For probably my final post for my trip to Netherlands, I need to comment between Jane Jacob's view of the evilness of playgrounds and what I feel regarding her observations.
Jane Jacobs explains through the chapter that designing playgrounds into areas is not helping the community's children. In fact, she uses many examples how playground areas are instead hurting the cohesiveness of the community by letting the children run rampant. Some of the events she describes as happening in playgrounds disturbed me to think about and an even bigger surprise was that they happened in the late 1950's. One that stuck out was the fight between two gangs and the killing of an innocent 14 year old girl that was not affiliated with either gang.
Jacob's then explains that with well used sidewalks, kids have just as much fun mingling among the adults. The kids on the sidewalks can talk with other kids, play with chalk, jump rope, and several other activities. Here on the sidewalks, the kids are visible to plenty of adults and can easily be corrected if they step out of line. A well designed sidewalk can be more beneficial to the upbringing of children. In contrast with playgrounds, kids are able to run around without any supervision, leading to bullying and even violence.
Growing up in my small town of Texas, I enjoyed the rare occasion of going to a playground. I understand that this was a small town compared to New York where Jacobs explains the parks are evil, but the playgrounds I remember were small and out of the way where parents had to take you and watch you while you play. They were hardly any other children in them and seemed a good way to let my mom or dad take a break from dealing with my sisters and I. Of course, the small town I lived in hardly had any sidewalks, and there was not much activity in the streets. I have seen, however, some of the parks in the larger cities and the vandalism that is present. Some even have fencing around to make the park look like the interior of a prison. I could not imagine being a kid and wanting to play in one of those areas.
In the Netherlands, when I think of playgrounds, I think of the suburb of Houten. I mentioned the city previously in my blog, but to recap it was supposedly built with bike transit in mind. There is a bike highway that cuts through the middle of the north area of the city and along this highway has many play areas for kids. I was amazed and even jealous of the choices that kids got on where to play. The professor, Brian, Sara, and I even had to stop and enjoy one of the playgrounds that consisted of a zip line. As we rode around, I noticed many kids having fun in these play areas, playing in the equipment or playing a game of soccer. I did not notice at the time if there was adult supervision, but the bike highway ran along side these play areas and there was almost always a cyclist passing by. Later on, in a class meeting, he amount of green area and play facilities was commented as being one of the most distinguishable features noticed about the city.
I'm not sure how Jane Jacobs would have seen the area, but I felt it was a healthy area for kids to run and play. I'm not for certain if any delinquency occurs in the playgrounds, as everything looked clean and in working order. I guess it could be argued how the playgrounds were sort of integrated into the street, being that they were next to the bike highway.
As for other areas in the Netherlands, the park in Delft where we had the Independence Day celebration and some parks in Rotterdam all seemed well used by kids and adults alike. To my recollection, there was not any visible marks of vandalism in these areas, and kids always seemed to be having a fun time in eye and earshot of adults. I'm curious if this is due to always having adults nearby, or maybe the Dutch have a grasp on what it takes to parent children.
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