I made a quick dash into NYC last night to see my friend David in a play. Before curtain, I walked through Union Square Park and encountered this sign.
Here’s the thing…
Aren’t most team sports active? I guess they wanted to make clear that team sitting is also not allowed.
And the last time I checked, “dogs” was a subset of “pets.”
I guess they just wanted to be extra clear.
Yes, but what time do they close? They didn’t see the need to be clear on that?
Pretty actively hostile, eh?
How was the play? What was the play?
Maybe the sign only comes in one size and the sign makers didn’t want to leave a bunch of blank space, but they couldn’t think of any more rules, so they opted for redundancy. I love Union Square anyway–especially the farmer’s market.
See, the best part of that sign is that it’s called a ‘Passive Lawn’. Maybe the NYC Parks and Rec department felt bad that this lawn wouldn’t stand up for itself against the active team sports-playing people and the dogs and pets of NYC, so they felt obliged to protect it.
I think that they wanted stray dogs, who are no one’s pets, to understand that they are not welcome here. If I were a dog, it would be clear to me that this park is not for me, regardless of whether I have an owner or not.
(sigh)
That’s just classic. Absolutely textbook passive-aggressive lawn behavior. Next, it’s going to leave sullen little memos around complaining about feeling walked on and treated like something underfoot.