Parks and Recreation

Nope, not the TV show.  Though Aubrey Plaza, Rashida Jones, and the ever-politically incorrect Nick Offerman tempt me to get into that one, if Adam Scott or Amy Poehler can’t (I’m neutral about Chris Pratt).

A few years back there was a documentary show, “Life After People”, on the History Channel from 2009-2010, which attempted to show what Earth will be like millions of years in the future after humanity is wiped out (however that might happen) and nature re-asserts itself.  I doubt the scenarios would be plausible if our demise came about by global thermonuclear war, but diseases, malnutrition, or simple failure to perpetuate our existence might work.  Anyhow.   Places like California would revert to desert, swampy places like DC and NY would be overgrown with plants, and overall things would look much different.

I have noticed a few local malls which seem to be running down.  Landmark Mall in Alexandria, Virginia, is half closed, though Sears and Macy’s (the anchor stores) seem to be OK – as is the children’s play zone in the middle and its miniature choo-choo train (not steam powered, by the way).  Frederick Mall, in Frederick, Maryland, where we used to go as kids, is now KAPUT, closed up completely.

Then you look at places like Central Park, Prospect Park, and Forest Park (Springfield, Mass.) which are fantastic.  Clearly many clever people have managed to inject “beautiful nature” smack in the middle of major cities. 

So where you do have instances of declining commercial activity, maybe it would be a good idea to convert them back into parks, if possible.  How to make it work economically?   I don’t trust Bernie Sanders nor the NFL to figure that out (“taxes!”) but hopefully someone more imaginative than either of them can come up with something.  Recycling malls into parks sounds like a good thing.  It’s worth a try.