A nasty walk in the park

MAYOR MENINO has cultivated a reputation as a leader who pays as much attention to neighborhood tot lots as to downtown waterfront developments. But the deployment of Boston's park maintenance crews tells another story.

Recent tours by Globe reporters found drug paraphernalia, shards of glass, condoms, and other remnants of two-legged wildlife littering the city's play areas. The problem was especially acute in Roxbury, Dorchester, and South Boston, densely populated neighborhoods where public play areas provide children with a respite from cramped housing and dangerous streets.

Parks officials vigorously defend the work ethic of the roughly 70 men and women on the city's 17 maintenance crews. But it is harder to defend their work schedules. In all but the downtown area, the maintenance crews work Monday through Friday, from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. That means if someone trashes a tot lot in Mattapan or vandalizes playground equipment in Roslindale on a Friday night, the mess remains throughout the high-use weekend unless residents tackle the cleanup chores themselves.

The solution is readily visible in more posh parts of town. About half of the Parks Department's 11-member crew assigned to the downtown district works on a sensible Wednesday-through-Sunday schedule. Families and visitors in downtown Boston, Copley Square, the Back Bay's Commonwealth Mall, and Chinatown can have reasonable expectations that their children will find clean and safe places to play seven days a week. Families in the rest of Boston's neighborhoods deserve equal consideration.

Menino speaks proudly of his neighborhood roots. But uneven maintenance of the city's playgrounds is tearing at that image.