Piya's Perspective

I’m not generally good at being proactive to resolve problems.  This goes not only for personal issues, but even with businesses.  For example, I was annoyed when the bank we bought our new house from changed the terms of the contract – should we have been late in closing on the property, they wanted to charge us more per day than what was written in the signed contract.  In the end, we weren’t late on closing so I didn’t feel any affects and didn’t do anything about it.  However, my dad had suggested I call the BBB to make a complaint – others should know what kind of company they are considering to do business with.

Just over a week ago, my parents, Ari and I took the kids across the street to the playground.  Part of the playground structure is a short, covered slide.  While Simeon was kicking his soccer ball around, I happened to notice that the rim of the opening at the bottom of the slide was half broken off.  I was a bit nervous that he would find the one sharp point, but not enough to actually contact anybody.  Being a good parent and neighborhood citizen, I should have contacted somebody anyway, but the group mentality of responsibility won over. Simeon is generally more interested in rolling his ball up and down the slide than actually going down himself – somebody else would get it fixed if they were worried.

Then, last Friday my parents and I went back to the park with the kids and I noticed that the damage was worse.  Much worse.  More of the rim was broken off and there was a huge crack in the top cover – just above the bolts of the bottom-most section.

From what I’ve seen, the kids that play at the park are more interested in climbing on top of the covered slide than actually sliding down.  It would probably only take one or two more kids before it completely gives way. Even though Simeon is too small to climb on top and doesn’t usually want to go down, I finally felt some personal responsibility to get it fixed. 

Yesterday, I sent an email to the neighborhood Yahoo! group to find out who to contact.  Minutes later I received a response and emailed the parks department (and received a response just as quickly that it would be looked at).  This morning, I also saw a response from the Mayor (who happens to live down the street from me) that he would make sure somebody looks at it immediately.

I did nothing all that big.  Just two quick emails.  It’s amazing just how good I feel about it though.