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August 24, 2006

Hoop Nazis

Basketball Hoop of the Rich and Lazy.jpgI recognize that the University Park area of Dallas is a nice place to live and all, and I also concede that the residents there are rightly attentive to maintaining property values and the decorum of the area. But this recent Dallas Morning News article reports on an initiative that establishes fairly convincingly that a number of the UP residents simply do not have enough to do:

Hoops could be shot down in this wealthy community thanks to a proposed ordinance banning basketball goals in front yards. The reason? To some city officials, they don't look too good.

That's the basis of a proposed University Park ordinance prohibiting portable and permanent basketball hoops. On Tuesday, council members postponed a decision on the ordinance until their Aug. 22 meeting so revisions could be made, . . .

Under the proposal, violators could be fined up to $2,000 a day. [. . .]

The ordinance the Planning and Zoning Commission and city staff originally recommended would have allowed residents to keep portable basketball goals in their front yards for up to 30 days a year. Council members wanted none of that, though.

They went back and forth for about 15 minutes at their Tuesday meeting on whether to allow swings, soccer goals and basketball goals in front yards at all. Some wanted to allow them certain months of the year, others only during daylight hours.

Portable soccer goals and badminton nets were deemed allowable because they could be moved inside every night. So were one-seat swings, provided they don't swing into the street.

Trampolines and basketball goals weren't as lucky.

"It's just not as pleasing to the eye," [the] Mayor . . . said about the goals.

Posted by Tom at August 24, 2006 06:05 AM

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Comments

Reason # 9,743 why I don't live in Dallas.

Posted by: Kenneth [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 24, 2006 09:09 AM

Banning basketball goals is not something new to "planned communities". The people in charge of maintaining the community standards as expressed in the various town covenants for Reston Virginia banned basketball goals in the late 1970s. In addition, they ruled than any goals that had been erected prior to their focus on the issue had to be torn down.

Posted by: Jack [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 24, 2006 07:34 PM

I agree with the city council. Ban the hoops. With a basket and back