One thing I’ve learned from a career in community journalism is that there is no limit to what people will complain about (yes, you could probably lump me in there too).
The latest is a Burnaby resident complaining to the city’s park commission recently about the fact that *checks notes* children are playing to beat the summer heat.
The exact complaint was this person doing a presentation “express concerns of noise generated by the spray park facility in Cameron Park.”
It should be noted that this complaint was received in the middle of one of the hottest summers on record. We went through a devastating heat dome and people have been looking for any way to stay cool.
Spray parks are a useful thing for families who don’t have access to air conditioning. They are also damn fun for kids. This is a public park that actually sits on pretty busy road near Lougheed shopping centre. Many ratrunners use it to avoid Lougheed Highway so we’re not exactly talking about a quiet area.
But the commission has now bent over backwards to address this complaint, asking for staff to put together a report.
“The issue of noise brought to us … has been explored and alterations have been made to the site,” read the report. “Additional buffer planting was installed along the park edges and a slide in the play area was relocated to reduce the concentration of noise. The water play hours of operation were adjusted to an earlier closing time of 8 p.m.”
The report also detailed how the splash park was originally planned out.
“The western edge of the forest area was seen as a suitable location meeting these criteria. The play area including the splash pad was then laid out in the open space, between the forest and the parks’ western perimeter, with a maximum separation between the play features and the houses along the western edge.”
Sounds like due diligence to me.
Somehow, however, I doubt this will satisfy the complainant. Look, if you live next to a park you have to be prepared to put up with noise coming from children being children. But think about this: the city literally had to pay a staff member to write about report about how children make noise when they play.
Incredible.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
