Where I’m from, the downtown is close to a river that’s more or less the reason for the town existing. In unsurprising city core fashion, there’s a small park on the water at the end of our Main Street, petering out on either side to shipping docks, rail yards, and other industrial accoutrements.
The park’s pretty average, as parks go, though for Windsor it’s nicer than pretty much every other park in town. When you go there, it’s obvious you’re in the nicer-than-average park that is for things like wedding pictures and press announcements from the Big 3. Flowers, hand-laid paving stones, fountains, benches. It’s nice. Nice enough, anyway.
One time, my best friend and I were both sitting in a bench, contemplating the Detroit skyline, as one does. That’s probably the true context of the park. Hey, look at Detroit! Looking at the Fisher Building, I realized right in front of us on the railing was a sign reading, No Fishing Allowed. It quoted a city ordinance for good measure.
When I pointed this out to my friend, I realized I was from the kind of place where in the nicest park in town, downtown in front of the nicest hotel, if you don’t tell people not to fish, they will.
Fishing looking at Detroit is probably pretty good, I’ll bet. Though I’ve seen the fish. Lumpy. It’s a factory town. If you’re trying to make it so the wedding and graduation pictures don’t have people cigarette dangling, elbows on the rail holding a fishing rod in the background, you have to put up a sign. People are just gonna. You have to actively to stop them.
I was thinking about that when I saw someone’s lawn here in Seattle with a pictogram of a dog defecating, and the words Be Respectful.
It struck me that if someone who doesn’t want dogs doing their business on their lawn, it’s a bit strange thing to make everyone walking by see this, pup or no pup.
I picture them staring out their window at the dog eternally, waiting for respect.