and put in a parking lot... oooo lalalala

We had this lovely little wood on the corner of our dead end road that was great fun to romp through. Then one day the city came in, mowed down all of the trees and plants, paved it over, put up some displays and declared it a "nature park". Yeah, a they literally paved over the forest for a nature park. A huge parking lot (which I only ever see at most 2 cars at a time as we live on a back road and all of the locals walk to this "park"), and these crazy concrete and metal thingamajigs that are supposed to demonstrate lessons on water.

The misting poles have always worked, but the concrete water fountain sculptures had padlocks on them. As a concerned citizen who uses the park all the time, I wrote letters and phoned city hall. How could you pave over a forest to put in a concrete water thingamajig and then lock them up so the people who live near this park can't even use it? I was passed around and then told that they do water demonstration programs in the spring once a month and I could pay a few dollars and sign up to be a part of one. I hung up.

So I don't know if they had a change in heart, or if more people called, or if our awesome mayor waved his magic mayoral wand (he's a buddy of ours but I don't think I ever talked to him about this), or if it was simple oversight on the part of a city worker... but we arrived at the park last week and the padlocks were gone.

I'd still rather have our forest back... but... it sure was a lot of fun!

I hope the locks stay off!