Perhaps you’ve heard of the latest dumb thing to come out of my city. I love London, but sometimes we lead the country in idiotic ideas.
The managers of a townhouse complex in the city’s east end have banned sidewalk chalk. Now that the weather is nicer, kids have been playing hopscotch and drawing with colourful chalk. All tenants were warned via a letter from the property manager that anyone caught drawing with chalk would be subject to a cleaning fine.
If it were me, I’d just say, “I’ve hired the rain to clean it off for me.”
Apparently, some residents of the 200-unit complex find the chalk unsightly and management quickly reacted to their sensitivity because, as we all know, all you have to say is that something is infringing on your life and everyone will suppress whatever it is in a bid to keep from offending you. Little kids making chalk drawings on the pavement have drawn lectures from complex officials who have told their parents to remove them immediately. It’s a scourge on the neighbourhood!
If troubled teens were leaving gang signs, graffiti artists making skull and blood drawings, or protesters writing politically-charged slogans, I could see asking them to stop. But little kids happily drawing flowers and kittens in pastel colours isn’t a reason to call in the authorities. I truly don’t see what there is to get so uptight about, and how a property manager has the stones to look a child in the eye and tell them that what they’re doing is wrong.
As a former Condominium president I can tell you that, it’s the squeaky wheel who truly governs a condo and management who feel it’s more important to be liked by all hasn’t the balls to use common sense. Unfortunately if the condo rules don’t allow for the posting of any signage, then property management has no choice in the matter, they have to enforce the rules. It’s how they go about it is all to often the problem. Had it been me in charge, I’d likely have complimented the kids on their drawings, explained the concerns and asked them not to draw on the sidewalk at the front of the building and pointed out a couple of areas where they could. As to the complaining owners, as president, I approved it, now shut up!
I guess we’re meant to find compassion for those whose lives are so miserable, so totally bereft of joy or happy memories of childhood, that they had to find a way to chase children back inside to their digital devices. It’s just pathetic. When you think of blood and body parts that litter sidewalks around the world every single day – and this is what some people find to complain about…it’s so sad on every level.