I 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.
Reason # 9,743 why I don’t live in Dallas.
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.
I agree with the city council. Ban the hoops. With a basket and backboard out in the drive, the kids are liable to go outside every now and then, and away from the Playstation. Friends might come over to get a game going. Dads and moms might start limbering up. All kinds of subversive activity could ensue.
This could lead to disaster. People outdoors. People exercising. Neighbors becoming friends. Suburban kids learning to jump. Adipose tissue lost. It’s all so horrible.
We just cannot think of reversing the progress of turning suburban kids into sedentary observers. Sports are to be played after a decent ride in a van to a soccer field.
Considering the number of suburban kids playing hoops in high school, college, and the pros, it would be a good idea to ban hoops all over the country. Put up cross-country ski racks or a tetherball pole rather than waste the space on basketball.
Yes, I have to agree with the wisdom of the city council. A bunch of kids playing hoops, and having fun in a driveway is just not the American dream (anymore).
We live in an unincorporated area of Harris County.
The neighborhood crank that lives next door to me (that also happens to be a cop!)insisted that his other neighbor take down the hoop she had installed for her sons.
Nevermind she did it BEFORE he moved in; nevermind that her sons now have to go to a local gym in order to practice.
That one basketball goal was responsible for two boys with a single mom staying out of trouble and possibly getting college scholarships to play ball.
In the meantime, my “neighbor” goes to homeowners meetings and *ahem* gripes about his “trailer park trash” neighbors.
I wish he would move…