Myra Johnston is a community activist who helped drive a project to install playground equipment on vacant land in her neighborhood. Thanks to the time and energy Myra and other volunteers put into this initiative, their community is no longer perceived as being an example of what went wrong in America. Instead, images of happy kids on a metal swing set are in the local papers.
My neighborhood is one of those that the news channels like to feature when they’re talking about the collapse of real estate and the way foreclosures are gutting a city. We’ve had long time residents forced to move out of our neighborhood. Having to stare at the boarded up windows and read about our street being an example of the Great Recession in newspapers and magazines began to get very depressing. When several vacant houses were bulldozed and the empty plots of land put up for sale, a group of my neighbors got together and do you know what we came up with? Investing in playground equipment, buying the properties and creating a small park for the local kids. How’s that for taking back our sense of community pride?
Buying the land was the easy part. Who in their right mind would want to buy two vacant lots in the middle of an urban neighborhood that’s apparently dying? Zoning wasn’t an issue. When our councilor heard that we planned to erect playground equipment and establish a park, he fast tracked the paperwork. It’s not often he’s able to present positive news to the media, and pictures of happy kids climbing over a metal swing set would be a nice change of pace from the eviction notices and houses with the plumbing and wiring stripped out. We began to receive unsolicited donations from the public, people who were convinced that providing a safe outlet for outdoor recreation would not only help to keep our kids healthy and safe, but would foster our sense of community. The only bump we ran into was trying to find a store to actually buy the playground equipment from. The wooden play fort kits and backyard rated metal swing set being sold at the big box stores wouldn’t stand up to the punishment a whole neighborhood full of kids can inflict and besides, we wanted a full range of structures.
We were pointed to American Swing Products Inc., and this quickly solved our problem. The company’s web site included a catalog offering every piece of playground equipment we could possibly have thought of (and many we didn’t even imagine existed), including slides, swings, various structures, spring ride toys and even products that are accessible to handicapped children. Just in time for the summer, the properties were graded, re-sodded and the first piece of playground equipment was installed: the metal swing set that became the photo op showing how our community was bouncing back from the housing crisis and leading the way toward recovery.
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