Friday, January 17, 2025

Maddy's Guide to Playgrounds in Burlington - Regan Park

Basics:

Date of visit: September 2nd, 2024

Where can I find it? Hiding at the end of Sumpter Road.

Bathrooms? 1 standard port-a-potty

Parking? Plenty

When open? Daylight hours.

Review:

Regan Park is a playground designed around the idea of, "There is a lot of space available here, and we want to keep it that way!" It is a setup that emphasizes openness and provides an opportunity for parents and kids to inhabit their own spheres of influence and minimize potential frictions. 
These are the time out swings


 Aside from the solitary swing set, the rest of the playgrounds structures are densely consolidated in a single patch of ground padding, with lots of open space around it for children to run, for parents to talk out of earshot, or for parents to chase down children who don't want to leave just yet.
Same place as previous photo, just 180 degrees. As you can see, it is pretty easy to take in.

The playground structure itself is a clever piece, with plenty of creative challenges for children to test their balance, and parents to test their anxiety attacks. 
The blue climbing piece to the right is a regular 4-dimensional chess set
My brother could navigate the platforms to the left. I could not. Thankfully, the padding below is soft.

Sadly, the park presented yet another one of those chicken fighting pens. I have expressed my grievances to my father, who strangely resists bringing them up at town hall. It makes me wonder where his allegiances truly lie!
It is NOT a finger licking good time!

The most unique aspect of Regan Park is its spider web. Unlike the black widow mesh of Rahanis, this utilizes a more conventional orb web like that of a corn spider. As a structure, it is interesting enough to climb upon, but it also generates one of the more interesting challenges to parents with kids who do not want to leave. It is sufficiently large that you can reach through and grab a child who is running away, but not large enough to pull the child through. It is also big enough that you cannot simply reach around, meaning the parent must let go, and continue chasing around and around. The game is lost if there are two parents, so children take heed of your strategy in advance!
Look at me, dad! I'm a Argiope aurantia!

As a mainstay playground, Regan park's options are sadly limited. But, it does make for a nice change of pace, especially if one has a lot of energy to burn in a game of keep away. I give Regan Park 4 spider webs. 



Madelyn Hope Lewis is the senior playground tester of Lewis Developments, and a connoisseur of playtime activities. When she's not exploring Massachusetts fun time architecture, she can be found scouting out where is exactly "the line" with her parents. 

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Maddy's Guide to Playgrounds in Burlington - Fox Hill

 



Basics:

Date of visit: June 8th, 2024

Where can I find it? Behind the school.

Bathrooms? nope

Parking? Plenty

When open? Weekends or when school is not in session. 

Review:

A tale of two playgrounds. It was the best of slides, it was the worst of slides. In a world that argues for unification, this playground sits in strong contrast! The two setups sit on either side of a large expanse of concrete, the purposes of which evade me. My father says it is for playing basketball and hopscotch, but I think we all know by now how unreliable a narrator he can be!
This system clearly believes in separating the haves and have nots. Those that have a signifcant number of inches in their height, 
Look at these foot holds. I practically have to bend myself in half to reach them!


How is a 3 year old supposed to master this!?

and those that do not!
This is more my speed, but I'll never admit it.

What are they afraid of? That the small ones running around will trip up and injure the big kids? Are they so fragile that a small child knocking them over will bring them to tears? Maybe they should be tripped up! A scratched up knee never hurt anyone? Well, except for the one who scratched up there knee. I did that once, and it hurt a lot. But I think my point stands!
Architecturally, there is not much to the setup that makes it stand out. One of the greater points of creativity I've seen in these systems come from the designers of the hand holds for climbing, and here I am not dissapointed. 
They're like little faces, both smiling at me and piercing my soul.
Conversely, the slide designers have mostly given up and resorted to clever wordplay.
A play on a short range air to air missile used by the US Airforce since 1956
All in all, Fox Hill presented a fun, if conflicted time. 
I give it 4 Charles Dickens covers:
Madelyn Hope Lewis is the senior playground tester of Lewis Developments, and a connoisseur of playtime activities. When she's not exploring Massachusetts fun time architecture, she can be found scouting out where is exactly "the line" with her parents.