to believe that it is better for children to have certain activities completely banned rather than actually teaching them the proper way to behave within those activities?
I suppose Town Hall Park in Lyndhurst, New Jersey is just the latest schoolyard in a society so quick to ban rather than enforce – and the citizens of Lyndhurst are the children at recess.
You can thank trial lawyers for that crap.
Some parks are not designed for athletics but for quieter activities. People engaging in them can injure (not to mention annoy) those who are there for picnics, strolling, concerts, thespian productions, art displays, etc. Some parks are no more than “squares” in the center of small towns.
You’re tilting at windmills Andrew.
Why does the majority suffer the insanity of these few?
Why not rather simply institutionalize them under ample doses of thorazine than allow them to any longer impose their inanities upon the rest of us??
I mean, Freedom of Speech is one thing; a man may say whatever insane, infirm, unsound, reckless, and wild thing he desires to say, and we stand firmly upon The Constitution in support of his right to say it.
But codifying such dreck in to Law? This does not fall within the “emanations and penumbras” of The First Amendment.
Given the choice between facing barbarians at the gates, or liberals in government, I think I’d choose the barbarians. At least their behavior is still recognized as sufficiently socially antagonistic and destructive as to warrent their wholesale slaughter. Once upon a time, the present behavior of liberals was similarly understood.
Sadly, no more.
It is better to be able to tilt without falling over, shaking the ground and convulsing with a heart attack. ;-)
When they came for the gunowners, I didn’t care because I wasn’t a gunowner.....
You can fill in the rest.
I feel fortunate to have been able to use teeter totters, jungle gyms, and diving boards—all of which have all but vanished—during my childhood.
Here is an article about the millions Lyndehurst is spending to build 4 athletic fields. I’m figuring they think since they have built space for those activities they might want to keep the one area aside for people who prefer a quiet walk through a park, reflection or reading a book.
I’ve been an athlete and dog owner but can appreciate having a nice quiet place in town. It appears this “Town Hall Park” is the old village green and it is surrounded by historic buildings, has a stage for concerts, etc.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/northernnj/19880199.html
There is a place and time for everything but the knee jerk running for the pitchforks on FR is really getting out of hand.
It also makes us look like idiots.
Well at least they didn’t ban leaving cakes out in the rain.
Good one ;-}.
Most people would gladly give up their freedom in return for the right to control their neighbor.
Its no contest.
No kidding. I read that list and almost laughed - ALMOST. Before all of them were banned, we shooters were long since tossed under a fleet of busses.
I hate to say it, but I have no sympathy for those now denied who didn’t say a word about the limitations on the exercise of our most basic right.
Well, I guess you can have sex there and, like, get a tan and smoke a joint, you know? All that other stuff is dangeroussss.
Anything not mandatory is forbidden, citizen. Now go your way.
In Houston, our newest park “Discovery Green” was established to make money for the city. If you take photos there for your wedding, or graduation, or Quienciera, or OTHER birthday, etc. you can expect to PAY for a photography permit. There is also advertising, sponsorship, and at times roped entry which requires you to PAY to go to a city funded park.
Morons in Houston permitted the HPD to establish a post-hurricane curfew. This one was established after the legal curfew that had been declared by the mayor, and once extended, had expired.
We have no rights. Only temporary freedoms that our government grants us.
Your point is fair, and I do appreciate it sincerely ... If the rationale behind banning all of those activities were, as you say, wanting to designate a small area where undisturbed quiet reflection or reading could take place from town dwellers, away from boisterous games - knowing that OTHER areas in Lyndhurst were on the way to accomodate athletics - then I wouldn’t have bothered (although I’d be interested in seeing what kind of unbridaled noise kite flying makes). That wasn’t the case, however. Not from the city. It was about preserving the investment and public safety...
From the same article: “When the township invested approximately $2 million into the renaissance of Town Hall Park, which was completed this summer, officials thought they had everything: a new amphitheater, new illuminated water fountain, brick paver walkways and a new playground. One thing that was lacking, however, were the rules and regulations that would govern how the park was to be used, a way of both ensuring safety, but also ensuring the multi-million investment be preserved.”
Again, if that’s what the community wants, so be it. That isn’t my point.
For example, there is a playground in Town Hall Park, as you will notice. What type of quiet and serenity can park visitors expect to enjoy with a playground close by? Or maybe the better question is .. what type of activities will they allow children to participate in on that playground?
Nothing too athletic, I hope.
This isn’t about pitchforks, my friend. This is about illustrating the absurdity and inconsistency behind actions - and the decaying of many of the traditions I hold dear.
That’s all.
Be well!
"When they came for the skateboarders I said nothing, because I don't own a skateboard." Welcome to the modern America the lawyers and the libs want for us all.
Each of us has a choice: fight, run-away run-away, or do nothing and succumb. The fat dumb & happy crowd are choosing the last. (I like Palin because she chose the former.)
Smokers. First they came for the smokers.
..and then they confiscated the purveyors of high saturated fatty oils ... (at least here in New York).
Is that the one that jacked up all the good parking for gun shows at the G.R.B?
Careful, there are MANY Freepers who LOVE taking away smoker's freedoms.
I’ve been reading a lot of your stuff lately and I like it. Just make me one promise.
Don’t jump the shark.
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