hen first opened to the public in 2006, it was covered with a top layer of pure white sand reminiscent of a desolate beach somewhere in central Vietnam. Four years later, the white sand has turned grey and some of the equipment has been broken down. Despite the degradation, that public playground under the foliage of Tao Dan Park remained a favorite place for toddlers and young children in the neighborhood.
At the time, Lever Vietnam under Unilever Vietnam offered to build a children’s playground at Tao Dan Park at its own expense. After the construction, the playground would be transferred to the park’s authorities. The initiative was embraced by both the then Department of Communications and Transport, to which Tao Dan Park was an affiliate, and the Department of Culture and Information. Not long afterward, on the left side of Truong Dinh Street toward the gate to Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street emerged a beautiful playground, one of the best in town even by today’s standards.
Ever since, every week, especially on the weekend, hundreds of children accompanied by their parents flocked to the playground to frolic, play seek-and-hide, tease and do whatever they want to please themselves.
But on Friday September 29, when children and parents arrived, they were unexpectedly denied access to their favorite playground. In line with a petition of the Police of District 1, the site was shut down. According to local police sources, since its inauguration in 2006, 10 incidents caused by hoodlums had taken place on site, four of which had been handled as criminal offenses. In response, authorities from the HCM City Department of Transportation (the successor of the Department of Communications and Transport) sent an urgent letter to the Company of Parks and Green Trees which manages Tao Dan Park to instruct the latter to temporarily close the playground at the request of the district police.
Covered by the local press, the closure of the playground soon provoked a public outcry. Speaking to Thanh Nien (Young Adults) newspaper on September 30, six days after the shutdown, Nguyen Van Minh, vice chairman of the Cultural-Social Committee of the HCM City People’s Council, said, “The decision made by the Department of Transportation to close the children’s playground at Tao Dan Park isn’t a good one because at this moment we should commit more investment so that we can have many other similar playgrounds.”
What Minh said can be cross-referred to the current situation of Vietnamese children. Recent statistics show that the rate of crime among Vietnamese teenagers is on the rise. Also, the percentage of psychological disorders among Vietnamese children is high, at 22% as polls have indicated. The same rate is between 11% and 13% in Japan and the United States, and is 11% in China.
Some local experts have pointed the finger of suspicion at a lack of healthy playgrounds for children as a cause to the high rate of crime among young citizens. Fortunately, this time, the municipal authorities have taken side with the children. In mid-October, the HCM City People’s Council hosted a meeting to discuss specially to tackle the issue. “The city government has not only reversed the decision to close the playground but also committed to expanding the site,” Hua Ngoc Thuan, vice mayor of HCM City told delegates at the meeting. Three weeks following the closure of the children’s playground at Tao Dan Park, it was opened to the public again.
HCM City is the official residence of some 1.7 million children and adolescents. But speakers at the meeting agreed that good facilities—for instance children’s playgrounds—catering to their recreational need remain too modest. District 4 is currently the only district to have a public children’s playground of scale where children can engage in physical or mental games free of charge. On a total area of 14,000 square meters, the Khanh Hoi Park in District 4 has attracted thousands of visitors a week, offering them about 20 outdoor and indoor games. Guests to the children’s park are not only residents of District 4 but also those from other quarters. And the downside: Commissioned in 2009, Khanh Hoi Park is now overloaded with visitors.
While a lack of space can be used as a pretext for inadequate children’s playgrounds, sections of green parks are currently used for other purposes. For instance, 400 square meters of Tao Dan Park has been leased to a restaurant and the reclamation of this area has been discussed for 18 years through several terms of city leaders to no avail, reported Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.
Vice mayor Hua Ngoc Thuan has asked related authorities to finalize land leasing contracts at public parks so that more space can be used for children’s recreational facilities. Authorities have pledged to build 10 children’s playgrounds at parks across the city.
In the immediate future, four children’s playgrounds will be built or expanded in four parks. At Tao Dan Park, a playground will be built on 1,200 square meters part of which is reclaimed from a restaurant. On the site, physical games will be available in addition to fun brain games plus a library.
Meanwhile, the existing children playground at Le Van Tam Park will be expanded and several free games added. Similarly, at Hai Muoi Ba Thang Chin Park, the 2,500-square-meter water music area will be built into a water puppet stage for children. Gia Dinh Park’s current 4,000-square-meter playground is likely to be broadened to 10,000 square meters where children’s physical games, sports and other recreational activities are all available.
