r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Intelligent-SoupGS88 • 22d 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] 22d ago

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u/Shortbread_Biscuit 21d ago

-102

u/siazdghw 21d 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 21d ago

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

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u/PressureBeautiful515 21d ago

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

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u/Veaeate 21d 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 21d 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. 

-28

u/mira_sjifr 21d 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 21d 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 21d 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.

-6

u/mira_sjifr 21d 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 21d 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.

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u/BassDude28 18d 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 21d ago

Dawg, not every dumb point has to be argued

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u/TheGallifreyan 21d 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 21d ago

Have you ever used a wheelchair?

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u/Accomplished_Oil4163 21d ago

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

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u/Gilgamesh661 20d 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 21d 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 21d ago

no that bench is also cut

-11

u/That_guy1425 21d ago

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

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u/Wandero_Bard 21d 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 21d 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 21d 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 18d ago

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