Park vandalism

By Karen M

Crazy how something resourceful and beautiful can be easily recked and trashed in seconds. By people who are careless enough to do the deed. Parks are the main targets of vandalism. It negatively affects the people who use the park every day. Vandalism is an ongoing issue globally, and while many improvements have been made to prevent it, it still occurs in everyday life.

If you use parks every day, have you ever noticed garbage around or swing chains that are broken, unable to be used? Well, vandalism can paint an ugly picture of an otherwise attractive park system. Everyone who uses the park has to look at something ugly, broken, or dirty. When someone wrecks a bench, it can take months to replace it, leaving an unappealing sight for an extended time. Ultimately there is nowhere to sit at the park for a while. Types of vandalism include graffiti, trash dumping, light smashing, removing/bending signage, or defacing property.

People usually vandalize to release anger and ‘get back at’ those they feel have wronged them. Many teens think vandalism doesn't hurt anyone because it isn’t a big deal. They are wrong. An Article from Scholastic, Inc. titled ‘Vandalism Hurts: When Vandals strike, our communities pay the price,’ “Vandalism destroys something we use as a resource.” People go to exercise, walk, bike, etc. It is helpful for those who don’t have a backyard.

Parks are always physically open. Since there is no barrier, people can just walk in and do whatever they want all night. Its openness is both a weakness and a strength. Anyone can come to enjoy its facilities, but they can also abuse them. There is lots of isolation, lots of open space. Not many police are around, so people do whatever they want. Be more resourceful of parks, be more friendly, be around parks more because the more people are around, the less vandalism occurs since there are witnesses.

Sources:By Fionnuala Boyle

The National Recreation and Park Association by Skip Hartman says, “Outreach programs like NYJTL have managed to improve neighborhood conditions and give kids and everyone an activity to do. To occupy time with fun activities like movie nights,barbecues, etc.” These activities may be useful to prevent vandalism because more people are out there. Acts of Vandalism and graffiti have been discouraged by keeping the park active.

The biggest problem is the ongoing repair costs and lack of proper use. It costs a lot, up to 100k in repair cost, or other components like upgrades and replacement parts, which can cost up to 1m. To repair a park, you have to get funds and contact people to have it installed. It’s a big hassle. From “Beauty Interrupted: Vandalism can paint an ugly picture of an otherwise attractive park system’’. The article displays the cost that is brought to repairing a park, Material cost: $27,929.41, Labor Cost: $18,100.49, Equipment Cost: $6,498.64, Contact Cost: $3,304.90.

Another major issue due to park vandalism is the animal life at parks. When people bring in toxic items/food, the most immediate impact goes to aquatic life. Everything in the park is a food source. If you start dumping waste in water, the ecosystem goes down. If the food source like fish is gone, other animals like raccoons or possums don’t have anything to eat. So instead, they go into neighborhoods to eat in trash cans, to find a source of food. This causes more trouble since wild animals go into people's homes if there is no fish due to habitat destruction. Which is quite sad since raccoons and other animals are not meant to be out in neighborhoods.

As far as ponds, man-made ones are taken care of pretty well. In other park creeks or lakes, the view may be a bit worse than made ones since no one thoroughly cleans them 24/7. From Writer Sarah Wilson, Article ‘Park Vandalism goes from callous to downright cruel when perpetrators arrive with a plan of destruction’: “Items we use everyday, and public toilets were shattered leaving nothing more than porcelain nubs above the floor drains and sinks were left in pieces on the bathroom floor. Causing about $20,000 in damages.” One way to prevent all of this is to help. Consistency of maintenance to sustain how the park works and how the park looks would be huge. Volunteer clean-up is the best to help with all the litter.

So I hope this story brought you some consideration for parks out there. Anyone can use the park; it is a resource. Be mindful of your actions because actions speak louder than words. Park Vandalism can’t be 100% stopped, but if we unite as a whole and do our part. We all can make a change that supports our other communities surrounding us.