Photo Credit: RATIO Architects, Inc.
“So do you know how far the sound of children's laughter carries?”
The question was posed to me in a public meeting designed to gather input for a master plan for a park. The plan would ultimately lead to a design for a new playground, and the tone of the question resembled one that someone might use in asking about the smell of a combined sewer overflow or the sound of a concert venue. The tone also communicated to me that, as a park planner, this was something I should know. I replied I would have to check on that and get back to the person.
I mention this exchange because it is symptomatic of the tension that had developed over placing a new playground—not even a large one, actually—in a historic park in Bloomington, Ill. It occurred to me that the writers of the television show Parks and Recreation might want to incorporate this conversation into a future episode—sometimes you can’t make this stuff up.