POPPING WHEELIES IN THE TOWNSHIP
If you wonder why so many young people, particularly young couples with careers leave this area in droves, you only need to reference WBRE TV’s Kelly Choate’s report Monday night on Fox 56. The talented young reporter covered a Wilkes Barre Township meeting where the big topic of discussion was who should use a public playground.
Apparently there are some seniors who walk a track at the facility. They don’t want young people on bikes because as the older woman told government leaders, “They’ll be popping wheelies with those bikes!” A young father countered at the meeting saying that his one child could ride a bike because that cycle had training wheels. But if his older child wanted to use the park, that couldn’t happen because that child had no training wheels on that bike.
The Wilkes Barre Township leaders took the comments under advisement and according to Choate’s report said they might have staggered times for use of the facility.
A word about Wilkes Barre Township. This is the place that has huge tax revenue from the Mall properties as well as the Arena. It is a cruel irony that the township that screamed longest and loudest against the Arena benefits the most. I know a few people from there and this comment does not include them. But I always found an almost clan like mentality about this part of Luzerne County. If you weren’t born and bred, you were an outsider.
But getting back to the story. After the meeting, the elderly woman was interviewed on WBRE and said to Choate in response to the young father’s comments about use of the park/playground, “Well he should have thought about that when he bought his house near there!” What a snarky, mean spirited thing to say. And illogical too boot.
If you are a young couple with children, don’t you want to live near a playground/park? I don’t begrudge seniors the right to anything. I hope and pray I live long enough to become a tenth as miserable as the woman I saw on TV. But a public park is not just for old people who want to walk. It’s for everyone.
I grew up in the Junction section of Pittston. On our street we had walkers, we had people playing ball in front of concrete stoops, we had old men and old ladies, grandmas and grandpas walking down our street with no fear or sense of eminent domain, we had tricycles, two wheelers and cars on the road. We even had two guys, Michael Haddock and Stevie Narsavage who converted a bike, strapped a lawnmower motor on it every day and at 4pm launched it to see how far down Dewitt Street it went. It usually stopped at our driveway which was 4 car lengths away from their garage. My point is life wasn’t perfect but we all got along. And the street and by extension Upper Pittston Park was everyone’s! We didn’t need Pittston City Council to stagger the use of times for people to use a public park.
But then I can be wrong. Maybe those wheelies will lead to “Trouble In the Township” and there will be eternal damnation for all!