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.
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