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mara
Forum search mara - 8 posts
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  Advocate for Play  Play Advocacy and Playful City USA  Playground vs. ...
 Playground vs. Dog Park?
 
imgOfflinealynsen
106 posts
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Joined
1/28/2008

Playground vs. Dog Park?
Posted: 05 Mar 08 10:25 AM Modified By alynsen  on 3/5/2008 10:27:05 AM)

From a New Zealand newspaper...(I bolded certain parts for emphasis).

Playground goes to the dogs
A proposed playground in an off-leash dog reserve has divided residents.

Remuera mother Janette Campbell is furious a decision made by the previous council to put a playground at Waiata Reserve could be reversed by the Hobson Community Board, despite $70,000 already being allocated to it.

She says Remuera has plenty of open green spaces, but has been identified as an area short of playgrounds.

"The council’s long-term plan is trying to develop sustainable communities and wouldn’t it be nice if we can walk to playgrounds?"

...

He says the majority of people who spoke at the 6.30pm board meeting last month supported scrapping the playground, evident in a 250-strong petition.

But Mrs Campbell says if the meeting had been advertised at local kindergartens, Plunket and daycares, and held at a more suitable time for parents, the board would have received a different viewpoint.

"The dog owners have a perfectly valid view but it’s not the only one in the community.

"The councillors asked me if there were so many people in support of the playground, where are they?"

Outraged, Mrs Campbell started her own petition and in just over a week gathered 150 signatures.

She says many families may not have time to travel to parks with upgraded play facilities.

"Little Rangitoto Reserve is great, but there are lines of cars, everyone hops in their SUVs and drives there. This is what we should be trying to avoid by providing facilities closer to hand."

Read the full article

To me, this demonstrates the importance of play advocacy (especially considering the comment of the councillors I bolded), but it also shows a community divided between people who want a play for dogs to play and people who want a place for kids to play. Has this happened in anyone else's communities?

  Advocate for Play  Play Advocacy and Playful City USA  Playground vs. ...

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