If you look outside your house at night and see a bunch of people milling around, swiping on their phones, chances are they’re playing Pokemon GO. And for a lot of people, that’s cool. But not everyone enjoys having hundreds of chatty millenials outdoors in the early hours of the morning, and some have taken action.
Discord has been brewing over the last few days in the inner city suburb of Rhodes in Sydney. The area’s a bit of a hotspot for Pokemon GO activity, with intersecting Pokestops making it a perfect location for people to repeatedly drop lures.
But lures and intersecting Pokestops means people hanging around — and those living in nearby apartments haven’t been too thrilled.
Pokemon Go players water bombed in Rhodes by residents. Waiting for revenge of the nerds pic.twitter.com/QF1nQD9Tb3
— Brianna Parkins (@parkinsbrea) July 13, 2016
One Rhodes resident, who captured the photos above, confirmed to Kotaku that water bombs had been thrown at some of the hundreds of people underneath. Police were also called to the area to move Pokemon GO trainers on, after hundreds of people continued to hang around.
“People camp there with food and water [until] like 3:00 AM for the past two or three days … there were people in the nearby building throwing water bombs at people in the park,” the Rhodes resident said. They added cars were driving around the area, playing the Pokemon theme.
A shot from the Pokemon GO Sydney Facebook group showed how popular one Rhodes park has become:
And some residents have been fairly vocal about their displeasure with their suburb’s newfound popularity.
It comes as emergency services and government departments continue to warn users to use common sense when hunting for Pokemon. The NSW Department of Justice posted late last night that users didn’t need to wander into courthouses to capture Pokemon, and that it was a prohibited offence to use a recording device (like a smartphone) in NSW.
Comments
79 responses to “Rhodes Residents Are Fed Up With Pokemon GO Crowds”
The Rhodes residents do have a right to complain, 3am on a week night? Wtf are people thinking it’s acceptable?
The concept of ‘love thy neighbour’ seems to have disappeared. How would these people thronging the park feel if they had a crowd camped on their own doorsteps?
Or even ‘do as you would be done by’
It’s a public park which people can use as they like
I am personally more annoyed at the yelling ‘boot camps’ that happen near me but I’m not going to start throwing water bombs at them
You’re right. The water bomb thing is completely out of line. You can imagine a water bomb hitting a mother, causing her to drop a baby, or some other equally horrific scenario. That being said, people gathering in a public park near a residential building late at night should be at the very least extremely considerate and not make loud noise that would prevent residents from sleeping. Even if the noise is legally below the threshold allowed by law at that time, a considerate person would understand and try to respect the residents’ desire for peace and quiet.
Couldn’t agree more
Because people think dichotomously and cowardly hide behind the juvenile “but i don’t have to, tough shit defence”. Always a sign of blatantly selfish, ignorant, aggressive and uneducated.
You’ve simplified the motivations of an entire group of people down to the most obnoxious form simply to hurl insults and belittle them. And they’re the ones being juvenile. Righto champ
Heroes the thing. Those players have the right to be out any hour they want. This is fucking America. They have no right to force anyone to stop just cause they are inconvenienced. You have any idea how many of these types of people inconvenience me with their “this ain’t fair” mentality especially when they wait till the cash register to sort trough their damn coupons holding everyone up for 30 minutes cause they are dicks
It’s Australia mate.
Somebody give this guy a medal ^^^. He’s right though it is Australia…
Unless they are littering, being unduly loud, rude, drunk or in such numbers that it actually becomes a hassle to get around i dont see what their problem is. Just a case of “you damn kids get off the lawn!” ? We have poke-hunters going past our place all the time as theres a gym at the end of the street and a few stops nearby and i now either chat with em if im on the porch or go join them for a lap around the block. It was my day off today and i spent a good part of it walking up n down the main street of my town. I met and talked with about 20 other people of all ages also playing, even a granny in her 60’s playing alongside her grandchild. Never has my snooty, too-good-for you town been so friendly.
Residents are claiming that they are gathering until 3am on a week night.
And that there are also hundreds of them.
just gathering at 3am isn’t a valid reason for moving them on, we don’t have a curfew in Australia last time I checked
…well, unless you want to get a drink in QLd/NSW….
Yeah, but some people wanna sleep in silence. Hundreds of people hanging out in front of your apartment block until 3AM isn’t really helping that. People should have the right to a certain quiet time after a certain time of night. Especially if they have to get up early the next morning for work. This would piss me right off – I know I don’t sleep the best as it is… just hearing those people outside would be enough to set me off.
I was haunted by one, single (ok, maybe a couple) of Willy Wagtail’s for 9 months straight. Outside my window, it decided to make it’s home in the tree, chirping the same chirp for 10 hours straight. I almost bought a flamethrower.
‘Some’ of them hang around until 3am. So probably 5 or something.. big whoop. I work shift and my weekends are sometimes during the week and I’ll do what i want. If i want to stay out til 3am to get pokemon because ill be working on the weekend when everyone else is doing it then so be it.
Exactly
Some people work night shift, does that mean that I have the right to complain about you mowing your lawn? the stuff that the owners are complaining about is petty, “littering” probably helps if you don’t throw water bombs for starters. Noise, I’ve personally been at a gathering on the gold coast with almost 400 people there. There was more noise coming from the cars driving by then the players themselves. 2ndly if its an issue, close your window?
Its a public park, the only reason why the police moved people on was due to illegal parking. its been made into this big story because it gets ratings. The water bombing is definitely taking it too far, technically its assault
Humans have the right to gather anywhere. What you going to do have the people who work nights arrested if they make noise. You sound like one of the old hateful old people who suck the fun out of everything
It’s pretty quiet up here in the Blue Mountains…
Old people who want their communities to be for them and only them.
What a shocking development.
I think it’s more that people of any age:
– Want to not have large throngs of people making noise outside their windows at 3am.
– Want to not have people taking up parking space that residents use.
– Want to be a little more secure. More people means more risk of someone thinking it’s a great time to destroy property or harass residents.
– Want to know they won’t walk out in the morning to find rubbish strewn everywhere.
– Don’t want people’s stereos blaring through their windows at 3am.
– there was no mention of excessive noise
– tough shit they’re public car parks
– people are here so bad things will happen? that’s a ludicrously long bow to draw
– again, no evidence of them leaving the place a mess
– there was no mention of excessive noise
It’s a PUBLIC PARK. There is bugger all reason to move them on other than ‘local parks are for local people’ type bullshit.
Also hoisting water bombs at them is technically assault.
EDIT: Wow was I ever wrong. Saw some more recent photos today and I feel like a right idiot now for sticking up for them.
Some photos taken at Rhodes showing the place indeed being left a mess, on Reddit thread ‘please be respectful of the locals’.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonGoSyd/comments/4sf8ge/please_be_respectful_of_the_locals/
Also photos showing pokemaniacs using kids playground equipment when they’re not supposed to on buzzfeed.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/bradesposito/pokemon-go-rhodes?utm_term=.ggW6gkRvK#.lmjrbGyBP
So plenty of evidence there derrick.
People playing pokemon go at stupid hours doesn’t give them a right to be @ssholes, residents will use whatever legal & p.r mechanisms they have to nip this public nuisance in the bud.
Well, not really. Not at all in fact. If you actually look at the picture of the mess it was from…eggs!! eggs that were thrown by…. the people in the houses complaining about the mess!! ….seems a bit hypocritical to me (also, like I said before, it’s assault, which by any objective standard is more reprehensible than any public nuisance)…..The second comment on that reddit post you so helpfully linked sums it up pretty well I think “To be fair, some of the Rhodes locals treat the public amenities like dumps, too”.
Plus kids not being able to use playground equipment? at like 11pm? I have this sneaking suspicion that not a single parent nor child was put out by them sitting on the slides.
Public space is just that – public. Buying or renting property near it doesn’t give anybody the right to dictate to others how they should enjoy their time, and nor should it.
Not disagreeing with your original point on the right to use public space, you can refute photographic and/or anecdotal evidence (fwiw my older brother lives in that neighbourhood and can provide evidence on the going ons being reported, he is hoping this craze will die down but at the moment he will have to invest in robust ear plugs) but ppl should be using public space responsibly I. E. Not annoying the locals.
Not sure if you’ve actually been there. I’ve been three times for 2 hours at a time always between 9am-3pm. I have to continually ask people to move so my 1.5 year old can walk up the steps, or through the tunnel, or down the slide – I get attitude. And people are smoking in the park ALL the time, ON the equipment. Cigarette butts and even bongs are left in the play equipment. In broad daylight. I’ll soon grab peoples phones and transfer their high CP Pokémon to Prof. Willow. And wish they get violent and throw the first punch. Then we can have some real fun in “self defence”. The high rise buildings look prime for some rifle action too and you bet it will get to that based on my understanding of some of the unsavoury residents that are affected by this.
What about being considerate of your fellow human beings? Everyone has the same feelings of ‘not in my backyard’ when it comes to having their peace and quiet disturbed. Would these people gather at 3am and talk and frolic outside their friends’ homes or their elderly grandparents’ home? If not, why inflict the situation on strangers?
Yeah I’d be a bit shirty if they did it near my place. Lots of Uni students in the general area of where I am too so it would be an nightmare if there were any pokestops nearby XD
Yeah fair enough. Just to be clear though I certainly wouldn’t do something like this, especially if it was pissing people off. But also I’m not precious when it comes to my ‘peace and quiet’, don’t think I’ve ever made a noise complaint in my life. Live and let live and all that.
That seems a reasonable attitude to take. I believe in being tolerant, but I think that if it continued night after night it would quickly become intolerable for many. Hopefully the fad dies down fairly quickly.
Going from “viva liberty pokemon! Tough to property owners” to “oh I wouldn’t do it myself”. Talk about back pedalling.
Painted yourself in a corner much when you realised you were defending the reprehensible? Thanks for contributing though, fun read while it lasted.
I can see why you might think that but, no, my opinion hasn’t changed one bit. I still think anyone should be allowed to do what they want in a public park. Like I said though, probs not something I would do myself if it was pissing people off. You can be simultaneously comfortable with letting someone else do something and uncomfortable doing that thing yourself, (wasn’t really clear from my original post though.
yet another entitled whinging millenial.
Go get a job you losers.
We all did, and we bought apartment, how about you try it sometime?
I’m crying right now. Best.
You seem to be generalisong everything at almost everybpoint in order to make your selfishly stupid point work.
haha wut? how’d you figure that one? “more people means more risk of someone….” THAT’s a generalisation. And it certainly seems to me that the people saying that other people shouldn’t use public space simply because they live around there and don’t want them to (for whatever reason) are the ones being selfish.
LOL! Perhaps it’s because it isn’t affecting me, but I find all this tremendously amusing. I don’t even play the game. GO Pokemen GO!
Aren’t those self balancing scooters illegal to use on the footpaths in NSW?
haha, old mate loves a fad.
And he wasn’t wearing a helmet either.
Yeah, and not only that, they are prohibited vehicles, full stop. Can’t use them on roads or in public areas. As best as I can see, there’s a fine of $637 if you use a SEGWAY in public.
What I’m taking away from this is that if you go to the park in Rhodes, there are heaps of pokemon and lures.
Ive got zero interest in pokemon go, but if it’s a public park surely they can do whatever the fuck they want? there’s far too many of those lousy ‘i rent a flat here so now I get to control everything that goes on in and around my suburb’ type wankers getting about
EDIT: Nope, I was wrong. I saw some more recent photos today, that shit’s out of control…
What about those, “I have to go to work tomorrow, it’s 3a.m., would you mind keeping the noise down” arseholes? They’re everywhere these days!
Yeah screw those guys. Just because they paid lots of money to live in a nice apartment that’s close to the Sydney CBD and are getting disturbed by people with their priorities out of whack, they become a bunch of Wowsers? Bloody outrageous!!
I think your sense of how close Rhodes is to the Sydney CBD may be skewed by how far you live from the Sydney CBD.
I live in Melbourne 😛
To me it’s still a reasonable distance considering the utter clusterfuck of trying to navigate around Sydney quickly XD
Yeah nah get stuffed. Public park at 3am with a rowdy bunch of people playing a mobile game and dirtying the playground/park area they’re in… I’d be pissed too. This will get shut down by the cops for excessive noise past 10pm anyway in a public place.
yeah but it didn’t stop at 10pm though did it, it went til 3am. so presumably the noise wasn’t excessive (by the police’s standards anyway) after 10pm. Given the vitriol seemingly coming from the residents i have little doubt that the cops would have been called.
You’re making a shitload of assumptions on behalf of people running around in the dark at midnight with their phones out.
This is actually my local park. it was a lot of fun when it started but the amount of people who wander into traffic is starting to get ridiculous.
I can confirm this park is extremely populated well past 12pm.
It’s all fun and games until you start losing sleep and you have shit to do at work. Waterbombs and eggs? Sounds like they’re getting lucky so far. I’d have a full hose setup on 😛
Again, that’s assault. Maybe not in Melbourne, but it is in NSW.
Technically any harm against someone by a 3rd party is assault, it just depends on what is admissible in court and what isn’t.
Also chill pill, was having a joke. If there are people having a house party or making a racket where I live, I’ll always politely ask them to keep it down or finish in a reasonable timeframe. In the case of the park in the above article, I’d speak to the police directly as a single person won’t disperse a group that big no matter how lovely they are.
There’s a suburban street a few suburbs from mine where every telegraph pole has a painting on it and each one is a pokestop. There’s about 15 in a row in the space of about 259 metres.
I slowly drove down it on my way home from night shift at about 12:30am, grabbing each stop as I went. I noticed a few cars doing the same. The street is very narrow and is a no through road without a space to u-turn at the end so, like the other cars, I had to pull into someone’s driveway to u-turn. I became very conscious as my headlights were shining into someone’s house and felt like a bit of a nuisance, especially since I wasn’t the first (and wouldn’t be the last) to use this person’s house as a u-turn facility. This quiet street has become a Pokemon-mecha, suddenly filled with more traffic than ever before, and I immediately felt how unfair it must be for the residents that lived there. I decided I wouldn’t do that drive again.
I’ll definitely go back for a bit of farming but I’ll do it during daylight hours, on foot, like a decent person.
Please don’t Pokémon and drive, thanks.
I can’t actually do it while driving, I had to stop every 20 meters or so. In fact, you couldn’t realistically drive more than 15kms/hr without being dangerous in that street.
FYI if you’re looking for missing comments, I’ve cleaned up the comment section and snipped off some of the more nasty threads that had descended into schoolyard name-calling.
Please keep it civil and on-topic!
But now i wont know what names they called me. :'(
It’s ok mate, we can start again! *grabs list of insults*
and they deleted my banter using air supply lyrics. Gutted.
Really? Damn, I’ve got a perpetual new message notice on my profile now :'( @hayleywilliams is there any way you guys can get rid of that?
There should be a “mark all as read” somewhere just above the alert
Brilliant, cheers 😀
Mate I live right next to this park and I can tell you its a bloody nightmare! All those things that SMEGWolf noted would invoke a grounds for complaint, i.e., “littering, being unduly loud, rude, drunk or in such numbers that it actually becomes a hassle to get around”, is exactly what they are doing every night. There is a disgusting amount of litter every day, they have killed the surrounding vegetation via trampling, they are yelling and screaming obscenities, and my dog was almost trampled by a group who were rushing to get a rare pokemon! And the crowds close to 1000 have invaded the park until 12-1am every night for the last week. I am not against the game, I play it myself. The issue is that this area is not able to sustain this amount of people and if someone was to organise an event at the park with 1/10th of the numbers regularly at the park, they would require council permission. It will only escalate from here especially since the game is only in beta stages, and I think it’s very misguided to suggest that this has brought a sense of community to the place. Take it from a resident who this actually impacts on an extremely regular basis! Of course us residents have a right to complain!
From what you can gather with some (but not all) of above comments, everyone has a right to do as they please in a public park >trumps> your right to a peaceful life where you live nearby. They wouldn’t do it themselves though as it would obviously piss you off, but will demand, but then refute, any evidence that you are being pissed off.
Lol.
My friend lives in Rhodes and told me how bad it was, I didn’t actually believe him till I came over and saw it myself (I’m currently staying with him). When I saw the park at about 2pm was pretty full, but then at around 7pm it was taken to another level. The park was full, the sidewalk was full. The roads around the park were jammed up with cars just doing laps looking for parks. From the balcony of the apartment I watched cars drive, one hand on the wheel, the other hand a mobile phone. This in turn has caused traffic jams, continuous honking and yelling and hooting from the park. People parking in no standing zones, blocking gates to apartments and driveways to homes. I watched people walk out in front of traffic without looking up from their phones causing cars to come to a screeching halt. I couldn’t sleep till 4am due to the noise, and I don’t even live there!. They do have the right to be there, as has been stated it is a public park, but the residents do have a right to be angry as well. There needs to be a bit of common decency on the players part. Be aware that it is a residential suburb and respect that. There is no easy answer to this problem but I think it will get worse before it gets better. On the plus side I can pick up a heap of Pokemon from my mates balcony.