Tis the season for trampling State Street planters

Tis the season for trampling State Street planters
Tis the season for trampling State Street planters

Tis the season for trampling State Street planters

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This past week, I went to Chicago’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for the first time in my life. Growing up in the area, the parade always seemed like a huge hassle on Thanksgiving Day. But I wanted to take mi familia down to the parade this year as a treat. I have a three-year-old son and I knew he would get a kick out of the huge, floating Best Buy mascot.

If you asked me a few years back, I wouldn’t go near downtown on a holiday.  But I figure I should start taking advantage of some of the perks that city life has to offer. For one, parades. Chicago can’t seem to get enough of parades.  It’s almost like we are addicted to being paraded in front of.  The only known rehab is budget cuts.

Anyway, we got down there early and snagged a great spot right behind of one the new State Street planters. The city has done a great job sprucing up State St. with decorative pine leaves and berries. It was a nice spot.   No one wanted to stand in front of us because the planter was in the way. So we got to watch a parade at Madison and State, the busiest intersection in the world. Then, to my dismay (not because of sight lines, but civic pride), I watched children, parents, and random adults just blatantly TRAMPLE the planters to get a better look at the inflatable Scooby-Doo balloon and a couple of suburban marching bands.

Luckiy, I have pictures to prove it:

How do you think they got there? They walked right through the brush.

Some just stood in it. Seriously, they just walked right into the arranged flowers and plants and squashed them with their winter boots. One woman even  saw a 3 inch spot of curb in front of the planter and paraded her whole family (4 girls) across it.

Hey, maybe you live in the woods. But I don’t, so I need those planters to last til spring.

I do spend a significant time on this blog questioning our city and their efforts to run this metropolis. But I give them credit for beautifying the city, creating an aesthetic that reminds us of the season, and not the dirt, slush and grit that is about to come. 

It just plain sucks that citizens and visiting public put themselves first and destroy it.