Our nanny state minders can't bare the thought of children enjoying a timeless winter pastime: sledding. So in order to protect us from ourselves, many cities and counties are banning sledding in public parks. From ABC News:
No one tracks how many cities have banned or limited sledding, but the list grows every year. One of the latest is in Dubuque, Iowa, where the City Council is moving ahead with a plan to ban sledding in all but two of its 50 parks.
"We have all kinds of parks that have hills on them," said Marie Ware, Dubuque's leisure services manager. "We can't manage the risk at all of those places."
Much of the push to ban sledding comes from the fact that cities across the country have had to pay out million dollar settlements to individuals injured sledding in public parks. Seems like this is also an extreme and that perhaps individuals should be held responsible for their own actions, even if they result in an injury. But, surely there is a happy medium between banning sledding and forcing cities to be liable for individuals injuring themselves in public parks?
Also, a quick side note: what exactly is a leisure services manager and why are Dubuque taxpayers paying for one?
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