In your lifetime, how many public parks have you entered where one of the first things that greeted you, if not the first thing, was a PORTA JOHN?
How many public parks have you been to where the most conspicuous thing at the exit was a PLASTIC PORTA JOHN?
Why is it only in Hudson that a PLASTIC FUCKING PORTA JOHN left at the only entrance and exit to a public park is acceptable for years, let alone months? How is this in any way good for the human spirit, particularly in a space where people go to get a little bit of rare nature and some respite from the bullshit of a world increasingly filled with anxiety? A fucking Porta John left for 2 years or more at the entrance to Oakdale Park, our largest park with our only lake, a lake that is increasingly threatened and unfit for humans? Who the hell makes these decisions? Rob The Slob Perry? Or is it Kamal I-Don't-Know-What-The-Hell-I-Am-Doing-Or-Supposed-To-Be-Doing Johnson?
Yesterday in the early evening, after trying my best to ignore the lovely Porta John as I made my way into the park for a walk around the lake, I detected the sound of dripping water as I stepped onto the sand of the beach. Sure enough, at 7:45 pm, with no one else around, the shower head at the corner of the bathhouse -- directly outside the Youth Department's summer office -- was dripping water, and not just a tiny bit. There was no way to stop it. All that water falling on the concrete at the foundation of the building just outside the office is further destroying an already severely damaged building that should have been replaced years ago. No one cares.
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| Who at City Hall could put an end to this? |
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| Does anyone want to or feel the need to? |
Then I turned my attention to the water fountain a few feet away. That, too, was leaking water, in a tiny dribble directly from the spout. I turned the handle back and forth to see if that would correct things, but it did not. Instead, what came out of the spout was a somewhat larger dribble of water that no one could possibly get into their mouth without pressing their lips to the metal of the spout. In other words, not only was the public water fountain broken in that it was leaking water constantly, but it was also broken in the sense that no one could drink from it properly or safely.
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| Full on |
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| Off and leaking 24/7 |
At least the door to the nearby PLASTIC FUCKING PORTA JOHN was unlocked, as it has been for the past two years or more. Heaven forbid if that thing were broken or unusable. Kamal would have to order a new one.
By the way, if the sounds of nature help you get through your days, particularly the calls of frogs and peepers, I suggest you head to the ponds behind Oakdale in the early evening where the lovely sounds of spring have returned which, as far as I know, is the only place in the city to experience it. You will hear the sounds that the people who were native to this area probably could not, and did not want to, escape; natural sounds that are much too unfamiliar and unrecognizable to modern humans.
Last night before dark, coming from the larger of the two ponds, were the whistles of at least 4 tree frogs in mating mode. It's a beautiful sound, much like the chirping of a bird -- but so much louder, and nothing like the guttural call of a bullfrog. Even from the trail several hundred feet away they can be heard. (They will quiet down when you approach, but be patient and stand still for a while to let them resume their beckoning calls. Or stand back and listen before spooking them.) It's pleasant being back there at dusk now -- still mosquito-free and there aren't any plastic Porta Johns to be seen or smelled. Not yet at least. Get it while you can.
(Do not enter the back of the park via the trail from the DSS driveway as it is an absolute soggy, truck tire-furrowed mess.)
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