I ride past a few parks every day. They all look the same. The swings are tied up with caution tape and the parks are blocked off.

A single mom and her little boy live in the apartment above me. He’s young, maybe first grade? It’s hard to guess because he’s so spry and hard to catch a glance at him. He runs back and forth all day long and jumps from the furniture. Sometimes he branches out to the elevator and sprints up and down the hallways of all the floors. These are not long hallways; on 2 units deep. One time I watched the mom go outside to put trash in the dumpster. The boy yelled from the balcony, “Mom! Mom! Mom! Look at me!” The mother, clearly embarrassed and worried, hushed him and told him to go inside. More than annoyed (and it is annoying to hear all this thumping!) my heart breaks for this child. Kids can’t go to school and they can’t play outside.