That moment I realized my local park was a total ghost town compared to 5 years ago
I finally dragged myself to Riverside Park last Saturday after putting it off for months, and I swear it felt like a completely different place. Five years ago you couldn't find a bench to sit on, kids everywhere, dogs running around, even a little music from someone's bluetooth speaker. Now it's just... empty. Like maybe 4 people total, and two of them were just walking through. I asked the guy at the concession stand what happened and he said the city cut the maintenance budget by like 60% in 2022. No more trash pickup on weekends, the playground got tagged with graffiti and nobody fixed it for 3 months, and the bathrooms have been locked since last summer. It's wild how fast a place can go from community hub to sad echo when the little things stop getting done. Anyone else noticed a park or public space near them just fall apart like this?