On Thursday morning Marcus and I are meeting at Columbia Heights Coffee at 8:30am and heading over to the 11th/Monroe Park with our kids.
We hope to create a regular play date in the park so please join us if you or your child's care giver wants to get out in the morning.
As an update: My husband and I were in the park on Saturday and had a good experience playing there with the kids for an hour or so. We met a neighbor, Tim, and learned more about the park. It is definitely a strangely laid out park but the equipment is pretty new and the community clean up in the AM made it nice for playing. Folks were friendly with us and yelled at the guy hanging out on the equipment to get off so the kids could play. Definitely room for improvement. The public intoxication is very off putting. But the key is to USE the park.
Hope to see more folks on Thursday.
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6 comments:
That's a great idea. The more the park gets used, maybe the more the shady drunks will feel uncomfortable and leave. I don't have kids, but maybe I will come by to meet people.
My wife and I are planning to (hopefully) have kids and I've often walked past the park at 11th and Monroe and thought "where are the children"? Next time you have a playdate meetup or cleanup, we'll swing by to show support. Good luck!
Good luck. About a year ago we relocated from Columbia Heights abroad because of a new job, but prior to that, I often brought my daughter to the park. My experience is:
1) In general, the people around the park were nice. While a lot were drunk or stoned, there were also some entirely sober people who used the park to get fresh air, etc.
2) There was a lot of broken glass under the playground structure, so be careful with that.
3) The other kids using the park were often not supervised, but also were very nice.
Good luck with this initiative. It really is great playground equipment and it would be wonderful if kids could use it without having to watch out for broken glass or passed out people (also under the playground equipment).
Hi, someone forwarded me your message from DC Urban Moms... We live on the 3500 block of 11th and have twin 3 yo sons. I'm wondering if we've actually met...??? Anyway, there've been a few efforts to do a playgroup in the park - most of which seem to have broken up after a few meetings. My experience with the people in the park is mostly okay. They're usually nice enough - even if they're intoxicated. The trash and lack of young kids is just generally off-putting for play and the fact that there are cleaner parks within walking distance makes it an especially hard sell. My least favorite thing is the public urination, which I have, on occasion, witnessed on a near daily basis. Uck. My kids have to ride their tricycles over that stream of urine that flows out of the alley. Anyway, Thursdays isn't always good for us - we usually do the storytime at the Mt. Pleasant Library later that day though - but I'll try to come with my two. How old is your kid?
Hello. I'm John and my wife's name is Constance. You may know her from DC Urban Moms. We live in the 1300 block of Harvard St.
It would be wonderful if we could make the park more kid friendly. I'll try to find you at the coffee shop tomorrow morning at 8:30. I'll be on my bike with a black backpack so if you see me please wave. See you tomorrow morning, hopefully.
It was great to see folks out at the park this morning. See my new post about a regular play date on Mondays. This is not just for parents...everyone is welcome so please encourage your nannies, au pairs and other care givers to come as well. The age range of kids was from 6 months (they enjoyed being out for a stroll) to 3 year old twins Porter and Miles (who were mater tricycle riders) with a bunch in between.
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