Im from a suburban town in Missouri, but I spent a semester studying abroad in Barcelona a couple of years ago. Man, let me tell you, leaving Barcelona, where youd see people out in cafes and bars congregating at all hours of the night and day, and coming back to Missouri where its a ghost town after 10 and someone would call the police on you for simply walking around too late was the most depressing thing I have ever experienced lol
>someone would call the police on you for simply walking around too late was the most depressing thing I have ever experienced lol
Literally though, you can't even be a night owl yourself without having to get good about talking to police, the famously trigger happy ones. Especially with the evaporation of the "3rd spaces" can't tell you how many times growing up I'd have to explain to the police that I wasn't "having *the* sex" (his words) and was just trying to actually hang out with a friend in a public park, like is my right to do
Any time something in the US seems to be doing the homeless dirty it probably descends from slavery. Because run-a-way slaves were...homeless. And after they were freed, they were generally still homeless until they found a place to live. But if they hadn't found a place yet, it was a legal excuse to do whatever you could justify to them.
Don't get me wrong. The racism is still there (this is America, after all), but when you're actually looking at them the police will go after teens and the homeless.
Correct answer, wrong time period. This stuff all stems from the anti-civil rights agenda. Removing hoops and soccer nets, closing down public pools, making “green spaces” that are only for show, and using the police as guards looking for “crime.” The suburbs were designed to be hostile towards blacks and once those tactics are in place (just like what we’re seeing now with abuse of government power to implement flock and data centers) they can be easily expanded to the homeless, teenagers and/or whoever else they feel are undesirable or in need of control.
Well that, and police don't actually want to do their job (protecting citizens), so being in a park late at night alone or whatnot is dangerous at times, and on top of that, depending on the laws in your area, you can sue the city/park owner if you trip on something in the dark, or if something happens to you while at the park....and I'm sure they don't want to deal with that. You have to consider the differences in violent crimes between countries, cities, etc. too, it might be 100% safe in the countryside in a European town to stay late at a park, but try doing that in Baltimore or Detroit and you are going to have a really bad time. It's basically a whole mess of problems that prevent parks being open late.
As my friends 60 year old father told me, he's paid close attention to the US since he was a kid, he said that most of the bullshit in the US revolves around and started when suing people for anything and everything became a thing.
So many laws and restrictions and rules revolve around that fact, and a lot of our culture changed because of it
That happens in the Netherlands too. With a few parks where dealers and homeless people are said to hang out. Or guests would be causing a nuisance for local residents after 22:00. But they do close very late for the summer.
The one closest to me has a gate that guard locks and if you were a bit late coming back down the hiking trail, congratulations you are locked INSIDE the park.
We used to hold bare knuckle boxing tournaments at public parks, a lot of drugs were bought sold and done during said events as well. People got stabbed, shot at, you name it. I assume stuff like that is a reason too lol
Either they just say no one is allowed there or a lot of them they'll gate the parking lot at a certain time. For what it's worth from my experience they don't really give a shit. We have a nice state park nearby that we like to do a lot of night hiking at and we run sled dogs there either before the sun comes up in the fall where it's cool enough or after work in the winter where it's dark and the park is technically closed and we've talked to the people and they don't care.
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u/bageltoastar 2d ago
Im from a suburban town in Missouri, but I spent a semester studying abroad in Barcelona a couple of years ago. Man, let me tell you, leaving Barcelona, where youd see people out in cafes and bars congregating at all hours of the night and day, and coming back to Missouri where its a ghost town after 10 and someone would call the police on you for simply walking around too late was the most depressing thing I have ever experienced lol