Park Ambassadors ?

I went to sleep last night thinking about a new volunteer program being pitched to Council. I hadn't thought much about it when it was initially introduced. It sounded like Neighbourhood Watch that was  all the buzz for a while, then just faded away never to be heard  about again.

The idea did not excite me.  But it sounded typically righteous and not  worth arguing about.

At General Committee,  staff  recommended  the item be referred to the  Recreation  and Parks  Advisory Committee for study and report to council

Ironically, after rejecting  staff recommendation not to re-constitute advisory committees, last night, the committee route was too circuitous.  The project  needed to get going in a hurry.

That irritated me. The time spent  having advisory committees study and report to Council  was part of the reason for recommending they not be re-constituted. The other reason was cost of manpower and resources to support the committees.

People have to wait twice as long for decisions. All the hullaballoo and money spent on  consultants to advise on how to perfect customer service while  we take two months to deliver a decision when  two weeks would do it.  All so that citizens can  have an opportunity to "participate"

It can be  entertaining  to watch how things evolve on occasion. Also extremely satisfying to point  out to colleagues in case they haven't noticed.

Anyway,like I said,I went to sleep last night thinking about the proposal for Park Ambassadors  and wakened up with quite a different take. From  an innocuous notion when I closed my eyes,  it turned into a thoroughly obnoxious idea .

People are to  be "recruited"  to be "park ambassadors". They will be trained by the police. They will wear armbands for  identification.

If they see beer bottles or cans in the park, they will call the parks department to alert them as to  location. If they see illegal activity, they will call the police.

This morning the title "Park Ambassadors" no longer  seems benign. Spying on people at leisure in  the  park was a more appropriate description of the activity.

Suddenly, I have a negative reaction. Armbands and watching people in their daily activity has a connotation for a person of my vintage.

Picking up the  beer bottle and dropping it into a waste receptacle might be more ambassadorial than calling the parks department to attention.

I don't even know  that beer drinking  and bottle dropping in the park is a problem in Aurora.

The town  has  security  on contract to patrol the  parks. A problem  with illegal activity has not been identified  to Council.

Once I heard of young people being caught in the act, by parks staff vandalising lights at a sports field.Man, those suckers are expensive. The police were called. They refused to take any action with  the kids.

Teen-agers swarm together in places in the summer. Generally out of reach or view of anybody. Down through the generations, teen-agers have  done that.It seems to be a herding instinct. Something they need to do. They arrive at an age when there's a drive to  be where  action might be. They crave it.

Sometimes harm comes to them. Most times not. Otherwisethe numbers surviving clearly would not.  It's a hazardous time. Being a teen-ager is not easy. It's not something I would like to repeat. or live through again with my children.

Young males have a more difficult time making the passage. Though young females have a different vulnerability. It's a hazard in more ways than one.

Getting through it is survival for teen-agers and their  parents.

I'm not sure unleashing an army of  trained spies wearing  armbands will make anybody's life easier .