“Annually, Tower Grove Park staff and volunteers plant around 17,000 tulips, 3,600 annuals and 350 tropicals — a total of more than 20,000 plants. . . . The plants alone cost $11,000 a year, according to the park foundation.”
Is this a sign of the times? Poverty? Vandalism? Stolen for resale? Or enjoyment? What can be done about it?
ST. LOUIS — Plant theft in Tower Grove Park has increased this year, officials say,
Tower Grove park experiences theft every year, Reininger said
“While we haven’t noticed an uptick this year, plant theft is a common, serious problem for parks,” said Dominik Jansky, director of communications and marketing for Forest Park Forever.
This issue is not exclusive to parks. Jessica Douglass, owner of the local nursery Flowers and Weeds, located just over a mile from Tower Grove Park near Cherokee and Compton streets, said she’s battled plant theft for many of the 12 years she’s been in business.
So, it happens all the time every year in other places too, not just at parks. What was this article supposed to be about?
One (1) park having an uptick in the usual activity but not quantifying it which you’d think they’d want to do if it’s important and which any reporter would think is a logical follow-up question. Slow news day.
Is this a sign of the times? Poverty? Vandalism? Stolen for resale? Or enjoyment? What can be done about it?
This is a sign of all times in the USA. A notable national ethos is: "Let’s ruin it for somebody."
Perhaps there’s a new housing development nearby. Lazy New residents might be spiffing up their lawns. Or maybe the developers/landscapers there are “keeping costs down” by not buying the plants they were contracted for.
Trying to figure out why Poor people would steal flowers from a park en masse. Not like cans and bottles you can just take somewhere for the 5 cents. Maybe it’s that penchant poor people have of indulging that chip on their shoulder so “stick it to The Man.” It could be an early warning sign of creeping civic dissipation: Crime causes poverty boiling the frog style.
Have they checked if the deer and squirrels are overweight?
When the house in Kalamazoo was built, in 1958, mom planted some lilacs around the property. By the early 80s, those lilac bushes were pretty big. One day, I saw a middle aged couple (ie, old enough to know better) walking down the street, see one of the lilacs that was close to the street, walk over, and tear three or four clusters of blossoms off, and walk off with them.
Nothing new under the sun. People are hooligans and vandals.
Steve
*This is a sign of all times in the USA. A notable national ethos is: "Let’s ruin it for somebody."
Would like to thank you for quoting me and bringing this to my attention. What I actually meant to say was: “This is not a sign of the times.” It has indeed always been around and, I believe, is an American trait, if not uniquely so.
Looting public goods is part of the “individualism” a la Ayn Rand and HippieDippie shmuck package that has been rampant in USA during my lifetime.
It was not always so.
d fb