sunset is before 7PM, that's when heritage park is scheduled to close everyday. there is an ongoing epidemic of depression, obesity, and people who work from morning to evening.
Attending a park is proven to help reduce obesity and depression, see medical journals. Keeping parks open later is a great alternative instead of getting addicted to opiods and other drugs or becoming fatter or unhealthier or particpating in car street racing. The park has plenty fo space for physical exercise, and the current laws stipulate that no citizen is guaranteed the right to do that exercise in any other place, other than the limited sidwalks, which are often too close to the street and unregulated for walking and have little space to replicate a park like experience. Every other place is private property, which the property owners have no guarantee to allow anyone to enter. Most of these properties are either residential or commercial, commercial properties do not want people entering their property for purposes other than spending money, and even still, they have many rules which prohibit replicating any park like experience. ie: at mcdonalds, you can buy a sandwich and can sit for 30 minutes. You can only sit, you can't stand, you can't do pilates, you can't look at nature or a poster on the wall. Your existance is only tolerated according to the judgement of the property owner, or the residing manager. In this example, you are allowed to exercise your mouth muscles to chew your cheeseburger, sit your buttocks in their designated seating area and particpate in eating related activities. In a park, you can do all this, but more. The difference is quite striking. Working people deserve to use the park too, and where can they go when it closes 20 minutes after their work shift is done? What about all the poor dogs and cats of these owners, should they stay locked up in their kennel because the city of chattanooga cannot fathom to keep their park open an extra 3 hours? If we pay property taxes, is it our park too? There are many more parks in the city of chattanoga that are also closed before 7PM. In addition, keeping them open longer will help traffic congestion, as people entering and leaving the park will have more time to do so.
thank you,have a nice day.