City officials cry foul over portable hoops

Sonoma residents are crying foul over a recent move by the city to get portable basketball hoops off neighborhood streets and sidewalks.

Last week, the city of 11,000 started issuing notices, giving residents up to 72 hours to roll their hoops off public streets and right of ways and onto driveways when not in use, citing concerns about public safety. Otherwise, the city warned its employees would be forced to remove the hoops themselves.

Hoop owners, however, are criticizing the move, which they view as heavy-handed.

“It seems really silly to me,” said Diana McAuliffe, a mother of four who was among the dozen or so residents to receive a notice on her front door last week.

“We have it so close to our driveway it doesn’t bother anyone,” McAuliffe said about the hoop she bought her kids for Christmas in 2013. “It’s 2 inches from the dip of my driveway.”

But city codes have long prohibited “obstructions” on right of ways, Mayor David Cook said. The play equipment wasn’t much of a concern until the hoops started toppling over from the high winds that recently hit the area, he explained.

“We always have been lax on them,” Cook said. “But with high winds and them falling over, it caused an issue.”

Public Works Director Dan Takasugi said the city received some complaints about hoops falling over and blocking streets and sidewalks, which sparked the enforcement.

“A lot of them also were covering drainage inlets,” Takasugi added. And that, he said, caused street flooding after last month’s heavy showers.

With the proliferation of basketball hoops in Sonoma, a town that’s seen over the years more young families settle in, city officials said it’s also been a struggle for street sweepers and garbage haulers to maneuver around the sports equipment. They also take up parking space, officials argued.

“I understand that kids should be out playing and that we’re a small town,” Cook said. “But it’s a safety concern. They (hoops) are heavy and can fall over on a pedestrian.”

Bob Duffield, who lives in McAuliffe’s neighborhood where several notices went out, said the city shouldn’t punish all residents because some hoops tipped over.

“You can make sure people secure them better,” said Duffield, who recently bought a basketball hoop as a birthday gift for one of his sons.

Unaware of the recent enforcement, Duffield set up the portable hoop out on the street in front of his home this past Friday. He had not received one of the notices but learned about them from a reporter.

His wife, Martha Duffield, said it would upset their son if the city asks them to remove the hoop from the street. The hoop was all he wanted for his birthday, she said.

“I’m so bummed out. This is going to break his heart,” she said.

Like the McAuliffes, the Duffields have a sloped driveway that makes it impossible to play on. They also don’t have room in their yard for the equipment.

Although they live near a park, Bob Duffield said, there’s only one basketball hoop at the site.

“There might be eight or nine kids shooting there. You have balls flying everywhere,” said Duffield, who called the city’s move “overmanagement.”

“You don’t want to legislate for freakish storms,” he said.

Sonoma is not the first municipality in the area to clamp down on portable basketball hoops.

Rohnert Park police issued similar warnings about a decade ago after getting complaints from mail carriers, street sweepers and utility workers. They ordered residents to remove the portable basketball hoops and other obstructions from city sidewalks and streets or face a $100 fine. Residents had three days to comply.

Santa Rosa also had battle over curbside basketball structures in the early 1990s. Its concern was over basketball poles installed in the ground between city sidewalks and curbs, not portable hoops.

The city threatened to tear out the poles after residents complained about them, sparking a political battle. The state Attorney General’s Office stepped in as a referee after the city attorney sought its opinion, and it ruled cities didn’t have to ban street basketball but could regulate them.

Santa Rosa then adopted an ordinance requiring permits to install permanent basketball poles. Petaluma later adopted similar rules.

Sonoma isn’t issuing fines, Takasugi said. Officials also don’t want to confiscate the hoops, he said.

“I don’t see us hauling them away,” he said. “But if we can identify the property owners, we’ll move them to their property.”

With the city of Sonoma clamping down, McAuliffe said her kids now will have to wait every day for their father to come home from work and roll out the heavy hoop out to the street and back onto the driveway when they’re done.

“They’re active. When they’re bored, they like to go out and play,” she said, adding that tightened enforcement will cut into the children’s playtime.

And that’s a shame, said Marco Girish, a longtime Sonoma resident and basketball coach for North Bay Catholic Youth Organization.

“One of the things kids lack in the valley is access to a gym,” he said. “That’s why a lot of parents put these hoops out.”

Girish, who grew up in San Francisco with an abundance of parks and recreation centers, has a portable hoop sitting on the sidewalk in front of his home for his three children and neighbors’ kids to use. He said the base is filled with 60 to 70 pounds of water to prevent winds from tipping it.

“It’s never gone over,” he said, adding that he had yet to receive a notice to remove the hoop.

The few complaints he said he’s received about the hoop are from some drivers who were annoyed about having to wait for the kids playing basketball to clear the street.

Girish said the city’s move is disappointing given the poorly equipped of many city parks.

“It makes me sad as a parent and a coach,” he said.