Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Ted Rhodes Park: A Review
Posted by Betsy Phillips on Wed, May 26, 2010 at 5:22 AM
- There's still a thick layer of silt on the tennis courts.
Location: Along Rosa Parks in Metro Center
Crowds: Substantial
Approximate Age of Patrons: 30s-60s
Topics of Conversation: I couldn't get close enough to hear what they were talking about.
Stray Dogs Seen: None
Types of Vehicles in Parking Lots: Trucks and big cars
Perceived Safety: High
Number of Gunshots Heard: None
Dog Friendliness: n/a
Number of pitbulls sighted: none
Accessibility: unable to determine at this time
Incorporation of Local History: Very high, at the moment
Recommended Patrons: No one, right now, unless you like to cry
Reviewing our city's parks has made me think a lot about the purpose of parks, what they're there for, what we want to use them for, and whether they do their jobs.
- This used to be stuff in people's homes.
As is the realization that there could have been houses here. It could have been so much worse. And, of course, I say that knowing that, for many, it was. For a few, it was the worst. First water, and now dirt, are over them.
But Rhodes Park, with its wide expanses of grass, where children play soccer and football (and if you have ever seen them play, some of them are so tiny you almost can't believe they don't topple over under the weight of their helmets), is almost unrecognizable as a place people go to enjoy themselves right now.
Instead, it's home of one of the large piles of stuff people used to think was valuable to them. I hear there are piles like this all over town, but who can bear to go verify something like that?
I watched as they loaded things from the pile into the backs of trucks, filled the trucks, and the trucks left, to return empty.
Nothing was on fire, but it put me in mind of a funeral pyre anyway.
Ted Rhodes Park does not seem like a park in the usual sense of the word, at the moment, but I was witnessing an important role it plays in our community — one I hope to never have to see again.
Comments (0)