EDITORIALS:Remember the days when kids played in parks?

A new group has formed in Newport Beach with the name Parks Are Priceless.

We tend to agree. And we wonder just when it happened that parks, especially now in Costa Mesa, became no longer priceless, but passive.

When we were growing up, parks were a coveted and lively piece of the neighborhood. Children flocked there to play on the slides or the swings. Parks were places for picnics and quiet strolls, yes, but nobody seemed to mind if a game of over-the-line, flag football, dodge ball or — perish the thought — soccer broke out.

Somehow, that has changed. Neighbors who live near parks, who bought homes near parks, now complain about the noise, about kids or adults actually using the parks. We long for the time when people worried less about their property values being tarnished because a park is being used nearby and instead took pride in the people who made up the whole fabric of the community — even those who played sports in parks.

But thanks to a vocal minority, Paularino Park, which once had no restrictions at all on sports, now has been declared “passive” by the Costa Mesa City Council.

Hey kids, want to play some catch?

Nope, not allowed.

Want to throw a Frisbee?

That one could really cost you.

Parks, in our day, were never like that. They didn’t have the heavy hand of government telling us what we could and couldn’t do in them — as long as it was reasonable, of course.

Well, that’s changed, and ironically the change came from a council that forever decries increasing government power.

Excuse us for scratching our heads on this one. Somehow, this council believes expanding the reach of government to increase early gang intervention or to ask developers to build more affordable housing is not a good thing.

But clamping down on park users to stop the mortal danger of soccer balls is perfectly fine.

We’re being facetious, of course. But, no joke, that was part of the argument that was made to turn Paularino Park “passive.” Soccer balls are dangerous weapons, the park silencers said. Some people can be killed by soccer balls.

Well, using that logic, let’s immediately shut down all AYSO soccer games now, or at least require spectators to wear helmets. Because as any soccer mom or dad will tell you, balls consistently fly from the field and onto the sidelines at high velocity at each and every game.

Somehow, that trend in soccer ball deaths at AYSO games hasn’t been big enough to make the evening news.

Council members Eric Bever and Wendy Leece, who voted over Councilwoman Linda Dixon’s objections to declare the park passive, are famously part of the so-called “improvers.”

If cracking down on our freedoms like this is “improvement,” then someone has changed the very definition of the word.