They’re an abomination. My city’s parks department is so underfunded that they no longer provide pizza parties for staff or portapotties in parks with otherwise closed bathrooms. A small fraction of the employees have health insurance while the rest haven’t seen a raise since 2020 and make less than fast food workers. Last year they spent $30k on the 4th of July fireworks. They set them off in a bird sanctuary above the protected nesting grounds. It was a terrible 15 minute show which terrified all the pets and wildlife in the city, a complete letdown compared to driving an hour for a larger city’s fireworks. Despite there being one centralised mediocre show, every hog in the city spent the weeks before/after doing their own backyard shows that they drove an hour to buy the illegal fireworks for.

All of this happens during the height of fire season above dry grasslands and dead forests. It repeats for New Years Eve when our most expensive wildfire, which wiped out a town between two of the largest cities, occurred on 30 December. This winter it has snowed once, the latest first snow in history, and they spent the night terrifying my dog while under a fire ban. It’s the most antisocial thing someone could do outside of driving a cybertruck or randomly firing a gun in the air.