Orleans Weekly Journal
Published: Friday, August 29, 2008 Parking at the park during tourney time If you have kids in house league soccer or baseball, you have either just completed an end of season tournament or will do so over the next few weekends. My son’s soccer tourney was last weekend – we lost in the finals, oh well – and for us the annual tourney has become an end of summer ritual (before school starts, yikes!) complete with a touch of Baileys in our head out the door coffee, great conversation throughout the day and a chance to share in the joy of watching dozens of kids compete and have a blast. Regardless of the league or sport, the format is pretty consistent. Three to four games played in a day or split over two. This adds up to mondo traffic headaches at the Hornets nest in Blackburn Hamlet, Millennium Park at Trim, the fields at Ray Friel and Roy Hobbs or wherever you play. In speaking with our local councillors, given this volume of traffic – think 100-plus cars and vans trying to park in 23 spots – problems are bound to occur. But most of these can be solved or avoided by using common sense and some advance planning. To start, local leagues need to communicate with their councilors (and most do) and the city to notify them that traffic and parking will be an issue. But these leagues should go further and arrange for overflow parking where they can and remind parents that fire zones, hydrants and clearly marked no-parking areas are in effect for a reason. A glorious and sunny late-August Saturday afternoon does not excuse stupidity. Rules are rules. In turn, councillor’s offices need to work (which most do) with bylaw services to ensure that over-zealous green hornets don’t go ballistic and ticket like a meteor is going to hit the earth tomorrow, putting some mythical ticket quota in jeopardy. As well, if you are fortunate to live near one of our great parks, sorry, but the seasonal and year-end traffic is a small price to pay for the joy (and likely increased property value) of living near your own little suburban oasis. Finally, as visitors to these parks and other neighbourhoods, we too must shoulder responsibility to not only obey all posted signs but strive to be cognizant of local traffic trying to get in and out of their own driveways. As well, remember to pack up all of your litter, water bottles, sandwich wrappers, etc., that accumulate after four, six or more hours at the field in question. Is this column preachy? Well, too bad. It just takes one jerk or a field of litter to enrage a local neighbourhood and jeopardize the issuance of permits and the future use of local fields. And this would be the greatest disservice to our kids. With that … enjoy your tourney and GO TEAM GO! = = = = = Comments can be sent to Walter Robinson at orleansouttakes@transcontinental.ca. |