Editorial: Knee deep in the hoop law

The first time I managed to pick up a basketball I knew I was destined to lead the (University of Kentucky) to another national championship” – Hunter S. Thompson

Well, if that one-time living embodiment of delusion can see himself in the Final Four, imagine what a wide-eyed 11-year-old might think.

Which makes it all the more head scratching that the City of Sonoma would launch its latest legal crackdown – on junior hoopsters trying to break the habit of double dribbling, only a year or two removed from breaking the habit of, well, actually dribbling.

Beginning Christmas week, city Public Works staff embarked on a neighborhood “sweep” (as one resident put it) of those portable basketball hoops that have become de rigueur in recent years at the apex of suburban cul-de-sacs. Or, as Public Works describes them: unlawful nuisances obstructing the public right-of-way. Sporting families had 72 hours to remove the wicked wickets or the city would have cause to impound the towering toys.

According to Public Works Director Dan Takasugi, 17 notices were issued in the vicinity of K.T. Carter Park – and “the enforcement was driven in part by a resident complaint.”

Takasugi stresses that the b-ball boot-out is about flood mitigation – leaves collect when the hoop bases block gutters – however, the 72-hour notices clearly state that the violations are about “blocking street parking.”

While we’re not calling for an all-out amnesty for illegal sport obstructions, one has to wonder about what sort of priority level kids’ basketball hoops should place on the list of traffic violations that need addressing. As citations seem to be in the ready for obstructions that get kids outside and away from the PS4, I have yet to see a parking ticket written for that minivan that’s parked in the compact spot next to me, forcing me to wriggle out of the passenger-side window just to exit my Civic. If there’s a swath of hapless Sonoma commuters circling their blocks in search of a place to park because so many Spalding polycarbonate 44-inchers are littering the curbsides, I haven’t met any.

This isn’t to say that if a basketball hoop – or anything else for that matter – is legitimately getting in the way of people, or is egregiously positioned in a residential area, that the city shouldn’t “take it to the hole,” so to speak. That goes for the motor boats, RVs and junkers that utilize a lot more of the public right of way than the 3 by 5-foot base of a portable basketball hoop.

Because if we have to choose a societal blight on the mean streets of Sonoma, let’s hope the one that involves exercising kids tops the perpendicularly parked GMC Yukon on our list of things to tolerate.

While it’s a particularly poor time to be referencing Bill Cosby, I can’t shake the thought of something he once said about when the world of child necessity meets the world of adult priority:

“The essence of childhood, of course, is play,” said Cosby. “Which my friends and I did endlessly on streets that we reluctantly shared with traffic.”

– Jason Walsh