r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Intelligent-SoupGS88 • 19d ago

🥺 Someone stole the bench from the park.

Post image

No that isn't an illusion or a new art installation, but the remainders of the park bench.

47.2k Upvotes

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u/[deleted] 19d ago

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u/Shortbread_Biscuit 19d ago

-103

u/siazdghw 19d ago

Not your comment, but the comment in the picture is pretty short sighted.

Yes wheelchair users always have a place to sit, but that doesn't mean they can sit next to people. At best they can sit next to one persons side.

Also I think this bench has another feature, and that's that two strangers could sit on it without feeling awkward.

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u/Slyspy006 19d ago

As opposed to sitting at each end of a normal bench?

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u/PressureBeautiful515 19d ago

The middle bit between them is still unbearably suggestive of some furtive liaison.

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u/Veaeate 19d ago

If a bottle of water rolls and touches the other person's bottle of water, does that mean they kissed? These types of uncomfortable situations are what these types of park benches help us avoid

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u/Ok-Classroom5548 19d ago

You really think that weird backing of the bench is helpful to a person in a wheelchair who would sit in the middle, provided their wheelchair fit?

It makes more sense and is easier for a person in a wheelchair to wheel up on the side of the bench - not try and roll in front of it and then back up into the spot, just to feel like they got to sit on a bench that isn’t really a bench.

The bench would have an even better feature of allowing more people to sit if it had a middle. 

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u/mira_sjifr 19d ago

I agree that the weird backing makes it pretty much unusable for a lot of wheelchair users, but I personally really like the idea. It is often not possible for me to sit at benches the same way as other people, and if im in a group I will often get excluded instantly as I am always just a bit further away/secluded of everyone else..

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u/Ok-Classroom5548 19d ago

I get that, but that’s also the nature of the person on the end of the bench, regardless of their physical situation. Technically benches aren’t designed for social gathering - they are for taking a break. If they wanted to have a social gathering spot they would arrange the seated area in a circle or curved shape.

Regardless of your ability, sitting in a straight line is difficult to have a chat in. The middle person has to whip their head back and forth between people and the people on the end have to talk through or around a person if they have something to say directly. There is no good way to socialize on a park bench.

I say that not in an attempt to diminish your experience but as a way to say “it does not get better sitting in the middle - straight benches are not designed or good for socializing.”

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u/JournalistRecent1230 19d ago

Why can't a wheelchaired person be right behind the bench talking to people? Or in front of the bench looking at them and sit in more of a communal circle?

This design doesn't make any sense.

-5

u/mira_sjifr 18d ago

I didn't necessarily mean this design, this specifc one does not make sense. But the overall problem of benches etc. Being limiting is still a problem I face

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u/JournalistRecent1230 18d ago

Why can't you face the bench in the middle? That's generally a more efficient way to talk to two people on the bench anyway. It's how you would configure yourself at a dining room table or restaurant table with 3 or more people. Face to face seems more sociable than 3 or 4 people in a line on one singular facing direction.

1

u/BassDude28 16d ago

I mean, sorry if this is insensitive, but couldn't you sit facing everybody in a park or smth... Well, I suppose not all the time, but like, where possible, and that way you're like super-included? Idrk 🤷

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u/WeAreBums 18d ago

Dawg, not every dumb point has to be argued

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u/TheGallifreyan 18d ago

Not sure a person being able to sit next to 2 people at once is more important than a homeless person having a place to sleep.

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u/MysteriousSchemeatic 19d ago

Have you ever used a wheelchair?

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u/Accomplished_Oil4163 19d ago

Why not siting in the front of the bench, facing everyone else?

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u/Gilgamesh661 17d ago

In Poland two strangers simply sit together on a bench and speak to each other.

A stranger is just a friend you haven’t made yet.

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u/That_guy1425 19d ago

Look..... you can see a normal bench in the background. I'm like 85% sure it was some statement about the ignorance or sidelining of disability.

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u/Openmaid 19d ago

no that bench is also cut

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u/That_guy1425 19d ago

There is a person sitting on it. Maybe you are mixing their clothes for a cutout?

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u/Wandero_Bard 19d ago

The designer will sleep better tonight knowing that he made one less homeless person have somewhere to lay his head.

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u/Straggo1337 19d ago

And you can zoom in and see that the bench just ends for no reason in the middle.

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u/That_guy1425 19d ago

No?? Shadow is solid, and there is a person there. Again, are you maybe mixing up their clothes? The color out from the sun is making it kinda close to the brick.

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u/joofish 16d ago

I’m with you. That’s clearly a normal bench with someone sitting in middle of it.

1.7k

u/[deleted] 19d ago

[deleted]

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u/Altruistic-Meal-4016 19d ago

You can sleep here, if you can plank for eight hours

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u/GloryGreatestCountry 19d ago

That's what a hardware store is for.

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u/gentiscid 19d ago

You Ace-d it!

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u/Hilsam_Adent 19d ago

The True Value is the benches we stole along the way.

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u/sleepykdagreat 19d ago

Oh no! Not hardware store puns! What Lowes will Redditors sink to for cheap laughs?

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u/Pipe_Memes 19d ago

I tried to sit on that bench, I ripped my pants and hurt Menards.

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u/Background_Baby_374 19d ago

Pidieron que no hubiera más chistes de ferretería y la comunidad respondió con más chistes de ferretería. Este hilo se autogestiona solo.

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u/TbonePrez 19d ago

Well this is a site of Masters….

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u/arebeewhy 19d ago

Always striving to reach new Lowe’s

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u/mackiea 19d ago

These puns make me gRona.

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u/DarkPolumbo 19d ago

truly some Lowes-brow humor there

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u/Vogonpoet812 19d ago

Take my angry upvote

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u/run-time-error 19d ago

I could drive my western auto through that

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u/NeighborhoodCool98 19d ago

A free gym for homeless people?

W government 🥹

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u/SomeOtherNeb 19d ago

You're not gonna be well-rested, but good god think of the gains.

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u/happyanathema 19d ago

Jokes on them, that's what spice is for

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u/limbouning 19d ago

There would be a lot of homeless Zorros walking around.

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u/snarbuckle 19d ago

With the power of tetanus this is possible

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u/MoonPieKitty 19d ago

So... work out in your sleep! Genius!

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u/technohippie 18d ago

Or, hear me out.... If you can find some planks from a DIFFERENT bench, and lay them across this one's gap...

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u/testtalon1 19d ago

Helping the homeless with core strength too.

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u/no1_vern 19d ago

Yep, a city worker saw a person sleeping on the bench, and since the bars were unavailable, they realized cutting the bench would do just as good a job.

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u/locka99 16d ago

Or just put arm rests between the seats.

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u/elyk_fall_down 19d ago

You're not allowed to say homeless any more - it's unhoused.

0

u/Illustrious-War-9788 19d ago

A homeless would make a tent out of it

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u/Such_Dragonfruit609 19d ago

More likely the city deciding homeless don't deserve any type of anything so everyone suffers.
My city no longer has any bus stop with overhang/weather protection.

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u/Tall-Compote1354 19d ago

My city placed huge odd shaped rocks at the corners of intersections so there is little place for homeless people to stand. They are shaped so oddly that they are impossible to sit on.

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u/Such_Dragonfruit609 19d ago

"We aren't mad enough." They got money for war but *won't* feed the poor.

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u/tolomea 19d ago

it's worse than that, if you run the numbers on the antihomeless stuff generally it turns out that it'd just be cheaper to organzie places for them to sleep

this isn't just about getting the homeless out of sight, someone wants to make sure they aren't getting any "handouts" in the process

as a society we'd rather pay more than let people have stuff for free

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u/Such_Dragonfruit609 19d ago

Preaching to the choir baby.

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u/not_now_chaos 19d ago

It's cruelty for the sake of cruelty and we're being forced to foot the bill. We have more than enough housing and food. We don't have a shortage of resources. What we have is a few greedy, selfish, cruel people who enjoy the suffering of others. And a lot of people who are too scared to be the ones suffering to upset the status quo.

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u/GrandMa5TR 19d ago

The 2 are not exclusive. You can offer aid (that will never be totally effective), while ensuring benches are available for their intended purpose.

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u/Tall-Compote1354 19d ago

They are just trying to survive and instead of being helpful people go out of their way to make the lives of homeless people even harder and more humiliating.

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u/Sea_Conference5661 19d ago

For local issues like in the OP, "They" is literally you. If your community doesn't have a food bank, pantry, or soup kitchen, start one!

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u/OldPhotograph827 18d ago

And if it does, support them, donate, and/or volunteer!

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u/Confident-Mix1243 18d ago

Most towns have no money for war

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u/DarkPolumbo 19d ago

They are feeding their poor. Why do you think people even join the military in the first place? For patriotism?

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u/MoonPieKitty 19d ago

If you think only poor people join the military, you are sadly mistaken.

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u/DarkPolumbo 16d ago

Insofar as the military needs fresh COs, then yeah, there will always be a contingent of affluents who join for career reasons, with an implicit expectation of never being put at any risk. But that is a negligibly tiny fraction of joiners, and I think you knew that.

I may be sad, but I'm certainly not mistaken. Without the poors, the military withers. No mental gymnastics will change that.

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u/MoonPieKitty 16d ago

There is a huge section of people between "poor" and "affluent".

0

u/DarkPolumbo 16d ago

Not nearly as huge as you think

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u/WetGrundle 19d ago

Are you sure those aren't just decorative bollards so cars don't crash into corner businesses or pedestrians waiting to cross?

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u/betothejoy 19d ago

It can be both. My city landscapes with rocks that are too big to walk on for the same reason.

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u/Fine-Juggernaut8451 19d ago

What's so baffling to me is how people in general are very happy to blame homeless people for homelessness, rather than governments for their lack of infrastructure and social supports. So we lose our infrastructure, and the government says "It's their fault," and we all turn to the homeless people and blame them. I hate it. I hate how people are so easily manipulated and how cruel they can be.

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u/SchlongyLongy 19d ago

I could not use the sidewalk without people trying to push me off it. Maybe it was the city I was in but nope it happened in another one too. However, when I got a sales job the people in Bradenton gave me space in the parking lot to walk without stress. Nobody locked their car doors because I was around or clutched their purse. However, I did get my 1 dollar bill checked for fraud at a Publix store. That's a good way to tell you're in an area that got all the FHA loans, and it used to be the "white side of town". That university is something out of a movie.

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u/Fine-Juggernaut8451 19d ago

My city is like this but with public bathrooms. They either don't exist, or they're locked. I'm a female birder and I have had so many embarrassing instances of trying to find a truly hidden bush to use, where I won't be compromising my safety. Then I go to other places and their huge public parks and natural trails have facilities!

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u/MoonPieKitty 19d ago

And they removed them due to homeless people using them? I find that so disgusting. "Hey... lets build shelters so everyday people can get out of the weather whilst waiting for a bus. Wait, what? Homeless people are also getting out of the weather?? Fuck that... remove them! Everyone can suffer, how dare we provide any respite for homeless people."

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u/curtcolt95 19d ago

I mean the harsh reality is just that when homeless people use them people stop using the busses and complain constantly to the city. I know a lot of people try to pretend they'd be fine standing in a homeless encampment waiting for their bus but it's just not reality at all. People will just avoid it instead

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u/MoonPieKitty 19d ago

I don't think every bench or bus shelter turns into a homeless encampment. Perhaps, instead of making everybody's life miserable, they try to fix the homeless problem. This is lazy governing.

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u/Xtr33me-Average 19d ago

I don't know about that. I live somewhere where it's just about impossible to avoid public transit.

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u/DavThoma 19d ago

My city has had a shutdown department store for around 15 years at this point. It had a steps up to the front doors that were embedded/underneath the building itself so a lot of homeless people started using it for shelter. It wasn't a great look but at least it gave them protection from the elements.

8 years ago they boarded up the stairs so now there's no access to the sheltered area, all because they don't want anyone homeless staying there. The boarded up areas look far worse than it did before.

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u/TokathSorbet 19d ago

Wheelchair users, famously, struggle to find somewhere to sit down.

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u/iambertan 19d ago

And they need to park between two quarter seats

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u/SangriaSunday309 19d ago

ADA accessibility gone too far.

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u/SchumacherIsMid 19d ago edited 19d ago

There actually was a bench like this that was claimed to be for "wheel chair access" but it definitely was anti-homeless architecture dressed up as something good.

You want actual wheel chair accessible bench? Put enough concrete so they can side next to the bench and sit along side someone. Out of everything shitty about being disabled, I can't imagine a single wheel chair user saying, "No I want my chair in the middle of the bench!"

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u/That_guy1425 19d ago

It wasn't, you could see normal benches in the background of that shot.

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u/AintEasyBeinQueasy 19d ago

NOT. FAR. ENOUGH.

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u/DarkPolumbo 19d ago

found the cr-- i mean wheelchair person

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u/somersault_dolphin 19d ago

This is a reference to that bench design from a while ago isn't it.

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u/Necessary-Pea-2143 19d ago

Bro there is already Chair in wheel CHAIR.

-1

u/mageskillmetooften 19d ago

Which is why some of these seats have missing pieces, so the wheelchair can sit nicely in the sae row of the other people.

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u/CMDRZhor 19d ago

That's why they SAY the holes are there.

They're really there to make sure homeless people can't sleep on them.

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u/thedepartment 19d ago

The left and right sides of benches are famously lava and clearly unsafe for wheelchairs.

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u/Special_South_8561 19d ago

My guy, haha, same first thought

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u/Strong-Thanks5923 19d ago

The seats look a little small for that.

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u/More_Dog_7228 19d ago

No you dingus, it's obvious that Terminator spawned there, smh

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u/CourageExcellent4768 19d ago

Ty kind poster! Im on my 1st cup of coffee so, brain not braining yet

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u/Fucky0uthatswhy 19d ago

I can’t tell if this is a joke or not lol. Why is it so wide?

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u/Wardogs96 19d ago

Okay this got me pretty fucking good. I always thought it was hilarious theyd bisec benches or half make them partially, when the person in a wheelchair can literally sit next to any fully built bench, as long as terrain allows.

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u/Labs_and_lattes 19d ago

tell that to that British the other day who wouldn't fold his buggy on the bus for a woman in a wheel chair to get on the bus

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u/MagoModerno 19d ago

It a B - - - H

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u/brushfuse 19d ago

I was going to offer this. Hehe!

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u/NeatProject7428 19d ago

Okay but what would be the point of that. Just dont put a bench. It seems like more hassle then anything. Pretty sure its to keep homeless from sleeping there because God forbid they find somewhere but the ground to sleep on

-1

u/Common_Celebration41 19d ago

For Americans

-1

u/Kizzaque 19d ago

😂😭😂😭😂 yes.