The Value of Parks and Libraries

My daughter knows every park/playground within a two mile radius of the house and even a few outside. Some days we’ll try to hit three parks in a day if they are close enough together by foot or bike. Many I had seen on my travels around the city but often paid them no mind. Now they are everything, especially to her. A day without going outside seems gloomy.

Something I think I struggled with before, and maybe even now, is explaining the value of public infrastructure such as parks, libraries, and public entertainment. I knew their value but not really. I would have voted for them, but I did not know how many friends a child can make or adventures they could have. Not just on the playground but in books and words. The thrill of the swing and the lessons of repetition.

Sometimes I’ll admit I get annoyed having to read the same book every night three weeks in a row. But I get it now, it annoys me less when she kicks it back to me, having memorized a book about bicycles or a public garden that frankly mimics a world that would be pretty sweet. To her it’s real and that’s exciting.

These parks and libraries are also sanity savers. For parents and care givers. Which makes access to them even more important. So when a playground is closed due to administration for years, imagine how many friends were missed, imaginations were stifled, sleep not achieved because a kiddo couldn’t get tired enough.

Parks, playgrounds, libraries, transit, schools, and the public realm of cities. If you don’t experience them first hand you might not understand them and their importance. But when you finally find out the real impact, the world is enriched again beyond your imagination. So when I go to the playground now, I don’t see San Francisco’s problems, I see its joy and its future, and that’s sometimes the best part of my day.

***

For this intro post and more news in your inbox every morning, sign up for a two week free trial of The Overhead Wire Daily, our popular newsletter established in 2006.