Eeewww! Condom on the playground.

This morning we went to the playground behind the stone house at Hillside Park. There was a condom on the playground right by the corkscrew slide. Hard to tell if it was used or not since it had rained last night but gross!
Last week there was broken glass on the pavement right next to the playground equipment and one of the plywood pieces torn out of one of the bottom windows on the back of the stone house, nails sticking out of it. I called the HOA and reported the glass and the broken plywood and moved the piece of plywood to lean up against the house because there were kids, including my own, playing in the area. It has been repaired.
In the past I've seen a lot of beer bottles, broken and in tact on the path behind the tennis courts.
One of the reasons we left our old neighborhood was because the playground was like this. I guess teenagers find a place to party no matter what the neighborhood. We are kind of new here. Is there anything being done to try to patrol this area better? Maybe install more lighting for night time?

 

My wife saw the condom and wrapper today and "removed" it so our daughter could play. Nice, huh? Are these areas properly lighted at night?

 

Thank you to your wife! We left the area and went over to the swings and later I thought maybe I should've just gotten a stick and moved it to the garbage can.
At least they are using condoms, that is another thought, but there was a garbage can about 10 feet from there that they could have used.

 

I will aplluad the "alleged" teens for one thing, at least they are USING a condom!

 

The stone house was broken into by some teens on one of their "snow days" off school. The stone house is still the property of Van Metre, not the HOA (fyi).

 

That playground has been going downhill for a good year or so now. Thankfully we have plenty of other nice and well-kept playgrounds in our neighborhood so I haven't been to Hillside in a year. I won't take my kids back there.

 

Where are some of the other playgrounds?

 

There are so many playgrounds around Broadlands...my husband and I are daily walkers and we've often commented on the lack of children that play at playgrounds.

 

This reminds me of a story my wife told me. While walking our kids to the playground (Hillside) she was going through the tunnel and notice some graffiti written on the inside of the tunnel, but couldn't read it right away. She thought, "Oh, great. Crappy teenagers at it again," expecting to see some sort of vulgarity. When she got close enough to read it, it said in huge letters: "DON'T SMOKE"

 

Lack of kids at playgrounds

There are a lot of playgrounds to choose from, the one near my house almost always has a couple of youngsters on it, but without the old classics like swings, see-saws & big ol' slides, most of the playgrounds aren't attractive to any child over 9.
My daughters still like to go, but they prefer the playground by the W&OD Trail.

 

Re: Lack of kids at playgrounds

There is also a great park in Old Ashburn - Dinosaur Park (I think). It is located behind an old school administration bldg.

 

T8 -- off topic, but is your child's userid "T8ertot"?

Yes, there is Dinosaur park, there is a great park in the common in Brambleton, there are lots of little tot-lots around Broadlands (none, of course in SW!!!! but that's another story.)

 

There are three playgrounds in SW that I can think of that are walking distance from our house. One is great for really little ones!

 

Actually, there are four!

 

Har Har, You are bringing back child memories for ME! I heard every variotion of "tater" jokes due to my name.

And of course he is T8erTot!

As for tot lots in SW, you just live in the wrong part. We have 4 lots in the Courtyard section.

 

I was at the playground today and it was closed. It was closed b/c a fresh layer of new mulch was being installed. The mulch was already down at the swings and it looked great.

Thanks to all for the new mulch.

 

who knows what else that mulch is covering up....

 

You're right. We have zippo up here on the hill.