City Parks Wrestle with Vandalism, Graffiti
The costs of repairing the damage, and preventing their occurrence, is straining the park department's dollars.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Public spaces are the heartbeat of every urban community, whether they be as grand and storied as Central Park in New York or Boston Commons, or less-well-known but no-less-important to local residents as the parks and open spaces in Fredericksburg.
A press release last week from the city brought to light a worrying trend of vandalism that has set in since June of this year, adversely affecting parks like Alum Spring.
Among the notable damage highlighted in the release are graffiti, destruction of restrooms, vandalized athletic fields, and personal belongings taken from people’s cars.
That damage comes at a cost.
According to the city, Fredericksburg “has used over 65 hours of staff time for mitigation of these criminal acts … [and the Parks, Recreation & Events Department] reallocated funds reaching over $7,100 to cover materials, equipment, and contracted services.”
Fredericksburg public information officer Caitlyn McGhee tells the Advance that the vandalism to the restrooms at Alum Spring Park alone cost the department $1,119.
In an email exchange with the Advance, McGhee says that this damage has “the staff [focusing] on increasing security and converting to materials that are less easily vandalized and leading to less down time in facility closures – which are additional expenses and staff time that would otherwise be spent on proactive community programs or facility improvements.”
Asked how additional repair costs this year compared to previous years, McGhee said that “[t]he cost of damages over the last three years has not been directly tracked in the specific manner it is this fiscal year. When staff noticed the increase this calendar year, they gleaned that data from different operational and budget areas in which it was funded.”
A National Trend
Fredericksburg is not the only area experiencing increased vandalism in public spaces.
An August story in the Wall Street Journal discussed the surge in visitors to National Parks, coupled with a steep decline in both funding and staff to operate these parks. That has led to an increase in vandalism.
Officials now face difficult choices about how to manage some of America’s most prized parcels of land. In smaller parks, they close visitor centers and bathrooms and stop tours when they don’t have staff to manage them. Travelers say they’ve come to expect reduced services or to spend a good chunk of their day waiting in line at popular parks. Rangers report more vandalism and damage.
The issue is not limited to our largest parks.
The Center of the American Experiment, a Minnesota think-tank, in a report issued last year, found that vandalism and threats to personal safety were on the rise in both of Minnesota’s large city parks, as well as those in smaller communities.
“Widespread vandalism in the parks may not be the most pressing problem facing cities big and small,” said report author Tom Steward, “but it points to the larger issue of a breakdown in civil society that hits home in communities all over the state.”
Dealing with this is more than a fiscal challenge. A 2020 study by the Centers for Disease Control that looked at increased vandalism in Greensboro, North Carolina’s parks found that this led to less interest in visiting the parks themselves.
To make a report or find out more information, visit the website at FXBGparks.com or call 540-372-1086. Do your part to help take care of everyone’s parks.
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What do the police say about this? It is their responsibility to catch the criminals who do this.