From playground to junkie central...

Do You ever wonder about mysterious ways of this world? I do. 

Today I was reminded about one of my favorite places in the world when I was a kid. It's not like I had forgotten about it, in fact I walk by it almost every day. It's this place just around the corner from my house.
It's supposed to be a bend in a road and a small parking space for this God forgotten city water maintenance building or something. The road has never been used a lot.
Years ago me and my friends used to play this ball game where you have this big square court divided in four squares. Each player has his own square and the goal of the game is to hit as many points as possible in someone else's square. We used to use chalk to draw our court wherever we wanted to play. Soon enough we started to use the bend on the road all the time 'cause of it's location and the fact that it was safe with no cars and not that many people would pass by. Time passed and we started to grow tired of having to draw our court after every rain that came and washed it away. We decided to make it permanent. We went home and everyone got what they could. Some paint, brushes, ruler or anything else we thought we might need. Couple of hours later we had our court. If before we used to switch our little squares than now each of us had our own - marked with our nicknames for everyone to see. No more chalk or worries that it will get washed away.
Needless to say from that day one we spent our every waking hour there. Kicking ball around, laughing, growing up.
It was our spot, our playground.
What about now?!
Our court has faded over the years. Although if I close my eyes I can still see those wavy green lines that marked the edges of our court.
It has become the junkie central for the neighborhood. For all the same reasons it was our choice to begin with. No cars, no people - it's safe.
Not anymore...    
I am glad to say that none of my friends hang out there, but it is really sad to see that a place that was such a big part of all of our lives has turned in to this dark and sad thing.
I does make me wonder - how did that happen? How did the playground turn in to a pile of used needles and empty bottles? How many other meaningful places have disappeared over the years? And the most important question of them all...

WHY?