Does your area have Passive Parks?

[Metro West]

A passive park, who in the world came up with that??

Exactly...I've never even heard of such a thing.

 

[just4today]

There are two parks in our city that are HUGE and now deemed passive parks. The council of the town last year passed the ordinance for reasons we cannot tell. The city's own website states that the purpose of the parks are to inspire physical activity and social growth.

This is the first we had ever heard of anything like this and wondered if this was common in other areas.

Where do you live? Perhaps another DIS member lives there and would have more information about why this happened.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Not that I am aware of. Some parks are passive by nature of their size and the fact that it is set aside for green space but they really are not designated as such. In those cases common sense prevails that there simply isn't enough room even though it isn't outright banned.

The only prohibitions I see have to do with keeping others safe with perhaps some limitations to activities on wheels such as roller blading and skateboarding.

While I don't understand the actual logic behind why there would be "passive parks"--perhaps too many people who simply like to "hang" in the parks complained and as always the squeeky wheel gets the grease.

 

[testifyoncruises]

Where do you live? Perhaps another DIS member lives there and would have more information about why this happened.

Unlike some people, I am very guarded about my privacy.

 

[NikitaZee]

Unlike some people, I am very guarded about my privacy.

I think that's a good idea, ToC.

 

[georgina]

Perhaps you should start a petition like this one: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/against-the-passage-of-passive-parks-in-canton.html

 

[golfgal]

We didn't know that this was changed to a passive park last year. The signs are not all over the park.

It is not like this park was set up as a "passive" park. This was a park enjoyed by all, walkers, daydreamers, football, soccer players and then suddenly made into a passive park.

Now the only places where you can play these games are where you must pay to join a recreational league. So no more pick up games after the big game or picnic.

Absolutely a horrible idea to discourage physical activity in a country were obesity, diabetes and heart disease are so prevalent.

Like this will have any impact, positive or negative, on the obesity problem in the US. It sounds more like you are inconvenienced by this change. So the rest of the parks you could only use if you were part of a league? I would have more issue with that then one becoming a passive park.

 

[rparmfamily]

I've never heard of a passive park? Honestly, sounds ridiculous to me.

 

[testifyoncruises]

Like this will have any impact, positive or negative, on the obesity problem in the US. It sounds more like you are inconvenienced by this change. So the rest of the parks you could only use if you were part of a league? I would have more issue with that then one becoming a passive park.

Are you kidding? Do you honestly think making parks passive is not going to have a negative impact on the obesity problems in the US?

Yes I am inconvenienced by this change. It is utterly ridiculous to take a park that is several acres and change the ENTIRE park to passive.

Want to be passive, go lay out in your own yard. Leave the public places to be enjoyed by all people.

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

I've never heard of passive parks. What a stupid concept.
I can see walking trails and quiet areas of a large park where they can be "passive". But to take a large park and render the entire thing useless makes absolutely no sense to me.

 

[testifyoncruises]

I read that petition. Obviously my area of the country is not the only one where this stupid idea is being done.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

If the local police have time to enforce this, it's apperant their budget needs to be cut. The money could be used to pay for more parks

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

If the local police have time to enforce this, it's apperant their budget needs to be cut. The money could be used to pay for more parks

ITA!!

 

[FireDancer]

What a strange idea. We have some trails around here that are walking/hiking only but any park with an area large enough to play a sport in is free game for anything. I could see trying to play football or baseball in an area that is too small and being told not to. There are a couple of small baseball fields surrounded by roads that are labeled no adults because too many cars got hit. Even that field can be used for sports like football or soccer though.

Luckily we have a very good park system in the area and we are encouraged to use it by the people who take care of it.

As for the obesity epidemic, that is multifaceted. Part of it is general laziness. Too many Americans just don't get daily exercise. We also are far too quick to grab overly processed foods instead of actual ingredients grown in the ground. When there are people who look at the Wii as their only form of exercise you know we have a problem. I'm not saying that it can't be part of an active life but standing in the living room waiving your arms around won't take the place of getting out in the world and playing, for example, actual tennis instead of Wii tennis. Even in our physical activity many of us are pretty lazy.

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

Like this will have any impact, positive or negative, on the obesity problem in the US. It sounds more like you are inconvenienced by this change. So the rest of the parks you could only use if you were part of a league? I would have more issue with that then one becoming a passive park.

It probably will have little impact on USA obesity in general (we're *never* going to get a handle on that until Americans start to learn how many calories they NEED versus how many they're EATING) but reducing the number of places where people *can* get exercise cannot be a good thing.

If the proliferation of "passive parks" discourages even one group of people from partaking in an activity where they would have gotten exercise, it's certainly going to have an impact on them.

 

[Free4Life11]

Passive park...what a dumb idea.

 

[DizBelle]

I've got to say, I completely surprised that no one has considered the financial/liability component of this. Perhaps the park owners (whichever level of government it is) was getting sued too many times by people that got hurt in the parks playing football or baseball. It was getting too expensive to maintain the insurance. So, the choice was to make it a passive park (where they can say that activities like football are not permitted so the can't be responsible if someone gets hurt) or just get rid of the park altogether.

Yes, obesity and heart disease are prevalent. So are frivolous lawsuits.

 

[Metsfan520]

I've got to say, I completely surprised that no one has considered the financial/liability component of this. Perhaps the park owners (whichever level of government it is) was getting sued too many times by people that got hurt in the parks playing football or baseball. It was getting too expensive to maintain the insurance. So, the choice was to make it a passive park (where they can say that activities like football are not permitted so the can't be responsible if someone gets hurt) or just get rid of the park altogether.

Yes, obesity and heart disease are prevalent. So are frivolous lawsuits.

Exactly what I was thinking....down to the line about lawsuits.

 

[MM27]

Are you kidding? Do you honestly think making parks passive is not going to have a negative impact on the obesity problems in the US?

Yes I am inconvenienced by this change. It is utterly ridiculous to take a park that is several acres and change the ENTIRE park to passive.

Want to be passive, go lay out in your own yard. Leave the public places to be enjoyed by all people.

It depends on the town's definition of passive. If it means that people can still walk/run, then no it won't have a negative impact on obesity. It may actually encourage some people to get out and walk/run in an area where they don't have to deal with the less passive activities.

As far as go lay out in your own yard, the same can be said for people doing the other activities. Go play soccer or basketball or skateboard in your own yard.

I googled passive parks and the first thing that came up was this http://www.yubacity.net/parks/passive-parks.htm

Passive parks are small landscaped parcels. These mini-parks are intended to provide either specialized facilities that serve a local population or a specific user group and are typically limited to a small, attractive open area presentation.

The key word here seems to be SMALL. I highly doubt that they are taking away the large parks that get a lot of traffic.

 

[locolala]

testify.. not everyone HAS a yard to lay out in. I personally would love to have a park where I can just go sit in the sun and relax, not having to worry about people yelling and disturbing my relaxation.