Playing by the rules at Newport’s parks

What a novel idea the city of Newport Beach has come up with: It’s

going to enforce rules.

The City Council decided last week to give its park rangers the

power to enforce permits for park space and other city facilities. In

the past, residents and groups would pay anywhere from $18 to $221 an

hour to reserve public space -- whether it be a picnic area or a

playing field -- only to find another group had taken over their

reserved spot.

Sometimes the matter could be cleared up with a brief explanation.

But when it couldn’t, those with the permit had no recourse.

Residents have rightly complained about this.

The plan to enforce the permits is logical and should have been

part of the plan in July 2003 when two park rangers were hired to

patrol the city’s 57 parks and 38 playing fields. But it wasn’t until

January 2004 that rangers were even given the authorization to write

tickets for alcohol and other blatant violations.

It is a smart move on the council’s part.

Collecting money from residents to reserve park space and then

failing to secure the reservation is appalling. Once they enforce

permits and remove parties without permits, the problem will right

itself and the city will likely make a lot more money on permits.

People burned by others without permits probably didn’t bother to

get one the next time they wanted to use the park. And you can hardly

blame them.

Rules must be enforced to work. Righting this oversight is a good

move on the part of the city.