My alma mater.

Very cool, Jack. I just voted.

Hope the kids get the money and more exercise.

My elementary school as well. Please vote!

Bow down and kiss the ring of the corporatocracy. Our heroes! Oh how magnanimous they are, deigning to offer the mere chance to do in one place what used to be done everywhere with the tax dollars they used to pay. Cue the violins (oh wait, the schools no longer have music classes, HARK! the next PR opportunity awaits.).

I'm mixed up. Capitol Hill, my neighborhood school, just a few years ago got a covered playground area that they conveniently left out of the video except for one long-distance glance. Isn't that what the PPS Bond is promising-new covered playareas?

Then, when I was a kid we just had grass, a softball backstop, a few basketball nets, and frogs in the back field. We were told we were deprived because we didn't have a large paved play area for kickball and all, just like what Capitol Hill has now. How were we to stay out of the wet grass field, keep our hands and clothes dry and all, we were told? Our grade school produced more HS valedictorians than any other feeder schools.

I'm now confused too. It seems there's a new, contrary story about every twenty years that we need to do that, or this, or not that. It couldn't be to tax us more, or to think administration is doing something, could it?

You guys are bitching about a corporation giving away $15,000 to each of five schools? Really?

As my dad used to say, you would complain about the taste of bread in a s7!t sandwich.

I like it the way it is.

Looks low maintenance to me. A streetcar would be exciting viability and sustainable growth.

Mister Tee, I'm not "bitching". I pointed out that Capitol's paved playground was the de jour of the decade when it's lawn was paved over.

You'll have "bitching" from some when their kids come home with grass stains, playground shin scraps, and dirty, wet shoes and clothes. Some schools are raising money right now to make spaces just like Capitol has. Credit for Dr. Pepper trying to help schools, but is Capitol the best choice-here or any other city in the running?

Ha ha, dance for your corporate masters, dance, dance I say!

If you spent the same time helping out as you did typing comments here, the kids would get the $15,000. Free money for a few clicks?

I don't see it as "dancing for corporate masters." Nike did the video work for free: should we condemn them too?

For the record, Capitol Hill didn't start out looking for publicity or large grants. We simply were asking our community of Capitol Hill parents to donate at the school auction, for which the video was created, to improve the playground for our kids--not unlike many other schools. We later discovered this video contest and decided to throw our hat into the ring since we had a video to submit and it happened to coincide with our objective. We were one of 10 finalists out of 118 submissions.

Together KaBoom and Dr. Pepper/Snapple are building or improving upon 2,000 playgrounds nationwide benefiting 5 million children by 2013 (so yes, I think Capitol Hill qualifies as one of the "best schools" on something of this scope, based on our own intiative, and with a contest that was open to the entire nation.) I suggest you check out the link at http://projects.kaboom.org/ and educate yourself before before you question whether or not Capitol Hill is "deserving." Also, if you delve into the bond details, Capitol Hill was not slated as a beneficiary to receive any funding for playground improvements had the bond passed. In fact, it's maddening to think about funding artificial turf fields at the high school level when we can't even afford to educate our children.

And last but not least, there will be no "bitching" about grass stains because we are not asking for grass. Perhaps when you were busy playing and getting grass stains, you didn't realize that the "new and improved, highly desirable" concrete created stormwater/drain issues. It's not everyday that an opportunity arises to get something for nothing without even spending a dime or adding yet another riduculous tax to Multnomah County homeowners. So I thank this "big corporation" for it's generous grant and the 6,757 votes we received in support of our project.