SOUNDING OFF:

I was disappointed as I watched Charlene Ashendorf’s poignant presentation before the Costa Mesa City Council last week as she told them, and all of us watching, of the vandalism that destroyed the basketball hoop she had gotten for her husband a couple of years ago.

I was disappointed as I read the subsequent accounts on these pages, both by reporters and columnist Jim Righeimer. I was disappointed because it is clear that the Grinch is alive and well in Mesa Verde and is not restricting his foul activities to Christmas.

I can’t figure out what kind of a sourpuss would first anonymously try to have the city code enforcement folks haul off the basketball rig and, when that failed because of the intervention of good neighbors, sneak back under cover of darkness and destroy it. There are many words that pop to mind that might accurately describe this person, but my editor friends would undoubtedly not print them. I’m afraid “inconsiderate jerk” will have to do — for now.

For most of the past decade we’ve had a basketball hoop in our neighborhood exactly like the one Ashendorf lost — right next door to my house. For most of that time, almost every day after school I would hear the ka-thunk, ka-thunk, ka-thunk as my young neighbors and their friends shot baskets and played impromptu games in the street beside my home. Every time it brought a smile to my face.

Over the years I’ve watched children in our neighborhood as they struggled to master basketball. First they used smaller balls and had the hoop adjusted so they could fling it through. Later, as they grew, so did the hoop — they raised it to increase the challenge and improve their skills. I don’t think there has been a male child in our neighborhood — whether he eventually turned out to be a star in baseball, water polo, sailing, swimming, soccer, football, tennis, surfing, kayaking or track — who has not tried his luck with that hoop at one time or another.

Rather than reduce property values, that hoop increased them. It showed potential home buyers in our neighborhood that we are a family-friendly place — where kids could safely play in the streets. Sadly, the years and weather have taken their toll on the rig, and it was finally dismantled and retired by my neighbor.

But guess what? Down at the end of our block another hoop has miraculously appeared in front of the home of a family of four, standing proudly, ready to serve another crew of little hoopsters and to continue to demonstrate that happy, active children thrive in our neighborhood.

I feel bad for Ashendorf and her husband, but recent comments reported on these pages indicate that this incident has given her renewed appreciation for most of her neighbors. Still, somewhere lurking in the shadows of Mesa Verde is the Grinch — waiting to impose his own grumpy standards on another unsuspecting neighbor. Thumbs down to him. Thumbs up to Charlene Ashendorf and her good neighbors as they display the kind of community spirit we Costa Mesans know so well.

GEOFF WEST lives in Costa Mesa.