Parks, libraries are cheap and free and they're dead where I live, a metro area of 2+ million
The only people I see out are families with grandpa in tow to pay for a mediocre overpriced wood fired pizza.
No one has analog skills. Just social analysis skills. Very briefly dated a 39 year old who admitted she had never baked, boiled, or microwaved her own potato. Already got 2 kids.
We reach endgame sooner in life. We grind all the content immediately because we aren't growing the potatoes and sewing the clothes, weaving textiles.
That 39 year old woman anecdote is a strange addition. I know many 20-to-30-somethings that know how to cook. It's far too expensive to constantly eat out nowadays so people know how to provide for themselves in other ways. It sounds like you met a woman that didn't know how to cook and extrapolated that experience into thinking society is over and we're all helpless.
The number of US libraries going back to the 90s is basically flat while the population has kept growing over 35 years, around 38% for the same time period
Unless you're a big city you probably only have one library. At least by me municipalities have occasionally built new, bigger libraries and/or put additions onto existing ones in the last 30 years. The number of libraries would remain flat in those cases even if they have actually expanded.
Parks, public pools, libraries and museums are the main things we do as a family. We also live in a metro of about 1.5 M. Maybe other metro areas charge for parks, libraries and museums?
Especially museums now I think about it? Museums in small metro areas can be free. Likely because there's nothing in them. (Still fun, just not as many exhibits as museums in large metro areas.) I mean, just imagine trying to run something like the Museum of Science and Industry, Museum of Natural History, or the Field Museum for free. I'm thinking at some point they would break down and have to start charging?
It really depends on each neighborhood these days from what I have seen.
Parks around here, one is safe during the day with many people, it is divided up in many sections well, and you don't notice the drug dealing and needles until the ratio changes after dark.
Most of the other parks, I'd say a majority of women do not feel comfortable, which leads to less use by women and men, which changes the ratio of people that do go there. Some of the parks have been charging and increasing the fees to try to reverse that.
Libraries are the only real bastion of third space that seems to have a mostly neutral vibe imho. Although the downtown libraries have had to change some of what they allow to try to stave off the changing ratio of unshowered, just as several of the starbucks now have number pads on the bathrooms to access.
Libraries are not the best place for socializing as they normally have a keep it quieter vibe in my experience, but it's still doable to meet someone. The lack of open hours is a real limiting factor. I'd like to open a library that is more like a social club and open 24 hours.
Museums have gotten pretty expensive around here, and I don't see them as a great place to socialize. I imagine it's great to bring a family, but replacing the social connect that malls and bars at once had, not really. I also can't imagine people going to the local museum every friday night.
> I mean, just imagine trying to run something like the Museum of Science and Industry, Museum of Natural History, or the Field Museum for free.
While it is possible they'll get gutted and/or forced to charge admission in the current craze to cut government funding, by far the best museums in the country -- the Smithsonian ones in DC -- are absolutely free to visit.
> Very briefly dated a 39 year old who admitted she had never baked, boiled, or microwaved her own potato. Already got 2 kids.
>
> We reach endgame sooner in life. We grind all the content immediately because we aren't growing the potatoes and sewing the clothes, weaving textiles.
this is a bit extreme..you don't need to go back 100+ years to know how to cook your own food. And plenty of people do cook their own food now despite having grown up on YouTube.
same here. The problem in this region is that they are too restrictive. Libraries have strict rules like not making noise in some areas and being told by security guards to take feet off low tables (which was impractical for reading), parks have so many rules including which sports can be played and not. At least in the region where we live its not the lack of facilities but a culture and rule system that makes public areas useless.
The problem is the people who don't like that policy debating it on social media isolated in filter bubbles owned by the rich who benefit from such isolation
We're the adults now but prefer the responsibility of kids still
The only people I see out are families with grandpa in tow to pay for a mediocre overpriced wood fired pizza.
No one has analog skills. Just social analysis skills. Very briefly dated a 39 year old who admitted she had never baked, boiled, or microwaved her own potato. Already got 2 kids.
We reach endgame sooner in life. We grind all the content immediately because we aren't growing the potatoes and sewing the clothes, weaving textiles.