Gate Closes on a Favorite Pleasure

I am a senior citizen and life has its pleasures, changes, adaptations, and disappointments. I am currently adapting to a disappointment. A pleasure has been removed and it hurts. I have been locked out of the pleasure of the use of Riverdale Park.

To my dismay, I found the gate to the park from the Santa Ana River Bike Trail wired shut; just two days ago the park was accessible, and has been for several years. I cannot break up my ride with a rest in the park, get a drink, use the restroom, observe children playing or watch a ballgame. Just some small pleasures of life. The gate to the park has been permanently wired shut. I no longer have access to it.

Yes, the need for graffiti “artists” to express themselves has changed my small pleasures. They have to have their pleasures too, the pleasure of defacing property. They need to have the joy of spraying paint on business buildings, residence fences, concrete structures of the flood control channel, even some tree trunks. They need to express themselves at the expense of others; it is important.

The cost to the county to try to keep the graffiti removed, and the price of barring access to the bike trail, and removing a senior citizen’s small pleasure of enjoying the park has brought about this necessary change. One does have to adapt to change. I am grieving my loss; I wonder if they are?

VIRGINIA PAULL

Orange