Who’s making all that noise?

It’s hard to argue with people who want peace and quiet. In a world

where our personal space is being invaded by cell phones, the

Internet and so many other modern intrusions, the desire to curl up

and have the rest of us go away for a little while is perfectly

understandable.

TeWinkle Middle School and California Elementary School share

athletic fields in an area bordered by Gisler, Iowa and Gibraltar

streets in Costa Mesa. On the north end of the boundary are the

fields, then Iowa and then the San Diego Freeway, in that order.

For a few years, the residents along Iowa have made various

complaints to the American Youth Soccer Organization and the city of

Costa Mesa about the noise, light pollution, trash, traffic and

trespassing along their street and around their homes. Most of these

complaints, however, have been made to the board of directors of the

Costa Mesa National Little League.

The residents around Iowa took their case to the City Council.

My knowledge of the board’s handling of the residents’ complaints

is based on my participation as either a coach, board member or both

for the past six years.

During that time, I have witnessed an extraordinary attempt by the

league to satisfy the neighbors on the other side of the wall near

the fields. Game and practice times have been adjusted. Trash patrols

have been formed. Verbal warnings from the league to parents who try

to access the fields from Iowa Street have been very stern, and it

has made a difference in parental behavior.

But one thing the league has not and will not be able to resolve

is what they call noise, but what I will call life.

The fields in question are being used primarily by Little League

teams, the participants of which range in age from 5 to 14. It is not

only unrealistic, but flat out weird that any resident could expect a

reduction in the level of noise coming from happy kids and their

excited parents. Perhaps these people want the kids and their parents

to tone it down so it’s easier to hear the freeway, I don’t know.

What I do know is that the noise comes at times that cannot at all

be considered odd hours.

The whining and complaining is one thing, but taking their case to

the bureaucrats is quite another. And Monday’s City Council meeting

was a preview of what is to come.

Monday’s meeting was to hear and possibly resolve the conflicts

between the residents and the kids who are not watching TV or hanging

out at the convenience store.

But as it often does, the board voted to put off any discussion or

resolution until another bureaucracy, the Department of Parks and

Recreation, studied the matter.

Veteran City Hall watchers could have foreseen the buck passing

before they entered the parking lot. But what really concerned me was

a comment by Councilman Allan Mansoor, who seems to have already made

his mind up.

When discussing the further stalling of the issue, Mansoor called

it the “problems with the fields.”

Whoa there! “Problems with the fields?” There are no “problems

with the fields,” there are only whines and complaints by a few

people who will not rest until these little kids are chased back to

their Nintendo Game Boys and televisions.

If there is a “problem with the fields,” it is that there aren’t

enough of them. And despite many attempts to get the city to find

more places for children to play, particularly those in Little

League, they have done almost nothing. Where’s our skateboard park?

Case in point: At the misnamed Farm “Sports” Complex on Fairview

Road you will see acres of empty soccer fields, places where Little

Leaguers could be playing right now had the council set aside some

land for baseball diamonds.

The farm is not a sports complex, it is a soccer complex. One of

the solutions to the Iowa Street complaints, if the residents are

going to be coddled, is to install two baseball diamonds at the Farm.

I have not heard a single viable solution from any of the

residents.

All I’ve been hearing is their noise.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and freelance writer.

Readers may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at

(949) 642-6086.