Guest column
In the midst of such polarization and skepticism nationwide, how refreshing it is to see neighbors coming together to invest in our community’s children. After all, what could possibly be less divisive than a small playground in a neighborhood full of young families?
You might think.
However, the proposal to install a play structure in the island’s southernmost neighborhood of Fort Ward (well, southernmost public neighborhood, we’re neck and neck with the Country Club, latitudinally speaking) has resurrected some of Bainbridge’s most embarrassing behavior. You know, the sorts of elitisms we’ve always been accused of: NIMBYism, obsession with property value, wealth hoarding, self-interest, false progressivism, fetishizing “preservation” to justify one’s own desires, and an irrational fear of crime as a proxy for exclusivity, isolationism, and othering of… well, “others,” (such as, I guess, parents from nearby neighborhoods who might bring their kids to a playground?).
As each of these fears have been addressed and assuaged throughout the past seven months of public meetings with the Parks Department, the one that remains most likely to derail the playground is the idea that children playing is somehow an affront to the historic nature of Fort Ward – more so, apparently, than the hundreds of private homes that have been built here over the past twenty years.
Though they represent a very small group (just 12.1% of respondents indicated they did not want a...
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