First of all, I’d like to say, I like skating and I like free public places. Having said that I really hate the oval, I hate it worse than a three year old hates broccoli, but for opposite reasons. Unlike a piece of broccoli, the oval is not yucky because its green. The oval is yucky because it is not green. A massive amount of energy is needed to Refrigerate the oval’s ice surface, because let’s face it, it’s just not that frigging cold here. What would you say to an outdoor skating rink in Cuba? Probably that it’s an idiotic idea. Why is there not an indoor skating oval? Or one in a dome to at least off-set the long term energy cost? It is just ignorant in a city where we get our power from burning fossil fuels.
The second reason I hate the oval, much like a child and his broccoli, is because like broccoli, it’s on our plate. Yes yours and my plate. The commons is my area, and now it’s fenced the hell off all year. You want to make something public. Then make it public. Don’t fence it off and close it down. I respect that when ice is being made I cannot skate. But in the summer, why is it not a running track?
The third reason I hate the oval is because it is allowing a public space to be more and more commercialized. Just like the kid trying to eat his broccoli so he can have chocolate and crème and jello shooters, we all want our desert, And if they keep selling treats and hotdogs from privately owned vender trucks, eventually, they are going to sell designer skates and sexy brand butt warmers at the oval mini mall. And we won’t stop them because they will promise us indoor heated change rooms and voice activated skate tying robots each time they want to drop a new building near the commons industrial park. —SEEMoney
This article appears in Jan 19-25, 2012.
Eat a dick hippy, nothing is free, including your govt subsidized emo douchebag drama degree. When you find a way to burn granola and patchouli as a carbon emission free fuel, let the world know.
voice activated skate tying robots …hmmmm
I don’t think there’s a patent out for that yet.
Me thinks it’s time to whip something up and head to the dragon’s den…
OB, then don’t go. That’ll leave more room for the rest of us. Who cares how earth-unfriendly it is. Mother Earth can throw on her own skates.
not all bitches are stupid, but in this case, i will make an exception.
My 4 year old Grand child LOVEs broccoli, and carrots, and peas , and beets , beet greens hodge podge ,when she was just a baby we started to bring her into the garden so she could watch & see what was going on, made sure she visited all summer as the plants grew & helped pick tomato’s etc
now she’s turning into a little gardener ~:)
IMO
THe city needs more of those community garden spaces where people can have a little plot to grow stuff, especially for getting the kid’s involved.
OB – Admit it, you’re a philosophy major, aren’t you.
too right more, kids need to know where their food comes from
Love that idea More! Some of my best memories as a child involve spending time with my grandparents in the garden. And now I’m craving hodge podge … damn.
As for the Oval, I haven’t been there yet … but I hope to get there soon and I, for one, am happy that it exists.
Things that are fun aren’t normally necessary OP.
Erm OP, it will be open in the summer. Pay some damn attention to what’s going on in your community and you might know they needed to reconstruct the thing to a more permanent standard first.
And good god what’s with the writing