Funny how for the longest time now, cities and counties take more and more money from public parks citing their underuse... then when they get used, they cry out legally to stop the use.
Part of the costs of a park is cleaning up after people, its already in the budget. So is the landscaping. So is the coverage for wear and tear in general.
Its also funny to see the difference. National Park Service embraces Pokemon Go and enjoyed the increased park traffic. Austin embraced it and stores all over downtown and even government buildings had specials for Pokemon GO'ers (some public art museums here gave like 50% off admission if you were Pokemon hunting)
And the fact that so many normally sedentary people were getting up and going out and doing shit and getting exercise .. and people still went out of their way to be dicks about it... I don't get it.
Aside from Niantic's handling of the game, its PR and its issues, the pokemon GO craze was probably one of the most positive, healthy things to go viral in a very long time in the US...
For some background into the phenomenon that was Lake Park last summer, there was a large concentration of Pokestops around Lake Park in a relatively small area. In Pokemon GO there are geographic boundaries that make up biomes in the game which determine which Pokemon to spawn, for instance if you're near a source of water there is a high chance you will encounter water Pokemon. Lake Park appeared to not have any biome, which led to anything from the game being able to appear, including more rare types of Pokemon. Pokemon GO also has something called a lure module that players can place down which will attract more Pokemon to a Pokestop for 15 minutes. All these factors working together caused a massive influx of players to Lake Park from players from the greater Milwaukee and nearby Waukesha counties.
The area surrounding Lake park has affluent people living around there (homes valued in the range of $500k - $950k), and the Lake Park Bistro upscale restaurant was just north of the park with the largest parking lot closest to the concentration of Pokestops. Prior to Pokemon GO it was a quiet area with a great view of Lake Michigan from many of the homes along Lake Drive.
I'm inclined to believe that it was not only a combination of the holy grail Pokemon GO location for the greater Milwaukee area, but also a bit of "Not In My Backyard" [1] that led to the augmented reality game ordinance.
Wear and tear and cleaning up isn't some binary budgeted-or-not thing. You can expect a certain flow and behaviour, and something can radically change that. If some popular band said they were doing a goodbye concert and it was only available in AR at a park, you can bet it'd cause far more wear and tear in one day than they budgeted for a long time.
But trying to block the AR game is the wrong approach. They should instead implement a generic way to handle such things. Either fine people, or have some maximum occupancy rules.
I suspect that down the line, some group of clever people will design something like Pokemon GO, but with some real meat on its bones and a long, monetized lifetime. At that point, you have to wonder if there will be a measurable hit on childhood obesity. I suspect there might be, albeit relatively small, still a measurable reduction.
>> City officials were aghast at large numbers of individuals playing Pokemon Go who visited parks, littered, trampled grass and flowers, and stayed past park hours.
This seems like a legitimate issue though. How do you propose it be solved?
then when they get used, they cry out legally to stop the use.
The parks weren't just being "used", people were littering, staying after hours, trampling on flowerbeds and stuff. Or did you miss that part of the article?
So many normally sedentary people were getting up and going out and doing shit and getting exercise .. and people still went out of their way to be dicks about it... I don't get it.
Say what you want about the city's misguided attempts at enforcement. But by no means was it in response to "normally sedentary people getting exercise."
This seems like a place where industry self-regulation could be helpful. It could be helpful if there were an organization that would keep track of blacklisted areas (eg whitehouse lawn) and release them for all to the public, and developers in particular, for easy consumption. There would need to be some procedure for adding or removing regions from the database, eg a written request from a relevant government official acting in their capacity as an official.
I think we would see less heavy handed actions if there was a lighter touch option available.
Or... we place the blame on being in bad places where the blame belongs.
If I throw $10,000 over the white house fence and you jump the fence to get to it, its still YOUR problem and YOU are the one at fault for being where you arent supposed to be.
Place the blame on the people who disregard the rules, the game isnt responsible because it placed something there.
This would be like... "Hey, you shot a deer in the middle of the street downtown during deer season, i guess its not your fault that you were hunting deer in the middle of the street, there was a deer here afterall..."
If this interests you, you might like this talk about virtual worlds and their consequences, from someone who actually has deep experience with the subject: https://vimeo.com/208372546
[+] [-] jmcdiesel|8 years ago|reply
Part of the costs of a park is cleaning up after people, its already in the budget. So is the landscaping. So is the coverage for wear and tear in general.
Its also funny to see the difference. National Park Service embraces Pokemon Go and enjoyed the increased park traffic. Austin embraced it and stores all over downtown and even government buildings had specials for Pokemon GO'ers (some public art museums here gave like 50% off admission if you were Pokemon hunting)
And the fact that so many normally sedentary people were getting up and going out and doing shit and getting exercise .. and people still went out of their way to be dicks about it... I don't get it.
Aside from Niantic's handling of the game, its PR and its issues, the pokemon GO craze was probably one of the most positive, healthy things to go viral in a very long time in the US...
[+] [-] badgers|8 years ago|reply
The area surrounding Lake park has affluent people living around there (homes valued in the range of $500k - $950k), and the Lake Park Bistro upscale restaurant was just north of the park with the largest parking lot closest to the concentration of Pokestops. Prior to Pokemon GO it was a quiet area with a great view of Lake Michigan from many of the homes along Lake Drive.
I'm inclined to believe that it was not only a combination of the holy grail Pokemon GO location for the greater Milwaukee area, but also a bit of "Not In My Backyard" [1] that led to the augmented reality game ordinance.
[1] - http://milwaukeerecord.com/city-life/lake-parks-pokemon-go-m...
[+] [-] MichaelGG|8 years ago|reply
But trying to block the AR game is the wrong approach. They should instead implement a generic way to handle such things. Either fine people, or have some maximum occupancy rules.
[+] [-] DanBC|8 years ago|reply
A minor nit, but Pokemon go did not increase activity levels for most players.
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2016/12December/Pages/Pok%C3%A9mon-no...
http://www.bmj.com/content/355/bmj.i6270
[+] [-] QAPereo|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wfunction|8 years ago|reply
This seems like a legitimate issue though. How do you propose it be solved?
[+] [-] kafkaesq|8 years ago|reply
The parks weren't just being "used", people were littering, staying after hours, trampling on flowerbeds and stuff. Or did you miss that part of the article?
So many normally sedentary people were getting up and going out and doing shit and getting exercise .. and people still went out of their way to be dicks about it... I don't get it.
Say what you want about the city's misguided attempts at enforcement. But by no means was it in response to "normally sedentary people getting exercise."
[+] [-] Paul-ish|8 years ago|reply
I think we would see less heavy handed actions if there was a lighter touch option available.
[+] [-] jmcdiesel|8 years ago|reply
If I throw $10,000 over the white house fence and you jump the fence to get to it, its still YOUR problem and YOU are the one at fault for being where you arent supposed to be.
Place the blame on the people who disregard the rules, the game isnt responsible because it placed something there.
This would be like... "Hey, you shot a deer in the middle of the street downtown during deer season, i guess its not your fault that you were hunting deer in the middle of the street, there was a deer here afterall..."
[+] [-] Sleeep|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TazeTSchnitzel|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iaw|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] umanwizard|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
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