Tuesday, September 16, 2008

CM PRESS # 487


ACTIVE VS. PASSIVE PARKS ON THE CITY COUNCIL AGENDA TONIGHT

PERSONAL INJURY ATTORNEY: "So, you say that the City of Costa Mesa said it was okay for you to play soccer in a small park even though that park had no soccer fields and was full of hazards that a reasonable city should have known could lead to the types of foreseeable injuries you've now suffered due to the City's negligence? Of course I'll take the case."

There's a lot of misinformation floating around about the issue of passive vs. active parks, as some lefties and nobody City Council wannabes try to turn it into a political issue.

The most important thing to know is that "passive" doesn't mean no one can throw a ball or engage in similar activities in a passive park as they always have.

It just means that the parks aren't safe or appropriate for intense team sports with many players, and that playing such sports in these parks may endanger both the players and other users of the parks.

In other words, "passive parks," among other things, don't have sports fields that have been designed, groomed and maintained to be safe for team sports.

Passive parks may have trees and hills and ankle wrenching holes with buried sprinkler heads and turf that is too thin or of the wrong type over soil that is also of the wrong type. Passive parks may also be too small for team sports or be configured in such a way that team sports will conflict with other uses of the park or surrounding areas.

PAULARINO PARK
In the particular case of Paularino Park, all of the above negatives for it being a sports field apply and, in addition, there are no restroom facilities.

The park is their toilet
In the past, adult soccer players would drive up in cars and have "pick-up" games at Paularino Park. Since many of these adults apparently didn't live nearby, they would use the trees and even the tot lot to urinate and defecate.

Sidewalk in the middle of the soccer field that is not a soccer field
When they played soccer in Paularino Park, because of the small size and narrow shape of the park, the soccer games would have to be played across the only sidewalk in the park. This blocked the sidewalk for others who might want to use the park.

Get out of the park, you're disturbing our soccer game
In at least one case, soccer players demanded that a neighborhood grandmother get off the sidewalk and out of the park because by using the sidewalk she was in the middle of their soccer game.

Strange man in her backyard
In another case, an elderly woman, whose house backs up to the park,was severely frightened when she looked out into her back yard and saw an adult male standing there. He had apparently climbed over her 6' tall wall to retrieve a soccer ball.

City employee tells the elderly woman if she doesn't like it, move
When this woman reported this to the City, an employee of the recreation department rudely told her that if she didn't like it, she should move.

Broken picture window
Another homeowner near the park had his expensive picture window smashed by a soccer ball, and the soccer players then all ran away leaving the homeowner with the job of getting the window replaced. If memory serves, the bill was something like $1,500.00.

Soccer players and balls in the middle of Paularino Avenue
When soccer games were being played in Paularino Park, there were many instances of soccer balls being kicked into cars travelling on Paularino Ave. and in at least one case a driver had to do a panic stop to avoid hitting a soccer player who suddenly darted into the street from between two parked cars.
............................
IS SOMEONE TRYING TO SNOOKER THE MAJORITY ON THE CITY COUNCIL?

Tonight, the City Council will be voting on whether to make 28 parks passive and leave just 2 as active.

This is overkill, given the misunderstanding of the term passive park.

Each park is different and each neighborhood is different. If there are no problems in other parks, then the Council should just leave them alone as they are right now.

But, the Council should establish a mechanism for review of the uses of the parks should there be problems in the future as there were at Paularino Park.

TREAT EACH PARK INDIVIDUALLY
Remember, the lumpen term "park" covers everything from postage stamp size areas to vast acres of open ground. What is appropriate in one park may not be appropriate in another.

For example:

BARK PARK
We have a Bark Park in Costa Mesa. It has rules and regulations that work for that park. These rules and regulations wouldn't make much sense in other parks.

SKATEBOARD PARK
We have a Skateboard Park in Costa Mesa. It has rules and regulations that work for that park. These rules and regulations wouldn't make much sense in other parks.

BICYCLE RIDING
Bicycle riding is banned in at least one small park we know of, but not in others. Clearly, there was a problem with this in this particular park, so a sign was erected banning this activity.

THE MISSING BASKETBALL HOOP
Residents near one small park had the City remove the basketball hoop because it was attracting crowds that were causing problems. It was a problem specific to this one park.

POWERED MODEL AIRPLANES
You can fly model airplanes in Fairview Park, but not in others.
..................
BUREAUCRATS LIKE THINGS UNIFORM
Bureaucrats like to have everything uniform, but the parks in Costa Mesa are not uniform and they must be treated individually.
.................
HERE'S WHAT THE CM PRESS THINKS THE CITY COUNCIL SHOULD DO, BY THE NUMBERS

l. Leave Paularino Park a passive park. This is already a settled matter and has gone through countless community and city meetings.

2. Leave most other large parks with flat fields and restroom facilities as they are right now. Do nothing. Just leave them as they are and don't erect any signs about passive or active. If they're not broken, don't try to fix them.

3. Set up a mechanism whereby residents of various neighborhoods can petition the Council or the Parks and Recreation Commission to have their parks made passive if neighborhoods so wish.

4. Do a better PR job of explaining that "passive" does not mean what it sounds like.

5. Let it be known that this is a health and safety issue and that parks without proper playing fields pose a danger to players and others who misuse the parks, and that such misuse also often presents a nuisance to others who wish to use the parks.

6. It should also be made clear that many of our rules and regulations regarding parks are "rubber clauses" so that problems can be addressed if they arise, but are generally not enforced if there are no complaints. We don't have cops hiding in the bushes looking for sports activities.

7. At tonight's meeting, have speakers tell which park they live near and why they want it passive or active. Try to avoid having speakers address all parks throughout the city as a whole. This is a neighborhood specific issue.
# # #
DARWIN AWARD

As you may know, the Darwin Award is an award that is usually given to those among us who have, through their stupidity, removed themselves from our gene pool.

Usually, this is given to people who blow themselves up by putting dynamite in mouse holes or similar things.

Here in Costa Mesa we have an individual, a despicable, tiny brain sissy full of self-hatred and hatred of others who spews his bile far and wide. In our book, this guy is a permanent Darwin Award winner.

In his case, it appears that Mother Nature herself realized her mistake early on and kept him out of our gene pool by keeping him from being able to reproduce.

Of course, now that this bigot is an old man, he has turned bitter. He sees his own mortality, and knows, in his rare lucid moments, that he is the last of his line. So, he impotently flails about like a drowning man grasping at straws while trying to be noticed--to feel like he is somebody--to have his meaningless life validated. "Please notice me," he screams out. "Tell me I am somebody. Give me some solace in my old age--tell me that my life wasn't meaningless."

There are no straws for him. There are no do-overs in his life. He is not a somebody. He is a nobody. He is wretched. For him, there is only the great nothingness--which is what his whole "life"(if you can call it that) has been anyway. When looking at this loser, pro-life people might even consider that the abortionists might be right after all.

The gene pool is safe. Thank you, Mother Nature!
# # #
Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.



 http://frankspeech.com/