Adults are sending kids wrong message

Once again, adults bicker while kids suffer.

That’s my assessment of the struggle to find more playing fields

for future superstars in Newport-Mesa.

That’s right, superstars. These are not the kids who are hanging

out at the convenience store or lying on the sofa watching MTV or

hiding under the covers playing a Game Boy. These are the kids who

want to get out and exercise, who want to do what we’ve suggested for

years is the best way to combat the nation’s disgraceful child

obesity challenge.

“Eat right and exercise more,” we tell them. But when they try to

find a place to play, our words don’t match our actions.

Cases in point: The Costa Mesa City Council took years to find a

home for a much-needed skateboard park.

Excessive haggling by adults who were trying to find the perfect

location delayed it and eventually pushed it out to no man’s land.

And while the new facility is very good, it could have been closer

to a bus route instead of tucked away back by the Bark Park.

Recently, we had adults deciding for kids that they couldn’t play

soccer with lights at the Kaiser Elementary School fields. All that

cheering could interfere with a nearby resident’s ability to hear “I

Want to Be a Hilton.”

Try to find one of our high school gyms open all day every

Saturday for basketball or volleyball as they were when I was a kid.

Back then, there were no liability or other issues blocking the way

to open gyms. The custodian unlocked the doors at 10 a.m. and closed

them at 4 p.m. Hey, Newport-Mesa, you try it.

On the private-sector side, we didn’t exactly have anyone running

to take over the bowling alley and ice rink that used to be at Harbor

Boulevard and Adams Avenue when their end was announced a few years

ago.

But it’s the debate over the shortage of field space that is the

latest shameful chapter in our failure to walk the walk with our

kids.

Now we have too many adults who would like to use the fields as a

wedge to further divide Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, and that is

really appalling.

At issue is the field allotment for region 97 of the American

Youth Soccer Organization. Kids from this AYSO region come from both

cities, with over half living in Newport Beach.

Among the solutions offered are to keep region 97 players on their

side of the Costa Mesa Freeway (55) -- more difficult now that there

is no night field at Kaiser -- and to split up the kids in the region

so Newport Beach kids find their own fields and Costa Mesa kids find

theirs.

These are solutions that remind me of nights my brother and I

shared a bed as kids in Chicago. We’d draw an imaginary line down the

middle, daring each other to cross it.

This acrimony shows up at Costa Mesa City Council meetings, where

at least one fellow with too much time on his hands wants to turn

Newport Beach upside down to see how much money falls out of

residents’ pockets.

For some on the Costa Mesa side of the field debate, the chance to

stick it to Newport Beach at the expense of kids who just want to run

and play is too easy to pass up.

Sometimes we don’t deserve to be called adults.

What I am going to propose is not as far-fetched as it may seem.

And even though it doesn’t involve seizing private property for the

public good -- that is, there is no eminent domain involved -- it may

be called “thinking outside the box” and would thus still be

appreciated by Costa Mesa City Councilman Eric Bever.

The solution involves a piece of land in Newport Beach that is the

focus of an almost endless discussion about its fate. I swear, I

think it took us less time to decide to enter World War II than it

has to figure out how to use Marinapark.

For this parent, for this citizen concerned that we’re sending our

kids a very bad mixed message, there is only one fate for Marinapark:

Install the playing fields that are so badly needed by kids in

Newport Beach.

Not only is this an opportunity to make a commitment to our kids

by showing them that we really are serious about diet and exercise,

but Newport Beach would be far less beholden to and at the mercy of

those misguided citizens in Costa Mesa who want to poke their eye

with a soccer field at every opportunity.

As badly needed as the fields are, the water thrown on this fire

of an idea will be from those who look at the Marinapark property and

see dollar signs.

Some of us see dollar signs there too. Only we see an investment

in the future of our children.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident. Readers may leave a

message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at (714) 966-4664.