Old article, but no wonder there were a lot of young people dying in the olden times.
Apparently there are still concrete slides for the kids? https://airlightmagazine.org/airlight/issue-4/the-concrete-slides-of-northern-california/
Thanks for talking about all this, I don’t think I realized how much our safety culture is around being able to afford to help them either. I agree, kids should be able to climb on things and explore. I love this one at the Seattle Center, https://seattlecenter.com/explore/attractions/artists-at-play
The other thing at play in America is that the insurance companies promote “safety” and won’t insure these playgrounds if they’re not. I know Americans have a reputation for coddling, but here in Seattle, that’s not really a thing. Probably because it’s a very wealthy city and is surrounded by a lot of nature that will/can kill you. Nature really doesn’t care about being safe.
