Suburbs boot ball-playing kids from their city streets

Detroit News ^ | 4-7-04 | Darren A Nichols

[Dan from Michigan]

DEARBORN

[Dan from Michigan]

I remember the hockey and football games well.

One good thing about the sticks and being outside of any city limits. Football games in the back yard were easy, and there wasn't the traffic on nearby subdivision paved roads(back then) for street(and later roller) hockey.

Personally, I think the idea of jail time and three digit fines is ridiculous. A warning and talk to the parents should suffice. Even a civil infraction is pushing it.

Does there have to be a law and cops for everything now?

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[Aquinasfan]

Playing neighborhood pick-up games was the best thing about being a kid, next to the ice cream man coming. I guess they'll have to join an official team instead or, better yet, practice two-hand chest passes in gym class, with helmets.

[battlecry]

Here in Occupied Country, Bethesda, MD, I used to have my kids go down the street in their soapbox derby car. They had the county put speed bumps. Nice folks. I hope that when the ambulance comes for them they take it real slow...

[EggsAckley]

the number of complaints about kids blocking traffic with sports equipment has remained steady over the years

Dan, I don't know what it's like where you live, but out here on the left coast, the skateboard crowd love to play in the streets, and often will not yield to the cars. They stand there like arrogant little a-holes with looks of defiance on their faces. Like THEY own the streets, and YOU will just wait till they're ready for you to drive by.

[socal_parrot]

Car!

[Xenalyte]

Suburbs boot ball-playing kids from their city streets

Note to moronic pseudo-journalists: a suburb has suburban streets. A city has city streets. Are we clear on the difference, or should Aunt Xen explain it in shorter words?

[johnfrink]

Much too difficult to punish the drivers who tear through the street like maniacs--much easier to deal with the little kids who are foolish enough to remain in one place.

[CSM]

As a resident of this fair city, I have no problem with the Kids setting up their hockey nets on the streets. I kinda like the yell of "car" and then all the kids scurry to get the equipment out of the way. Then they all scurry to get it set back up. Sometimes I just sit on my porch and watch it for entertainment. I didn't think anyone really minded it.

[StriperSniper]

LOL!

And you have to smack the back of it as it goes by, if they hit the brakes... RUN!

;-)

[Bikers4Bush]

Unfortunately in a certain area of the city where I live kids have begun to refuse to move out of the way for cars and then when they finally do move either swear at the driver or scratch the car as it passes.

The cops have begun to crack down on not only the kids but their parents as well.

[BigBobber]

Why don't you complete the quote to include the relevant part?

Still, the number of complaints about kids blocking traffic with sports equipment has remained steady over the years — just a few each summer month,

A few grumps per month are complaining. Let's let kids be kids and play in front of their homes.

[Mr. Mojo]

.....may soon become a crime in Dearborn.

Is Dearborn under Sharia Law yet?

[JohnCliftn]

If it is just clean fun, ban it!

Residential streets are for the residents.

For many decades, two generations or three, kids have enjoyed playing in our residential streets with no problems. And, for as many decades fussy nosy busy bodies have complained.

Phooey to them. They just don't like anyone having fun because they cannot.

Let the busy bodies not stick their noses where they don't belong lest they get their nostrils stuffed full of lint.

[LetsRok]

“The back yard is too small for them to play. What are they going to do?” Hussein said in Arabic, translated by one of her children. “If there was more room in the back yard, they would not be playing in the street like that.”

Hey Nimrod. How about taking your kids to the park and coming out of your fortress? You shouldn't be living in a house on an 1/8 acre lot if you want to raise a family.

I get all kinds of dirty stares from parents when I drive by and complain about their kids impeding the flow of traffic on my street.

[John H K]

Oh, man, am I having flashbacks. I think I spent about 45 billion hours playing basketball in a little used but public alley with a hoop on my friend's garage.

About every half hour or so, "CAR!" would ring out. Man, those were the days.

Actually the first few years my friend's Dad had never resurfaced the concrete leading to his garage, so the road part was fine, but we all developed these 5-step walk moves to the basket because you couldn't dribble on the concrete part because the ball would go careening into the next county after it hit a pothole.

And we had a weird rule of uncertain derivation (like that Tim Duncan/David Robinson commercial) that the garage was "in" but the garage doors were "out."

[BSunday]

What a bunch of communist b@$!@rds

[LetsRok]

Residential streets are for the residents.

Residential streets are for VEHICULAR TRAFFIC, not residents. Sidewalks are for residents.

[John H K]

I think you're well on the way to being the old weird guy that everyone is terrified of in the neighborhood.


Another sign will be if you start constantly writing extremely long letters to the editor of your local newspaper bitching about everything under the sun.

[NativeNewYorker]

Hussein, 48, who lives on Ruby in Dearborn, said she doesn’t allow her children to go to the park and play basketball because she’s worried about crime.

Even while they play in the driveway, Hussein watches them from inside a window of her home.

“The back yard is too small for them to play. What are they going to do?” Hussein said in Arabic, translated by one of her children. “If there was more room in the back yard, they would not be playing in the street like that.”

Obviously these laws are meant to prevent poor newcomers from integrating into US society. /sarcasm