Sunday, July 15, 2007

1.15 - Parked Benches

MONKEY ISLAND NOVEMBER, 1988 - One of the advantages to having Rudy Giuliani as the Parks Commissioner here was the firm regimentation he brought to the job. Though his attitude often clashed with the more laid-back ways of the natives, it did lead to the island having the best park system of any quasi-autonomous federal island territorial state in the hemisphere.

One of his innovations is the concept of cleaning the woods on alternate days. The picnic tables are removed three times a week, and vacuum trucks scour the grounds of trash, loose dirt, and slow-moving wildlife. A lot of parks workers squawked about having to drag the benches back and forth to the parking lots every other day, but the comments from visitors about how the dirt looks so clean makes it all worthwhile.

What people often don't notice as well is how each tree has had any leaves that may have fallen during the previous days replaced. This not only keeps the trees looking fuller, it eliminates the possibility of any lawsuits arising from visitors slipping on wet leaves.

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