In case you haven't noticed, the Farwell park needs toilets. If you are like me and have spent much time there, you too have probably seen kids relieving themselves under the picnic tables, or on trees, or behind bushes. Not really an optimal situation.
However, if the only way to get toilets at the park is to use "tax" money, then forget I mentioned it. Nothing is so important it needs to be financed by robbing my neighbors. Any facilities could and should be provided and maintained strictly with private funding.
For that matter, it would be nice if some civic group could completely take over ownership of the park so that it would be entirely privately managed and maintained. I think it could be kept much nicer that way. In other towns I have seen parks owned by private organizations, such as the Lions Club, and they are almost always nicer than government-owned parks in the same towns. Who decided parks should be a government function in the first place?
But, I digress, so back to the subject at hand.
I'm sure there would be some problems if toilets were built. Vandalism? Probably. "Unapproved uses", such as sex, drugs, and "underage" smoking? Probably. Do you think those things don't go on anyway? I pick up garbage at the park for "fun"; I know more about what goes on there than you might imagine. However, to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, if it neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg it really is none of my business.
If you let private owners exercise their rights of ownership, I'm certain they could provide facilities and find non-governmental solutions to any behaviors they had a problem with. I know I could and surely they would be smarter than me.
However, if the only way to get toilets at the park is to use "tax" money, then forget I mentioned it. Nothing is so important it needs to be financed by robbing my neighbors. Any facilities could and should be provided and maintained strictly with private funding.
For that matter, it would be nice if some civic group could completely take over ownership of the park so that it would be entirely privately managed and maintained. I think it could be kept much nicer that way. In other towns I have seen parks owned by private organizations, such as the Lions Club, and they are almost always nicer than government-owned parks in the same towns. Who decided parks should be a government function in the first place?
But, I digress, so back to the subject at hand.
I'm sure there would be some problems if toilets were built. Vandalism? Probably. "Unapproved uses", such as sex, drugs, and "underage" smoking? Probably. Do you think those things don't go on anyway? I pick up garbage at the park for "fun"; I know more about what goes on there than you might imagine. However, to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, if it neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg it really is none of my business.
If you let private owners exercise their rights of ownership, I'm certain they could provide facilities and find non-governmental solutions to any behaviors they had a problem with. I know I could and surely they would be smarter than me.
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