Finding Anthems: Stadiums
Our final issue of the year will highlight stadiums………. The biggest social space where masses of people can meet and picnic, since in my neighbourhood/town there is no public park. The festive season as the name suggests is filled with gatherings, right from the basic unit of the society, which is family to its smallest unit of functionality, the neighbourhood.
A recap of growing up in the 90’s and the early 2000s meant having unique fun during the holiday season. For that, a communal space was designated for this kind of fun, where entrepreneurs would make some bucks by providing activities such as camel and horse rides, merry go rounds, face paints, snack bars among others, and parents of this era were obligated to save up for this kind of indulgence for their children. The communal space was ‘common’, so children from all parts of the town would gather up and mingle. Then came the stadium which was constructed in 2010, all new things including buildings are shiny, the stadium was the ‘it’ during its early shiny days. Apart from offering sporty activities for the towns’ residents, it was a picnic site for most families during the school holidays and the ambience was cheerful as decorations popped on the lone dusty road where it is located. The stadium sparked the tarmacking of this dusty road, attracted more investors into the town, employed casual laborers. The stadium was a magnet, to say the very least.
As usual, the unexpected happens, it always does. The rain poured, and found the perfect spot to flood, the stadium. This was the start of the endless predicaments the stadium would face, the pomp and colour faded, it was no longer a gathering spot, initiatives to make it attractive and return to its former glory stopped, so as it is, just an empty faded open space. Plans were once underway to scrap it off and make the stadium the town’s market centre, gladly, the plans did not push through, maybe because of its terrain and its susceptibility to flooding. The stadium is a sure mark of the town’s revolution, more like its monument. A once glorious landmark, reduced to shrubs. Its reign will surely return, that is my planning perspective. Explore more of our perspectives here.
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Happy holidays and end of year, we shall keep singing anthems.