So, we got 8-10 inches of snow in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Virginia USA area on Saturday. This is a rare occurence for this area. The kids were out of school on Monday, and even the military bases were closed :-). So what does a good father who has a snow day with his 8 year old son do? We pack up our boogie boards (suitable substitute for a sled), and head over to the only hill within 20 miles of here, Mount Trashmore in Virginia Beach. It is an old trash dump that was covered over and turned into a city park. We get there, and the place is closed. Why? Because a couple of years ago, someone got hurt sledding on the hill, and sued the city. So he city banned sledding on the only hill that people know about. Luckily, my wife saw a piece on the local news about sledding on the embankment of a highway overpass. So we went there, and it was okay, but much more crowded and a much smaller hill with a smaller runoff area than Mount Trashmore. We had fun, but not nearly as much as we would have had there. So fuck you, whoever sued the city of Virginia Beach, you screwed up, and now all the kids of the area are screwed over because of you!
Awwww, man that sucks.
Mt. Trashmore is a GREAT place to go sledding back in the ol’ days. Hell, it’s fun to go sledding on it when there’s no snow even. You just take some trash can lids or such and go flying down that hill…
Just out of curiosity I googled “Mount Trashmore sledding” and found this article: http://hamptonroads.com/2008/01/snow-tradition-mount-trashmore-slides-oblivion
I’m not against a good pitting but yours seems to have rather minimized the dangers associated with sledding on that particular hill - after one snow in 1996 there were 20 injuries, 13 hospitalizations and two surgeries. The two-year-old that prompted the lawsuit had a ruptured spleen and kidney damage.
Also, sledding was stopped 10 years ago so this seems a rather belated pitting.
If something in that article is inaccurate please let me know. If it’s not then, I’m sorry, this isn’t really a pitting I can get behind.
I stand by my pitting. As the article says, the North side ( has a parking lot at the bottom), and the west side (has a picnic area at the bottom, are dangerous as hell. Anyone who lets their kids sled down those slopes is wrong. The Northeast side, is a long gentle slope with a wide runoff area. With no fences. I was brought up that when you do risky things, you take responsibility for the risk. Yes sledding is dangerous. There is a possibility of injury on any hill, in any condition. But blaming the city for your kid not knowing how to stop on a sled is not necessary, IMHO, and just teaches people to be not responsible.
I’m with you! Life is all about taking responsibility for your choices.
Being in Northern Virginia, we’ve got plenty of hills, but I’ve driven past Trashmore a few times. I’m with you. You can’t protect everyone from themselves, all the time, without sucking the fun out of life.
Let people make their own decisions.
That’s very conservative of you.
Fair enough - like I said I just posted the article to provide some background and context to the pitting.
And I agree that folks should be allowed to sled wherever they want, on private property. But this is a public park (right?). I guess I don’t see a problem with the park department regulating activities in a park (that’s sort of their job…). Also notice that the request to close came from the hospital emergency rooms, not the legal department.
I thought conservatives were for abstinence-only.
Right on!
Let’s do away with food and restaurant inspectors too! Damn government bureaucrats stealing my tax dollars and telling me where I can or can’t eat!
Let people make their own decisions about whether a place serving food is a public health hazard!
Let’s hear it for personal responsibility!
Don’t be a dumbass.
Not everything’s a slippery slope.
Just Mount Trashmore, which is why they closed it.
Actually, nothing innaccurate in the article, just your synopsis. It was a 12 year old, not a 2 year old.
And I only moved here 2 years ago, from Maine, where you can sled anywhere
Wait wait wait.
So this place is really called Mt. Trashmore?
That’s awesome.
:smack: Reading for comprehension fails me again!
But anywhere? I’m pretty sure around here you are free to sled in public parks, but if there were one where over a dozen folks got injured it would be stopped immediately, lawsuits or no.
Yes, but remember, my pitting was for the person who sued, not the city for closing the park.
You know where everyone sleds now? The embankment on the side of an offramp. Oh, and Mt Trashmore (yes that is really what it is called) now has a full sized skateboard park, complete with full sized half-pipe. But its too dangerous to sled on the hill.:smack:
Libertarian
not a dumbass, but he is an ass. Usually.
Acts that way in lieu of any ammo for the argument.
I accept your compliment graciously, and I’d like to thank all those dumber and more ass-ier than me.
In terms of argument…
How about:
A public entity like a city park service has a duty to provide safe conditions for the public. If conditions are demonstrably not safe, (eg, many in the past have suffered injury during similar conditions) then the entity has a duty to warn the public about the dangerous conditions. (eg. snow on a steep slope)
If the warning is not sufficient, and people continue to use the area despite the posted warning, then the entity has a duty to do more to prevent the public from using the area with dangerous conditions (eg shut down sledding on the hill).
You may consider this to be “nanny-stateish”, but others can reasonably conclude that the parks personell are fulfilling their duty to the public to provide them with a safe area.
When sled riding is illegal only criminals will have sleds!