If ever Renton had a shining star, it is its parks.
Park engineers, like Jeff at my favorite park – Heritage Park – daily oversee the safety, cleanliness and health of the parks not only for their short-term use but their longevity. Just like humans, a park is a living thing and needs nurturing to survive.
In return, parks nurture us by providing an outdoor meditation room, an exhilarating gym, an amphitheater of music emanating from the mouths of children’s laughter and singing birds, aromatherapy from fragrant flowers and barbecues, a social outlet for humans and pets and fresh air to blow away the fogginess of gloomier days.
If it seems that the parks have something for everyone, that’s because the Parks Department makes sure citizens are included in the initial design of a new park. A good example is Heritage Park on Union Avenue Northeast.
With the children’s play area so close to the entrance and street, it’s difficult for moms to drive by once the “little people” in the backseat see the big toys, rock walls and basketball court.
The picnic shelter is also close to the entrance so that the sound of laughter and smell of barbecue awakens your senses as you drive by, making you wish you were part of the life-changing events being celebrated there.
In contrast, the vast open grassy area behind the play area is where you can quietly fly a kite on a beautiful windy day or cheer as children and adults play soccer.
Finally, we come to the crown jewel of the park – the woods. The area farthest from the street was left natural with the exception of a man-made trail snaking through the tall trees. Other parts of the park are meant to provide physical activity and stimulation; but the woods with its shade and quiet was designed to feed the soul.
Truly Heritage Park is a paradise situated in the middle of suburbia. But as they say, “There is trouble in paradise.”
Before this private piece of land was first open to the public six years ago, the secluded wooded area was rich in foliage, ferns, tall trees of maple and fir, and young saplings.
But once the forest became public and humans began to walk the earth, it began to change. Sinister young people have chosen to destroy that which they so desire – obscurity.
Low-growing foliage has been beaten down and trampled, young saplings have been bent in half with no chance of survival, trees have been debarked causing their death, and innocuous messages have been spray-painted on their trunks.
I witnessed two young boys, with sticks in their hands, thrash away at the trees and the ferns. When I asked them if they liked the forest, with great delight, they said “Oh, yes!” “Then why are you destroying it?” I asked. With a blank look on their face, they walked away.
I wish this behavior surprised me, but it doesn’t. The minds of young people today have been saturated with destruction, thanks to 12 years of war, and movies and video games rewarding them to bomb, shoot and destroy someone, or something, just because its there.
The good news is that these two young boys found joy in the forest. The sad news is that it also became a target of their aggression.
But thanks to the daily nurturing by Jeff and the Renton Parks Department team, paradise will not be lost to insensitive humans, thus ensuring that every time we drive by or walk in a park, we will always feel its heart beating.
Tish Gregory is a free-lance writer. You can contact her at tishgregory@aol.com
