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Protecting Skate Parks and Splash Pads

Protecting Skate Parks and Splash Pads

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A skate park and a splash park are great assets to the community and should be protected from vandalism and graffiti.

The community skate park and splash pad add a lot of entertainment and outdoor exercise for both youth and adults.  Outdoor exercise is known to decrease the probability of illness and depression. What better opportunity for outdoor exercise than a skate park or a splash pad?  It is exercise in the disguise of play and socialization.

The time, energy, and cost in creating a skate park and splash pad can be daunting, but it is well worth the effort.  According to the Tony Hawk Foundation, the average cost to build a skate park runs between $200,000- $400,000, with an additional cost to maintain.  According to Chelan County, the estimated cost to create a splash pad is between $800,000-$2,000,000, also with an additional cost to maintain.

With investing so much into a park, it is essential to protect it.

Unfortunately, both skate parks and splash pads are frequently targeted with graffiti and vandalism. This crime is ghastly as it affects the entire community.  Additional unfortunate details are graffiti and vandalism bring down the property values and usher in more devastating crime into the community, such as drugs and violence.  Graffiti and vandalism bring down the entire community’s quality-of-life.

Therefore, it is important to protect your parks from vandalism and graffiti, these quality-of-life offenders. It is also imperative you protect your dollar asset and the hard work that went into building those awesome parks the community loves.

How to protect your park’s assets:

  • Maintain adequate lighting at night
  • Post operating hours
  • Enclose the park with fencing
  • Install Park Vandalism Cameras– designed specifically to stop quality-of-life crimes

Traditional video cameras do not stop quality-of-life crimes.

What is your city doing to protect your great park achievements?

 

How to Protect the Park

How to Protect the Park

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In an age of COVID-19, people are more separated than ever. People no longer feel comfortable with even crossing the street to greet their neighbors, let alone offer a friendly handshake. Never before has the thought of engaging in a friendly interaction been considered to be irresponsible or dangerous, but that is the reality we live with now. People no longer feel that they are allowed start relationships with their neighbors. When everyone in a community is an island, everyone will be vulnerable to crime and disaster because they will lack the support system which is usually present in a community.

The one thing which can help turn the tide in this isolation crisis is the public parks system. Public parks are a place where people can gather outside, free from the fear of contracting COVID-19. As a great leader, Alexander Robertson has begun to utilize parks to reunite and rebuild communities which are suffering from neglect and crime. Using fun, outdoor activities, Robertson is breaking down barriers between neighbors. At parks, communities are able to gather together, become more organized, and have their needs heard and met.

Nevertheless, even small nuisance crimes can threaten to disrupt the life-giving activities of parks. If we want our parks to remain protected, then we need to establish iron-clad deterrence.

Protect your Parks:

  • Make sure there is adequate lighting
  • Create activities and programs that involve the community
  • Have Site Managers
  • Have walking routes
  • Display Maps at entrances and walk routes
  • Have Security Measures in place, such as Crime Deterrent Cameras
  • Clean up all vandalism and graffiti immediately
  • Maintain safety measures for the park and all park equipment

 

When a park utilizes crime deterrent cameras, the park will be protected.

#NoVandalism, #ProtectParks, #Parksandrec, #ParksAndRecreation, #WeAreParksAndRec

 

Initials carved in tree

Vandalism in Parks

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Violence is not a term restricted to an unjust act against humans. Parks and other public beauty can be subject to cruel, undeserved vandalism, thus making them victims of “cultural violence” (National Parks Service-https://www.nps.gov/articles/vandalism-hurts.htm).

A form of defacing that natural parks often experience is graffiti. Some call it a form of art, but park officials find the offense to be very expensive to remove and challenging to restore the parks back to its natural beauty, “graffiti is vandalism, and is extremely difficult to remove. Repair of vandalized sites, if possible, is costly and time consuming, and often cannot restore the site to its former condition” (National Parks Service-https://www.nps.gov/articles/vandalism-hurts.htm). Even more so, Fox News recently reported from Zion National Parks that rocks and other natural features will not recover fully from vandalism such as spray paint, regardless of how much it is cleaned (Fox News, Salt Lake City- https://fox13now.com/2018/06/17/zion-national-park-reminds-visitors-vandalism-is-not-art/). They remind people that “vandalism is not art.”

Defacing, damaging or painting any part of public parks is a form of vandalism and is illegal. Parks are for the appreciation of nature and the enjoyment of others. When parks are vandalized, it harms the earth and it ruins the experience of visitors. Care for the earth and protect your parks.

Is your park facing loitering problems and vandalism?

Deter Vandalism and Loitering in Parks

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Is your park facing loitering problems and vandalism?  Know the key indicators to help solve this problem and what you can do to help your park.

It is not very difficult to discern when a storefront is open for business.  Key indicators often include well-displayed business hours, which are commonly posted next to the main entrance.  Visible sales personnel may signal that a shop is still open for business or an unilluminated sales floor of a store might signal that store is closed.  A line is drawn with store and mall hours being clearly visible.  However, indications of a closed property are not always so obvious.

Most city-owned parks list the rules of the area with signs.  These include allowable recreational activities, dog leash laws, and designated parking spaces.  But the time at which the park closes is sometimes ambiguous.

Generally, as a rule of thumb, city parks tend to close around dusk.  This grey area regarding the park’s operating hours can lead to some oblivious teens or young adults stumbling into an ungated recreational location after hours, imbibed with strong drink and an unwavering drive to wreak havoc, which turns into vandalism. These delinquents are now guilty of committing several misdemeanors, including illegal loitering, public intoxication, and vandalism if the damage is still within the misdemeanor penal code.   If the damage is extensive, the misdemeanor becomes a felony.

Vandalism is an extremely common occurrence in parks after hours. Vandalism most often occurs when a vandal has a good chance of not being caught.  Less public visibility and poor outdoor lighting make a park an easy target for a potential vandal who’s loitering late at night.

There are, however, a few things the Parks Department can do to limit this occurrence:

  • Post Clear Signs– signs displayed near the entrance and exits in well-lit areas let potential lingerers know the park is closed. Be sure the signs are visible and the hours are clearly stated.
  • Motion Sensored Lighting- the more lighting an area has, the less likely vandals will remain. Motion sensored lights save energy while illuminating only when the detector senses motion.
  • Monitoring– regular sweeps conducted by the police department, security guards, and park rangers deter loitering and reduces nuisance crimes.
  • Vandal Resistant Materials– to be used in graffiti prone areas. They are simple to clean if graffiti does occur.
  • Vandalism Deterrent Cameras– cameras designed to stop vandalism are very effective and should be placed in strategic areas where crime is most likely to occur.