RE: Playgrounds for preteens | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Rowenahc (rowenahccs.com) | |
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 06:09:01 -0700 (MST) |
I am not offerin a solution but I do have a question. What kind of "play area" could be built on such a limited area that would keep preteens occupied for any length of time? Since we live in an urban area we have much less space - 41 units on 1.3 acres. Our preteens seem to have a pretty good time biking, skateboarding and scootering along the internal spine pathways, playing ball on the lawn, shooting baskets, and playing ping pong in the rec room. We also have parks and stuff nearby but most of the kids seem to belong to soccer, hockey, gymnastic and other such teams that keep them busy much of the time. And then there is just hanging out or dressing up. Most of our kids of this age are girls, does this make a difference? Once in a while these kids will swing on the swings in the (little kids) play area but I can't imagine them staying in any small area for any length of time. Rowena Cambridge Cohousing -----Original Message----- From: cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org [mailto:cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org]On Behalf Of Howard Landman Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2001 7:44 PM To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org Subject: [C-L]_When world(view)s collide I'm wondering if anyone out there has had experience reconciling radically different world views into a consensus. The specific problem we're facing now goes something like this: - We need to have someplace for our bigger kids (say 6-12 years old) to play. We already constructed a sandy play area, but it's mostly being used by the toddlers, and there are issues with the older kids being too rambunctious for the little ones. - We are located directly adjacent to a large city park with trees, a large playground, tennis courts, basketball courts, a farm, and river access. - We have 34 units on 4 acres, so there's not a lot of space to spare. (This contrasts with nearby Grayrock, which has 15 acres in addition to its main property.) There seem to be two main opinions about this (I may be distorting things slightly to simplify the presentation): (1) One group believes deeply that it is completely unsafe and unacceptable for kids under 10 to be in the park without adult supervision, even if they go there in groups of 2 or 3. They are concerned about "predatory types" doing something unspeakable to their kids. They are worried about the river. Therefore, it is "obvious" to them that we *must* build a play area specifically for the bigger sub-teen kids, and that it must be in the central part of our site so that parents can keep a constant eye on them. (2) The second group sees nothing wrong with kids that age going to the park and back by themselves. They reminisce about doing much more dangerous things when they were kids, and just don't see the problem. The idea of building a playground on our limited space when there's a perfectly good playground a couple hundred feet away seems silly and redundant to them, a waste of a very limited resource. It is "obvious" to them that this is a bad idea. Having started off in camp 2 and having made some effort to understand the camp 1 folks, I now am faced with the "Where do we go from here?" question. I think I know the scope of the divergence of opinions, but I'm not sure how to work towards consensus. The 1 folks are frustrated because they've brought up this "urgent" issue several times and gotten nowhere (but they failed to develop a consensus that there was in fact a problem that needed solving before trying to get specific solutions adopted). The 2 folks are frustrated because the issue refuses to go away (but are not doing a good job so far of listening to the concerns). Any ideas? I'm not interested in hearing that "group 1 is right" or "I agree with group 2". I want some way to begin synthesizing both viewpoints into something we can all live with. Howard Landman River Rock Commons, Ft. Collins CO _______________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org Unsubscribe info: http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l _______________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org Unsubscribe info: http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l
- Re: When world(view)s collide, (continued)
- Re: When world(view)s collide Howard Landman, March 21 2001
- Re: When world(view)s collide Denise Meier, March 21 2001
- Re: When world(view)s collide Brian Baresch, March 21 2001
- Re: When world(view)s collide Sharon Villines, March 21 2001
- RE: Playgrounds for preteens Rowenahc, March 22 2001
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Re: RE: Playgrounds for preteens Peg Blum, March 22 2001
- Whoops!Re: [C-L]_RE: Playgrounds for preteens Peg Blum, March 22 2001
- RE: When world(view)s collide Rob Sandelin, March 22 2001
- Re: When world(view)s collide Michael D, March 23 2001
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