Letter: Get portable hoops off streets

Thursday, Nov. 14, 2002 | 9:13 a.m.

Regarding the Sun's Nov. 11 editorial, "Hey, city, leave those kids alone":

The motor vehicle code and surrounding laws are pretty clear about the uses of the public streets. They're for vehicle traffic, not as a basketball court. Or an adjunct to the sidewalk. Or in lieu of the yard the developer wasn't forced to put in.

What is this claptrap in the editorial about "Neighborhood streets did not see a lot of basketball and hockey years ago, but only because sporting goods stores did not sell portable hoops and goals ..."

The editorial is blatantly wrong for several reasons. Hoops and goals were around back in my childhood, so that's not it. Could it be because oh-so-special covenants don't allow hoops to be attached to homes anymore? Or that parents who won't supervise their kids certainly don't want a bunch of b-ballers making noise or disrupting their private residences?

Let's also throw in public safety access. I know of a least two instances where hoops were run over and destroyed by fire units in a cul-de-sac. The emergency units suffered damage to their undercarriages but, hey, it's only your tax dollars that have to fix the trucks because suddenly no one "owns" that hoop.

I applaud the city of Henderson for wanting to rectify a problem that has gone on too long, a problem brought about by shortsighted developers and the governments that allowed those developers to overload residential areas for profit.

FRANK OTTO

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