Category: Neighborhood

Park district follow-up

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This weekend our townhome association threw a neighborhood party. Or more like the village threw a party at our association. Something like that. Anyway, we took Joe’s son because his daughter was at her new school’s open house with her mom. It was just down the street by the pool, so we walked.

They had a couple of games set up for the kids and they got little prizes, plus everyone got free hot dogs and ice cream.

At one point the district trustee came by to introduce himself and we got on the topic of my e-mail to the park district that went unanswered. After a bit more chit chat, he took off with the promise he’d look into it.

He came back about 5-10 minutes later with a woman who works for the park district in tow. I was impressed that he took my concern (complaint?) seriously enough to bring her over to talk to me, although I have to say I got the impression they were just humoring me. Maybe I’m just paranoid, but I felt like they were rolling their eyes at me in their heads. I guess we’ll see since the woman talked as if putting up some signs, particularly by the baseball diamond, was a real possibility. Although she did have to sneak in there that this is the first time someone has mentioned that people loiter on the fitness path and put themselves and people using the path in danger. To that I say, just because people don’t know where to voice a complaint, it doesn’t mean there aren’t any.

Fog

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I saw the coolest thing this morning and wish I had had the time to pull out my camera and tripod and capture it to share. I don’t think my words will do it justice, but I will try.

My subdivision is surrounded by a golf course and I could see behind the townhomes across the street that there was a lot of fog on the course. The sun was just rising, so there was this gorgeous orange glow coming around the trees through the fog.

When I got onto the main street that borders the golf course, I could see the huge sun, completely orange, rising behind the trees. The sunlight was streaming around the trees, through the fog, and the fog was also rising off a little pond. The combination of those things gave the scene a heavenly quality that I’m not likely to see again for awhile. It was breathtaking and peaceful.

Park district annoyances

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What is it with park districts ignoring my e-mails? It’s not as if I’m some grammar challenged idiot who is rude and forceful in my e-mails, so a little note to acknowledge me would be appreciated.

The first e-mail I sent was to my local district regarding the loitering I encounter on a daily basis at the park’s fitness path. I’ve heard nothing, and nothing has been done to stop it either.

I sent an e-mail to the park district of the town where I used to live two weeks ago. Take a look at this page. Do you really think that photo is a good representation of what is offered at the park? Why in the world would you take a photo of a water park that is only open during the summer during the winter when there’s snow on the ground? It makes no sense. Since I went to this park with the kids recently, I took some photos of it. I took this one and cropped out Joe’s daughter before e-mailing it to the park district. I wrote:

My name is Nicole and I’m an amateur photographer and former Elk Grove Village resident. I noticed the photo you have on your website for Fountain Square Park (Re: [website link here]) was taken during the winter in the snow when the park isn’t open.

I’ve attached two photos of the park I took today (one larger, one much smaller for use on the site in case you didn’t want to edit it yourselves). I encourage you to use this updated photo for your site as it more accurately depicts how fun the park is for kids. I don’t ask for anything in return for using the photo other than a credit for taking it.

Thank you and have a great day!

I only wanted credit for taking the photo, and I don’t think that was a lot to ask. I also don’t think it would have killed them to reply even if it was “thanks for your submission”. People are just rude, and I find it highly offensive particularly when I’m trying to help them. I have to wonder why I even bother when the people who are being paid to care about this kind of stuff don’t.

Fitness Path Complaint

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I sent the following email to my town’s park district. I’ll be interested to see whether they reply and take my concern seriously:

I am writing to you regarding my concern with the fitness path at Camera Park. I have noticed on a daily basis people stopping, standing, and even sitting on the path, particularly near the baseball diamond. I’ve also noticed people using the wrong side for the direction they are traveling.

I think it would be helpful to post some signs in these especially troublesome areas to remind people that the path is there for bikers, runners, walkers, and rollerbladers (such as myself), and not to hang out and have conversations. I don’t appreciate the dirty looks I get from people when I am using the path as it was intended just because I get close to them because they are in my way. Not only that, but it is dangerous for me as well as them. People step out in front of me, or I have to try and get around their group, and it’s completely unnecessary, not to mention rude and inconsiderate.

As noted above, this is particularly rampant by the baseball field. Last night one woman took a fold-up chair and set it down right in the middle of the path to watch the baseball game! Two men played catch with a baseball right along side the path and I’m not exaggerating when I say that I felt the wind from the ball whip past my head!

These people are irresponsible and I think it would help to add signs as well as have a police officer on a bike regularly patrol the area and enforce the rules. If it helps, I see this happening in the evenings between 7-8 pm. It makes me not want to use the park and I think that’s sad. I hope you can do something to help rectify the situation.

Thank you for your time.

Summer-suck-fest

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We made an attempt to attend the opening of our town’s summerfest earlier today. Since it’s at the park, it’s kinda close… but not. You can walk, but it’s 1.5 miles and it’s really humid out, so we drove.

We were driving down the street the festival is on when one of the residents who live nearby pulled out in front of us and then stole the last remaining spot on the street to park. They live right there, yet they drove! They couldn’t walk two blocks?? If we lived that close, we certainly wouldn’t have driven.

In any case, it bothered me, and even more so when we realized they had roped off the regular park’s lot so they could justify charging $5 to park on the grass. I don’t think so!

So we came home. I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay them $5 to park plus whatever other outrageous fees they charge for food and games. I think we pay enough for our taxes, thank you very much. Taxes, I may add, that go to a school district where we have no children and a library that we don’t use because they are too incompetent to keep track of their books.

I’m still pretty irate about the whole thing. Maybe we’re just cheap, but it’s a slap in the face. I wanted to enjoy myself, walk around a bit, check out the food booths, and go home. Nothing big. I’m usually not even in the mood to bother with carnivals and whatnot, but I thought it would be cool since it’s in our town. We even had a small dinner beforehand so we wouldn’t eat too poorly since we’re trying to get back in shape. Well their greediness ruined that. How dare they say the fest is free and not mention the parking. That’s just wrong!

We’ll still catch the fireworks show tonight, though. Since the park is across the huge golf course that surrounds our subdivision, we should be able to see the show easily from our driveway, which is free.