you read my articles, you probably like Amusement Parks. That makes sense. Amusement Parks allow for us to have fun, thrilling, safe experiences. We experience things that, in the past, you couldn't have done safely. Amusement Parks are just a lot of fun. There is just one major question, though: Do Amusement Parks Help or Hurt the communities they're in?
In most cases, there is no such thing as a perfect thing. There are always going to be positives and negatives. The question is which of them shows the most. Do the positives out-rule the negatives or do the negatives out-rule the positives?
First, I want to go over some ways that they can benefit the community.
One thing that Amusement Parks can do is increase funding in the area, but this also can be bad for residents of the community. Amusement Parks generate Amusement Tax and Sales Tax from selling Tickets, Food, Photos, Line Skips, Arcades, Midway Games, Merchandise, and more. These taxes benefit the government.
For an example of the taxes and how they benefit the local government, I will be looking at Kennywood. Kennywood is located in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Allegheny County has a 1% County Sales Tax Rate. I believe that there is also a 1% County Amusement Tax Rate. If someone goes to Kennywood and spends a total of $30 on food/drinks, $20 on Merchandise, $20 on Midway Games, $10 on Ride Photos, $20 on Arcade Games, and $60 on a ticket (so $150), $1.50 will go to Allegheny County. This allows for funding in Pittsburgh as a whole, including its suburbs, which aren't considered to be in City Limits. You may think that $1.50 isn't much, and it isn't alone, but imagine the same thing happening, but with 5000 people. In that case, that one day would be making $7,500 for West Mifflin. If Kennywood is operating for around 110 Days, which is an underestimate, that would make West Mifflin $825,000 that year. That is an underestimate, though, and that wouldn't even be taking the Holiday Events into account.
Something that may be more important is Property Tax. Property Tax funds Education, so the higher property taxes could potentially lead to better education in these areas.
There is one more thing that I didn't bring up yet that also relates to Money: Jobs. Amusement Parks require large amounts of staffing for many different jobs. Plumbing, Electrical Work, Art, Operations, Food, Engineering, Retail, and Security are just some examples I can think of immediately that are needed for an amusement park. Some of those jobs, like Retail and Food Service, are jobs that can even be first jobs for teenagers, if the Teenager and their parents are okay with it. Amusement Parks do better here, though, because they require more positions, tend to have more hours, and tend to have wages higher than minimum wage for employees, so these jobs could, in theory, support living if people had enough hours and their pay is around $10 per Hour or more.
There are, of course, some major negatives, though.
For one, as I mentioned before, there are property taxes. For some areas, this can badly hurt the people already living there, since their property taxes may be raised. We have seen issues like this happen in some cities, where poorer areas were developed so fast that people living there could no longer afford their homes and businesses. The construction of new amusement parks could possibly cause this same issue.
Also, as I mentioned in my last article, there are loud noises from the park that can keep people up at night and, in some cases, might even drown out noises in the house. This can, in some scenarios, end up being dangerous. If there is a fire in your house but the screams from an amusement park are louder than the fire alarm, you may not realize that your house is on fire, for one example. Other than that, people will likely have issues sleeping. If Ride Testing starts at 7:00 AM and the park stops running rides at 10:30 PM, you will have an 8 and a Half Hour Window for sleeping. Adults are supposed to get 7-9 Hours of sleep per day.
The final point I want to make is about businesses that rely on the Amusement Park. Obviously, there are the businesses located inside the park, but the park itself usually runs those. I am mainly talking about local Activities that people will go do while they're out. For example, imagine if Disney, Universal, and SeaWorld closed all of their Florida Parks for the Winter, but Fun Spot stayed open. How many people would actually go to Fun Spot Parks when there are no big draws? I think that the same things will be happening, pretty much. You don't have tourists spending time at these local businesses as much since they aren't going to the big draw when it's closed.
Now, I want to make my final decision: Do Amusement Parks Help or Hurt the Community?
I think that, in general, Amusement Parks help the community. They tend to help local businesses grow, even if it is for just part of the year. Their property taxes help support local schools, so kids can now get better education. The Sales and Amusement Taxes help support County and State Governments, helping with tons of things. I should mention that, with the example of Kennywood earlier with how sales/amusement taxes work, 6 times that amount is going to the state government, in that case. Overall, Amusement Parks help the community, I think. There are some issues with living near an amusement park, but I think the benefits outweigh the issues.