Sunday, March 15, 2009

playground, politics




Yesterday we went to yet another playground we hadn’t been to before, and today we went to the “regular” one (about 10 minutes away from our house). The one yesterday features an old fighter plane in the corner (um...ok) and j had a great time on the whirly-thing-that-makes-me-nauseous. Today he followed another little guy’s lead and actually hung from a bar above him for a few seconds (“I’m strong! I’m strong!”).

I really hope that they build a playground soon in our little village. There are plans in the works, but I think that its creation will depend upon next week’s upcoming mayoral election. I went to my first community event here last week, which was a forum for the candidates for mayor and trustee. The incumbent, who has been in office for two years, has done a pretty incredible job, beautifying the community, making the tap water drinkable, and generally fostering a progressive attitude—all the while lowering taxes. Her challenger, who was mayor for many years before her and now wants his job back, is running on a “financially responsible” campaign, challenging her claim that taxes have gone down. (And so what if they go up a bit in the hopes of improving the village?) It was interesting to attend the forum, in which the incumbent was able to rattle off the numerous improvements she’s made in two years and he was unable to argue coherently against her candidacy. If her challenger wins, I will be quite sad. And we will probably kiss the improvements to our little village—potential playground included—goodbye.

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