[Vision2020] Playfield

[Chasuk]

Not that I want to be a curmudgeon, or be seen to be agreeing with
Donovan, but I do believe that this playfield monomania has gotten way
out of it.  First, because lack of playfields isn't going to lead to
the collapse of Western civilization.  I know, some kids like 'em, and
some adults, and it does prevent those people from getting chubbier. 
However, I managed to make it all the way through 45 years of life
without having the inclination to stroll through a playfield even
once.  Okay, a well-meaning Uncle did take me to see the Cardinals
versus the Orioles at the Angel Stadium when I was about 12, and it
was one of the best naps that I ever had.

My kids, both healthy and athletic who love the gym, have never
deliberately set foot on a playfield (unless they were visiting the
swings and slides), nor has my wife, or the majority of my friends or
family.  And I come from a HUGE family, with loads of relatives.  I'm
the eldest of nine kids.  My wife is the eldest of seven.  I've seen a
lot of fat people exiting and entering these allegedly
health-inspiring playfields, clutching peanuts and hotdogs and sodapop
in their fat-fingered hands.

Personally, if the local government is going to spend money, I'd like
to see it spent on stuff that I like.  Such as what, you ask?  How
about the pedestrianization of the downtown, with a public trolley and
parking garage, an expanded museum, an expanded library, free Wi-Fi
for the entire town, a truly adequate covered swimming pool, a free
gymnasium where I don't have to worry about the cold or the rain,
sponsorship of a mega-games festival where participants compete at
everything from Counter-Strike to Quake to Unreal Tournament to Chess
to Bridge to Backgammon, free classes teaching the elderly how to
check their e-mail and update their virus checker on their free Wi-Fi,
sponsorship of a film festival to rival Sundance, encouragement of
musical forms brought to Moscow that aren't jazz, a soup kitchen, an
Angelina Jolie week for Carl, re-zoning and compensated relocation of
downtown businesses so that retailers and banks/estate agents/etc. are
in geographically separate areas, sponsorship of a week-long ethnic
food festival so that I can finally get my fill of
Thai/Vietnamese/Indian/etc food without having to travel to Seattle or
Spokane, dieticians and trainers in the aforementioned gym, a really
good 4th of July bash that people come from Spokane and Lewiston to
see, subsidized dental clinics so that I could afford to go to the
dentist for the first time in ten years, free lawn mowing and
snow-shovelling for our elderly residents, roads that are plowed
within a reasonable amount of time, a subsidized STD/family planning
clinic, etc., etc., etc.

Ask a random selection of people whether the public coffers should
support playfields or their own hobbies or interests, and I think a
lot of people will vote with me.