What to do with Piñatas in City Parks?

 “I was a little hesitant to encourage the use of piñatas just because of memories from childhood of trying to dodge swinging poles and bats, but I’m in favor of this today,” said Carl White, City of San Angelo Parks and Recreation Director, on Thursday afternoon at the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board meeting. “As many of you know, piñatas are often used at birthday parties. Currently, piñatas are being used in our parks, and being tied to trees,” he said as he flashed through a PowerPoint presentation that showcased images of children breaking open piñatas as mounds of candy fell to the ground.

 At the present, the city parks do not have a designated area or hanging tree for piñata use, so making a piñata hanging platform, naturally, is the next best solution to the problem.

“There is no prohibition on piñata use, in my opinion a prohibition would be seen as negative. Our proposal is to create a [platform] to facilitate the use at Kid’s Kingdom on a trial basis,” White said.

When someone wants to use the pavilion at a city park for an event, such as a birthday party, you have to reserve it. If bounce houses are used, the city asks the name of the company and checks to make sure that company carries the proper insurance, and the host of the party signs a disclosure that describes the dos and dont's of bounce house fun in the park. Under White’s new polic,y the same would be done for piñata use.

With an aerial view map of Kid’s Kingdom, White pointed to some spots he felt would be ideal and safe areas for beating a paper mache likeness of a cartoon character with a bat until it bleeds candy. While there are several trees that could be used for responsible piñata hanging, White feels creating a special hanging platform is appropriate.

“I know I’m not a great artist but this is basically the concept,” White said as he displayed a rendering of the proposed piñata platform which strongly resembled hanging gallows.

“It’s a post with an arm that comes out that either has a hoist or pulley or just a hook. Somebody would have to bring the piñata and the rope; we wouldn’t leave the rope there,” he said. “You could use the pulley with the piñata or tether it to the cleats.”

White also suggested the piñata platform be made a work of art in the form of something different.

“We would have to get the public art commission to weigh in on that, but this could be a dragon or a flamingo or it could be something abstract but tasteful. It could be a work of art with [utilitarian] purpose.”

White asked for consideration to try it out at Kid’s Kingdom.

“I Googled this to see if anybody else was doing this, I could not find that anybody else was doing this, so we may be one of the first to facilitate these and it’s hard to imagine it’s not out there but I couldn’t find it.”

There was concern among the board members about piñata remains being left behind in the park as well as provisions for providing shade in the piñata hanging area.

 White suggested that maybe people partaking in piñata time would be required to put a drop cloth of sorts over the soft rubber coated concrete platform above which the piñata would swing, so as to catch the candy-filled insides as they spill out with one swift jackpot swing of the bat.

“That might be a way to help alleviate the litter,” White said. “It would be difficult to enforce, but I like to give folks the idea and we try it.”

The problem at Kid’s Kingdom seems to be that the trees are close to the walking paths or the street making those spaces hazardous when it comes to constructing the size platform White has described up to this point.

Another suggestion from the board was simply adding a hook in the pavilion, which would be much more inexpensive, but concern for others being injured in that space arose and killed that idea.

“We want to be pro-piñata,” White said. “If you would recommend with facilitating the use of piñatas here at Kid’s Kingdom Park on a trial basis.”

A motion and a second was made on White’s proposal, and just before the board approved it with a unanimous decision, a voice rose from the handful of people in attendance.

 “I’m Wendy Medina with the MPO,” she said as she stood at the podium. “The artist could design something like a clown or something that has a parasol or umbrella to be able to handle the shade so then you wouldn’t have to worry about having it too close to the road.”

Why build piñata platforms?

“Piñatas are happening in the parks, we don’t really help facilitate that,” White told LIVE! Friday morning. “We help facilitate picnics in the park by having tables and barbeque grills and pavilions but other activities that are commonly done, like piñatas; we don’t have a way to facilitate that. It’s been going on for years and so people argue the trees, it’s not necessarily help save the trees—but that may be a little part of it. But it’s really just recognizing the fact that piñatas are being used and we want to see if we can help facilitate the use.”

White estimates that the project will run at under $500. “It depends on if there is any kind of artwork done. I would like to present it to the public art commission and see what their thoughts are on it,” he said. “My first thought was to try to incorporate it where there would be some shade instead of having to incorporate it with the post. That could be costly and might involve some engineering, which is not favorable, but not out of the realm of possibility, we really don’t know yet.”

White also said that before proceeding with the project he will be reaching out to families who do use piñatas in the parks and consult with them on what would work best. One can imagine that White’s best consultants may be those same bat and pole swinging kids he used to dodge as a kid as they took blindfolded swings at a piñata hanging from the sturdy branch of a shade tree in the soft grass.