Guest Column: John Fricke on Emeryville's Shoddy Children's Playgrounds

Emeryville City Hall’s New Language of Empathy and Inaction

By John Fricke

Guest Columnist

When I was growing up in Chicago my mother would say to me, ką darai, daryk gerai!  (What you do, do well! – in Lithuanian.)  In my practice of law, I’ve tried to live up to that parental advice.  Not so Emeryville city government.

In Emeryville city government, the performance goal appears to be markedly lower than the one imparted to me by my mother.  What specifically comes to mind is the condition of our public playgrounds.  

My three-year-old son, Dean, and I are frequent visitors to the various playgrounds.  Based on my experience from when my daughters were Dean’s age, playground deficiencies brought to the attention of someone in Emeryville city government would quickly be repaired.  When my parents would visit from Chicago, they brought their granddaughters to various Emeryville playgrounds, all in pretty good repair.  

Therefore, when I brought Dean to the same playgrounds, I was taken aback.  Was the city not aware of the various things in need of repair?  Of the trees that had been cut down by the city and not replanted?  Had no one brought these things to their attention?  A quick email to the city manager (annual salary over $227,000) will address my concerns, I thought.  

I’ve since come to realize that the work ethic of ką darai daryk gerai has been replaced with a new bureaucrat-speak that manages to meld empathy and inaction into one sentence.  

The city manager’s response to my email message (enumerating all the things needing attention at five public playgrounds) included this sentence: 

“We are also assessing what grant opportunities from the state might be available to fund the various infrastructure improvements at the parks you describe below.”

Inquiring minds surely want to know what were these ‘infrastructure improvements’ I was demanding. 

Eradicate graffiti (infrastructure improvement?):

Replant shade trees (cut down by the city) near play structures (infrastructure improvement?):

Why replant a tree when you can fill the 
tree well with concrete?

It almost leaves you with the impression that they don't care.

Patch rubber matting (infrastructure improvement?):

The city manager’s response promised “substantive answers”.  She then passed the buck down the chain of command.  

I held my breath for a response.  After two weeks of no response from our very-well-paid city functionaries, I sent a follow-up message.  

Days later, a response came from the director of public works (annual salary over $161,000), including the following:  “Playground facilities assessment and budget is in the process of being prepared and scheduled based on funding.”

Here was a person well-trained in the new language of empathy and inaction.  

I immediately sent another message demanding to know when the repairs would be completed.  And again, I was provided (with a same-day response, no less) with an exemplar of the new lingua franca:

“We are working on the park assessment now and the recommended repairs.  With that we are also obtaining the costs and timing.  We will then process for the repairs based on the city contracting requirements and available funding.  The rubber matting is high on the list and I look to have the recommendations and timing for repairs soon.  Have a wonderful day and please feel free to contact me at any time.  Take Care.”  

Ron Swanson is alive and well and working in Emeryville city hall.  

Despite the fog of bureaucrat-speak, I did manage to glean a date certain by which seven trees would be replanted.  (No commitment for when the other things would be addressed.)  When, pray tell, will the trees be replanted, you ask?  

In April.  

Of 2021.  

Since my original messages, Emeryville has completed a circumnavigation of the sun.

As far as replanting trees, regular Tattler readers will no doubt chime in regarding the city council’s sordid sell-out of the street trees on Horton Street.  Orwell would appreciate the council members’ Newspeak word, “nuisance tree”, whereby, at the developer’s behest, a healthy tree is transmogrified into a nuisance, and then cut down.   Dean and I should be glad that the remaining trees in the playgrounds have not met the same fate.  I suppose that’s because a developer hasn’t yet cast his wandering eye on a parcel occupied by a playground.  Longtime Emeryville residents will recall how adamantly opposed Council member Nora Davis was to a park at Doyle and 59th streets.  After all, the city council had purchased the property with the intention of constructing a four-level parking garage.  During the dot com frenzy of the late Nineties, Emeryville business owners’ demand for more free parking had to be sated, according to Nora.  My election put an end to that folly.  

Say!  A parking garage!  No muss, no fuss.  No grass to mow, no trees to replant, no play structures to repair.  The new Newspeak word:  nuisance playground.  Doubleplusgood!

In the twelve months since I emailed the city manager not only have none of the repairs been done, but more things have broken down in the interim. 

In June, the public works department boarded up a slide that needed repair.  

Seven months later, even the barricades are breaking down. 

Perhaps we should set our sights on a more achievable goal: repair the barricades.

The rubber matting in one location has now been worn down to the concrete slab beneath.   

A spinning item has broken off at the base creating a protruding pipe.  The city’s solution:  more traffic barricades. 

Personal injury lawyers smell blood in the water.

These days, when I ask Dean which playground he wants to go to, he refers to them based on the thing that’s broken.  The playground at Doyle and 59th streets:  “Broken Slide Park”

Perhaps I should appropriate the new language of empathy and inaction when responding to my son’s questions.

Dean:  Daddy, why is the slide still boarded up?  

Me:  Son, the city is working on the park assessment right now, is assessing grant opportunities, and is processing for this repair based on regulatory contracting requirements.  The city will coordinate with all relevant stakeholders and interested parties.  The slide will be repaired soon.  Their door is always open.  Have a wonderful day.  Take Care.

Or, maybe this new language is best appropriated in my practice of law.  If I fail to complete a task on time, why not replace candor with the new bureaucrat-speak (“nuisance deadline”)?  Will my client be any the wiser?

And what of the city manager’s “promised answers” (as indicated in her message of February 26, 2021)? 

 

Perhaps the leading lights down at city hall should seek funding opportunities to establish a new city motto.  I propose the following candidates:  Good things come to those who wait.  Or, Emeryville Public Works, Out of Order (temporarily).  Or, Don’t make the perfect the enemy of the slothful.  Or, How can I not help you?  Or, Fool you once, shame on you.  Fool you twice, shame on you.  Or, “Playground facilities assessment and budget is in the process of being prepared and scheduled based on funding.”  

Gentle readers, please contribute your own suggestions for a new motto.  The following will be rejected out of hand:  Ką darai, daryk blogai (what you do, do poorly).

John Fricke is a longtime Emeryville resident, father of three, husband, lawyer, as well as a former member of the Emeryville City Council.