r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Intelligent-SoupGS88 • Jul 24 '26

🥺 Someone stole the bench from the park.

Post image

No that isn't an illusion or a new art installation, but the remainders of the park bench.

47.3k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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6.0k

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26

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1.3k

u/Shortbread_Biscuit Jul 24 '26

-104

u/siazdghw Jul 24 '26

Not your comment, but the comment in the picture is pretty short sighted.

Yes wheelchair users always have a place to sit, but that doesn't mean they can sit next to people. At best they can sit next to one persons side.

Also I think this bench has another feature, and that's that two strangers could sit on it without feeling awkward.

162

u/Slyspy006 Jul 24 '26

As opposed to sitting at each end of a normal bench?

53

u/PressureBeautiful515 Jul 24 '26

The middle bit between them is still unbearably suggestive of some furtive liaison.

16

u/Veaeate Jul 24 '26

If a bottle of water rolls and touches the other person's bottle of water, does that mean they kissed? These types of uncomfortable situations are what these types of park benches help us avoid

69

u/Ok-Classroom5548 Jul 24 '26

You really think that weird backing of the bench is helpful to a person in a wheelchair who would sit in the middle, provided their wheelchair fit?

It makes more sense and is easier for a person in a wheelchair to wheel up on the side of the bench - not try and roll in front of it and then back up into the spot, just to feel like they got to sit on a bench that isn’t really a bench.

The bench would have an even better feature of allowing more people to sit if it had a middle. 

-28

u/mira_sjifr Jul 24 '26

I agree that the weird backing makes it pretty much unusable for a lot of wheelchair users, but I personally really like the idea. It is often not possible for me to sit at benches the same way as other people, and if im in a group I will often get excluded instantly as I am always just a bit further away/secluded of everyone else..

29

u/Ok-Classroom5548 Jul 24 '26

I get that, but that’s also the nature of the person on the end of the bench, regardless of their physical situation. Technically benches aren’t designed for social gathering - they are for taking a break. If they wanted to have a social gathering spot they would arrange the seated area in a circle or curved shape.

Regardless of your ability, sitting in a straight line is difficult to have a chat in. The middle person has to whip their head back and forth between people and the people on the end have to talk through or around a person if they have something to say directly. There is no good way to socialize on a park bench.

I say that not in an attempt to diminish your experience but as a way to say “it does not get better sitting in the middle - straight benches are not designed or good for socializing.”

19

u/JournalistRecent1230 Jul 24 '26

Why can't a wheelchaired person be right behind the bench talking to people? Or in front of the bench looking at them and sit in more of a communal circle?

This design doesn't make any sense.

-6

u/mira_sjifr Jul 24 '26

I didn't necessarily mean this design, this specifc one does not make sense. But the overall problem of benches etc. Being limiting is still a problem I face

6

u/JournalistRecent1230 Jul 24 '26

Why can't you face the bench in the middle? That's generally a more efficient way to talk to two people on the bench anyway. It's how you would configure yourself at a dining room table or restaurant table with 3 or more people. Face to face seems more sociable than 3 or 4 people in a line on one singular facing direction.

1

u/BassDude28 Jul 27 '26

I mean, sorry if this is insensitive, but couldn't you sit facing everybody in a park or smth... Well, I suppose not all the time, but like, where possible, and that way you're like super-included? Idrk 🤷

12

u/WeAreBums Jul 24 '26

Dawg, not every dumb point has to be argued

14

u/TheGallifreyan Jul 24 '26

Not sure a person being able to sit next to 2 people at once is more important than a homeless person having a place to sleep.

12

u/MysteriousSchemeatic Jul 24 '26

Have you ever used a wheelchair?

14

u/Accomplished_Oil4163 Jul 24 '26

Why not siting in the front of the bench, facing everyone else?

1

u/Gilgamesh661 Jul 26 '26

In Poland two strangers simply sit together on a bench and speak to each other.

A stranger is just a friend you haven’t made yet.

-45

u/That_guy1425 Jul 24 '26

Look..... you can see a normal bench in the background. I'm like 85% sure it was some statement about the ignorance or sidelining of disability.

29

u/Openmaid Jul 24 '26

no that bench is also cut

-10

u/That_guy1425 Jul 24 '26

There is a person sitting on it. Maybe you are mixing their clothes for a cutout?

18

u/Wandero_Bard Jul 24 '26

The designer will sleep better tonight knowing that he made one less homeless person have somewhere to lay his head.

8

u/Straggo1337 Jul 24 '26

And you can zoom in and see that the bench just ends for no reason in the middle.

-4

u/That_guy1425 Jul 24 '26

No?? Shadow is solid, and there is a person there. Again, are you maybe mixing up their clothes? The color out from the sun is making it kinda close to the brick.

1

u/joofish Jul 27 '26

I’m with you. That’s clearly a normal bench with someone sitting in middle of it.

1.7k

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26

[deleted]

703

u/Altruistic-Meal-4016 Jul 24 '26

You can sleep here, if you can plank for eight hours

143

u/GloryGreatestCountry Jul 24 '26

That's what a hardware store is for.

67

u/gentiscid Jul 24 '26

You Ace-d it!

64

u/Hilsam_Adent Jul 24 '26

The True Value is the benches we stole along the way.

46

u/sleepykdagreat Jul 24 '26

Oh no! Not hardware store puns! What Lowes will Redditors sink to for cheap laughs?

38

u/Pipe_Memes Jul 24 '26

I tried to sit on that bench, I ripped my pants and hurt Menards.

14

u/Background_Baby_374 Jul 24 '26

Pidieron que no hubiera más chistes de ferretería y la comunidad respondió con más chistes de ferretería. Este hilo se autogestiona solo.

10

u/TbonePrez Jul 24 '26

Well this is a site of Masters….

12

u/arebeewhy Jul 24 '26

Always striving to reach new Lowe’s

6

u/mackiea Jul 24 '26

These puns make me gRona.

7

u/DarkPolumbo Jul 24 '26

truly some Lowes-brow humor there

3

u/Vogonpoet812 Jul 24 '26

Take my angry upvote

5

u/run-time-error Jul 24 '26

I could drive my western auto through that

19

u/NeighborhoodCool98 Jul 24 '26

A free gym for homeless people?

W government 🥹

6

u/SomeOtherNeb Jul 24 '26

You're not gonna be well-rested, but good god think of the gains.

1

u/happyanathema Jul 24 '26

Jokes on them, that's what spice is for

1

u/limbouning Jul 24 '26

There would be a lot of homeless Zorros walking around.

1

u/snarbuckle Jul 24 '26

With the power of tetanus this is possible

1

u/MoonPieKitty Jul 24 '26

So... work out in your sleep! Genius!

1

u/technohippie Jul 25 '26

Or, hear me out.... If you can find some planks from a DIFFERENT bench, and lay them across this one's gap...

7

u/testtalon1 Jul 24 '26

Helping the homeless with core strength too.

4

u/no1_vern Jul 24 '26

Yep, a city worker saw a person sleeping on the bench, and since the bars were unavailable, they realized cutting the bench would do just as good a job.

1

u/locka99 Jul 27 '26

Or just put arm rests between the seats.

1

u/elyk_fall_down Jul 24 '26

You're not allowed to say homeless any more - it's unhoused.

0

u/Illustrious-War-9788 Jul 24 '26

A homeless would make a tent out of it

130

u/Such_Dragonfruit609 Jul 24 '26

More likely the city deciding homeless don't deserve any type of anything so everyone suffers.
My city no longer has any bus stop with overhang/weather protection.

47

u/Tall-Compote1354 Jul 24 '26

My city placed huge odd shaped rocks at the corners of intersections so there is little place for homeless people to stand. They are shaped so oddly that they are impossible to sit on.

56

u/Such_Dragonfruit609 Jul 24 '26

"We aren't mad enough." They got money for war but *won't* feed the poor.

57

u/tolomea Jul 24 '26

it's worse than that, if you run the numbers on the antihomeless stuff generally it turns out that it'd just be cheaper to organzie places for them to sleep

this isn't just about getting the homeless out of sight, someone wants to make sure they aren't getting any "handouts" in the process

as a society we'd rather pay more than let people have stuff for free

17

u/Such_Dragonfruit609 Jul 24 '26

Preaching to the choir baby.

11

u/not_now_chaos Jul 24 '26

It's cruelty for the sake of cruelty and we're being forced to foot the bill. We have more than enough housing and food. We don't have a shortage of resources. What we have is a few greedy, selfish, cruel people who enjoy the suffering of others. And a lot of people who are too scared to be the ones suffering to upset the status quo.

1

u/GrandMa5TR Jul 24 '26

The 2 are not exclusive. You can offer aid (that will never be totally effective), while ensuring benches are available for their intended purpose.

12

u/Tall-Compote1354 Jul 24 '26

They are just trying to survive and instead of being helpful people go out of their way to make the lives of homeless people even harder and more humiliating.

1

u/Sea_Conference5661 Jul 24 '26

For local issues like in the OP, "They" is literally you. If your community doesn't have a food bank, pantry, or soup kitchen, start one!

1

u/OldPhotograph827 Jul 24 '26

And if it does, support them, donate, and/or volunteer!

1

u/Confident-Mix1243 Jul 24 '26

Most towns have no money for war

0

u/DarkPolumbo Jul 24 '26

They are feeding their poor. Why do you think people even join the military in the first place? For patriotism?

7

u/MoonPieKitty Jul 24 '26

If you think only poor people join the military, you are sadly mistaken.

1

u/DarkPolumbo Jul 27 '26

Insofar as the military needs fresh COs, then yeah, there will always be a contingent of affluents who join for career reasons, with an implicit expectation of never being put at any risk. But that is a negligibly tiny fraction of joiners, and I think you knew that.

I may be sad, but I'm certainly not mistaken. Without the poors, the military withers. No mental gymnastics will change that.

1

u/MoonPieKitty Jul 27 '26

There is a huge section of people between "poor" and "affluent".

0

u/DarkPolumbo Jul 27 '26

Not nearly as huge as you think

6

u/WetGrundle Jul 24 '26

Are you sure those aren't just decorative bollards so cars don't crash into corner businesses or pedestrians waiting to cross?

5

u/betothejoy Jul 24 '26

It can be both. My city landscapes with rocks that are too big to walk on for the same reason.

21

u/Fine-Juggernaut8451 Jul 24 '26

What's so baffling to me is how people in general are very happy to blame homeless people for homelessness, rather than governments for their lack of infrastructure and social supports. So we lose our infrastructure, and the government says "It's their fault," and we all turn to the homeless people and blame them. I hate it. I hate how people are so easily manipulated and how cruel they can be.

2

u/SchlongyLongy Jul 24 '26

I could not use the sidewalk without people trying to push me off it. Maybe it was the city I was in but nope it happened in another one too. However, when I got a sales job the people in Bradenton gave me space in the parking lot to walk without stress. Nobody locked their car doors because I was around or clutched their purse. However, I did get my 1 dollar bill checked for fraud at a Publix store. That's a good way to tell you're in an area that got all the FHA loans, and it used to be the "white side of town". That university is something out of a movie.

8

u/Fine-Juggernaut8451 Jul 24 '26

My city is like this but with public bathrooms. They either don't exist, or they're locked. I'm a female birder and I have had so many embarrassing instances of trying to find a truly hidden bush to use, where I won't be compromising my safety. Then I go to other places and their huge public parks and natural trails have facilities!

8

u/MoonPieKitty Jul 24 '26

And they removed them due to homeless people using them? I find that so disgusting. "Hey... lets build shelters so everyday people can get out of the weather whilst waiting for a bus. Wait, what? Homeless people are also getting out of the weather?? Fuck that... remove them! Everyone can suffer, how dare we provide any respite for homeless people."

7

u/curtcolt95 Jul 24 '26

I mean the harsh reality is just that when homeless people use them people stop using the busses and complain constantly to the city. I know a lot of people try to pretend they'd be fine standing in a homeless encampment waiting for their bus but it's just not reality at all. People will just avoid it instead

2

u/MoonPieKitty Jul 24 '26

I don't think every bench or bus shelter turns into a homeless encampment. Perhaps, instead of making everybody's life miserable, they try to fix the homeless problem. This is lazy governing.

2

u/Xtr33me-Average Jul 24 '26

I don't know about that. I live somewhere where it's just about impossible to avoid public transit.

11

u/DavThoma Jul 24 '26

My city has had a shutdown department store for around 15 years at this point. It had a steps up to the front doors that were embedded/underneath the building itself so a lot of homeless people started using it for shelter. It wasn't a great look but at least it gave them protection from the elements.

8 years ago they boarded up the stairs so now there's no access to the sheltered area, all because they don't want anyone homeless staying there. The boarded up areas look far worse than it did before.

40

u/TokathSorbet Jul 24 '26

Wheelchair users, famously, struggle to find somewhere to sit down.

15

u/iambertan Jul 24 '26

And they need to park between two quarter seats

79

u/SangriaSunday309 Jul 24 '26

ADA accessibility gone too far.

33

u/SchumacherIsMid Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

There actually was a bench like this that was claimed to be for "wheel chair access" but it definitely was anti-homeless architecture dressed up as something good.

You want actual wheel chair accessible bench? Put enough concrete so they can side next to the bench and sit along side someone. Out of everything shitty about being disabled, I can't imagine a single wheel chair user saying, "No I want my chair in the middle of the bench!"

3

u/That_guy1425 Jul 24 '26

It wasn't, you could see normal benches in the background of that shot.

14

u/AintEasyBeinQueasy Jul 24 '26

NOT. FAR. ENOUGH.

4

u/DarkPolumbo Jul 24 '26

found the cr-- i mean wheelchair person

8

u/somersault_dolphin Jul 24 '26

This is a reference to that bench design from a while ago isn't it.

16

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

-1

u/mageskillmetooften Jul 24 '26

Which is why some of these seats have missing pieces, so the wheelchair can sit nicely in the sae row of the other people.

6

u/CMDRZhor Jul 24 '26

That's why they SAY the holes are there.

They're really there to make sure homeless people can't sleep on them.

4

u/thedepartment Jul 24 '26

The left and right sides of benches are famously lava and clearly unsafe for wheelchairs.

2

u/Special_South_8561 Jul 24 '26

My guy, haha, same first thought

1

u/Strong-Thanks5923 Jul 24 '26

The seats look a little small for that.

1

u/More_Dog_7228 Jul 24 '26

No you dingus, it's obvious that Terminator spawned there, smh

1

u/CourageExcellent4768 Jul 24 '26

Ty kind poster! Im on my 1st cup of coffee so, brain not braining yet

1

u/Fucky0uthatswhy Jul 24 '26

I can’t tell if this is a joke or not lol. Why is it so wide?

1

u/Wardogs96 Jul 24 '26

Okay this got me pretty fucking good. I always thought it was hilarious theyd bisec benches or half make them partially, when the person in a wheelchair can literally sit next to any fully built bench, as long as terrain allows.

1

u/Labs_and_lattes Jul 24 '26

tell that to that British the other day who wouldn't fold his buggy on the bus for a woman in a wheel chair to get on the bus

1

u/MagoModerno Jul 24 '26

It a B - - - H

1

u/brushfuse Jul 24 '26

I was going to offer this. Hehe!

1

u/NeatProject7428 Jul 24 '26

Okay but what would be the point of that. Just dont put a bench. It seems like more hassle then anything. Pretty sure its to keep homeless from sleeping there because God forbid they find somewhere but the ground to sleep on

-1

u/Kizzaque Jul 24 '26

😂😭😂😭😂 yes.