I'm an Hippie who thinks the world owns me something. Please think of the children!1!

Hi Guys,

It seems that many parks in the united states don’t allow adults to workout using the park equipment. There is a move now to start training bodyweight, using the simple equipment such as pull ups and monkey bars available in city parks. Most parks say that an adult must have a child with him to enter a park. In many cases park workers and cops harrass individuals who calmly enjoy their fitness in the park environment.

There is a petition make to the US government, please sigh it and support the cause for gym free training anywhere.

http://www.petitiononline.com/bwc123/petition.html

Thank you for your support.

Thank you for putting this up. I’ve always felt it was kind of screwed to be being told by the government that I’m not allowed to use something my tax money goes to. Pretty fubar, you ask me.

i’ve never been told to get off the swings.

There is more to consider than our personal convenience. There is a serious risk of child abduction and abuse and this could be used as a simple cover. Not to mention how intimidating it can be to children if the adults start using their playthings during their normal hours. Revise that petition for use during non-primetime hours for the children with registration with the town parks department and I will consider signing it.

Oh, and specify states and cities. =D

Shut up and squat

Then they should be forced to construct special workout parks for adults, darnit! Why should I have to pay money for the kiddies to get their rights, but get no return myself?

That’s what some of the parks do in the states I lived. They have a trail that has various work stations along a mile or two course. They have chin up bars and other things.

I’m sorry but, I don’t care if you want to work out and are the nicest guy in the world. I’m uncomfortable when any adult is hanging around a designated children’s area.

I could agree with you on that. I just don’t think it’s fair the localities make park areas for kids only. Where I live there is literally no place for adults to work out unless a) you can afford gym memberships or b) you can afford to buy your own equipment. Compound that with the fact that there is a lot of traffic, making getting to the one location within over thirty miles that actually has adult workout areas that don’t cost an arm and a leg nearly impossible, it’s just assinine. Not to mention, I pay my taxes, and yet the only benefit I get out of doing so is military, fire, and police. I get no other benefits from the government, and yet I still have to pay for it. I just think that’s really screwed. I pay for maintaining the parks, so why shouldn’t I also get some park space strictly for adults that I can go to so I can work out?

[QUOTE=cshirk] I just don’t think it’s fair the localities make park areas for kids only. /QUOTE]

Why not? Adults get plenty of government benefits kids can’t take advantage of. Three year olds can’t take advantage of a small business loan or a federal pell grant to go to college. Give 'em a break. Nobody wants adults hanging around doing chinups on the monkey bars while their kids are trying to play. Go for a run or get a gym membership.

Cry more n00b.

I signed it. because I want it.

Ingrate. Ever driven on a road or ridden on a train or bus? drunk tap water or flushed a toilet? It is amazing what people take for granted.

If you want different accommodations in your city parks, go get involved in local politics. Go comment at a meeting of the city council. Go to meetings of the parks and recreation comission.

Communities that have the tax base to afford, and the will of the people to provide top notch facilities, usually do.

An online petition is a nice feel good way to make it seem like you’re taking action but is not actually going to get legislation done.

If your city government is broken, move to a municipality that isn’t. Otherwise a YMCA or a JCC are as close as you can come to socialized gyms.

Personally I feel that the private sector can deal with providing fitness better than a city government ever could. The kind of facilities I choose to train at I wouldn’t want to be public.

Now go act locally.

There are several issues here.

  1. Its not a federal issue. The federal government doesn’t build city parks, or write ordinances governing them. City’s do, hence the name, city parks. I don’t like to be negative, but the fact is asking congress to do the job of city council’s is so incredibly dumb its actually shocking and offensive. If you want a change on city park ordinaces, petition the city. Also, where in the hell in the Constitution is the Congress required to hold hearings on city parks as suggested in the petition?

  2. I’m a Dad. It creeps me out and worries me to no end when guys without kids are hanging around playgrounds. I usually take my son and we leave. Call it unfair, but my child’s safety trumps you’re need to do wind sprints up the kiddie slide.

  3. Playground equipment isn’t built to support the weight of adults working out on it.

  4. Call me old fashioned, but I think a playground should be used by kids to play on.

  5. I sincerely doubt there is a dire shortage of pull up bars in city parks anywhere. I know of at least a half dozen places that have the little work out trails in my small city - there are probably more. I’ve never seen a single person do anything but jog on them. Parks in other cities appear to be the same - there are chinup bars no one uses.

Lets get real about the situation. There is no clamoring mass of body weight enthusiasts desperately searching for a congressionally mandated municipally fund chin up bar.

The petition is not asking to allow adults to break down kids equipment with their bodyweight. It’s asking to build something for adults who can’t or don’t want to afford the gym, to have a place to workout. You are right it’s usually a city issue. City doesn’t care, maybe the federal government win. Don’t worry, no one is here to fall off the monkey bars and hurt your child. This petition is aobut health for everyone, not for neglecting child safety.

I still say no. Building more crap means more local taxes. My Grandma shouldn’t have to pay for you to work out. Get a job and join a gym, or go chase a chicken like Rocky.

This petition is not to take away playgrounds from the kids.
It is not to allow child molesters a free entarance to kids hang outs.

It’s just to give people who don’t have money or don’t want to go to a franchised gym a place to workout.

If people think that adults pose a threat to kids, that’s fine. But how much does it cost to build a pull up bar or a dip bar in a small area, and call it a fitness area. If every adults would do only 10 pull up and 10 dips while working pass them on the way to work. How much healthier we would be. Forget about if people would set aside 30 minutes to workout, what would that do to our society.

but this is not even about changing society. There are so many people who already want to workout. They would if simply giving a chance.

Exactly, pullup bars don’t cost much. In fact, they’re so cheap you can afford to build one in your own back yard. Why should other people pay for you to work out?

As for your second point - give me a break. When people don’t work out, it’s because they’re lazy, not because they don’t have a place. If being healthy is important, there are plenty of ways to get in shape for free. If you really can’t think of any, I’ll be glad to take the time to list them. Spare us the “please give them a chance not to be fat bastards” bit.

People without money to go join a gym should go get a job and get money, rather than expecting the government to build them workout equipment.

If you get your government built chin-up bars, I get my government built powercage and olympic lifting platform.

Then why does the petition specifically mention using the monkey bars?

Then why does it specifically state at the end of the first paragraph “(We) feel that it is our right to have access to the equipment that occupies the playgrounds.”

First of all, I’ve never been in a city or any significant size that doesn’t have some parks with pull up bars and dip stations. So I’d like to know what cities specifically this is a problem for, or if instead you’re just trying to stir up trouble. Second, if you’re city councilman doesn’t give a damn about it, why does my congressmen have to get invovled.

What part of its not a federal government issue in any shape form or fashion is confusing? A city not taking the course of action you want doesn’t make for a congressional crisis. You mention the constitutional duties in you’re petition. Well, the constitutional duty of the congress in this issue is to tell you to write you’re city council and stop wasting their time, because it isn’t their problem, nor is it within the scope of their authority.

If you were doing this idiotic petition with a little less accusative wording to a municipality, I wouldn’t call it idiotic. I’d oppose it for the other reasons I’ve mentioned in my posts, but at least then you would be calling for a policy change at the appropriate level. Hell, you aren’t even bothering stopping at the state level from what I can tell. Nope, straight to the top. And for most states, if not all, I’m willing to bet its not withint in their power to address either. BECAUSE ITS A CITY ISSUE.

If you had actually read my post, you’d see I’m clearly not worried about someone falling off monkey bars and hurting my kid. Where in my post at any point do I say I’m worried about a kid getting hurt by an adult falling of the monkey bars? Don’t waste much time looking, because its not there. I’m worried about the only people who would actually use this non-existant right - child molestors. I say the only people because adults who work out aren’t using the chin up bars and dip stations I see at parks now.

I’m also worried about having to spend extra city tax dollars in response to a congressional mandate to upgrade equipment that isn’t meant to handle adults using it as excercise equipment. I’ll add there is a lot of this stuff in my city, and no one uses it as anything but a jogging trail. I clearly stated that in my post. Instead of disputing that, you made up an argument about concern for my child getting hurt from a falling adult that appears absolutely no where in any form in my first post. Impressive debate skills. No wonder the the petition almost reads like a crazed manifesto.

Like I already pointed out, you’re petition specifically claims a right to use playground quipment to excercise, so don’t give me the ‘we want our own equipment argument again.’ Read the last line of the first paragraph of YOUR petition.

I’m all for a city building workout equipment for citizens IF there is a need for it. There just isn’t. Most places that have this stuff don’t get any siginificant use, if any at all except for maybe a handful in densley populated urban areas that already have crowded playgrounds. You might get thousands of signatures on this thing, but I’d be shocked if anywhere close to a significant number of them use the resources built for this purpose that are already available in their communities, if they’ve even made an effort to find them. I’ll say it again, there is no clamoring mass of body weight enthusiasts desperately searching for a congressionally mandated municipally funded chin up bar.

I don’t know, but I’ve worked out in my local park many times in the wee hours of the morning, when nobody else is around, and when the kiddies do start to come around (right before school starts) I’m on my way out.

I’ve never had any problems with anyone about it, though. If you happen to be there at 5-7 in the morning, I doubt that anyone can think you are there to abduct children.