Basketball goals on the curbs of residential streets...

[BikeWriter]

[purr]

1. My drug addict neighbors have one and every damn time I go somewhere

and come back the kids are in the middle of the road and they WILL NOT move for cars. If you honk at them they give you the most evil dirty look like I'm not supposed to be driving. Jerks.

[BikeWriter]

2. If they don't get out of my way quickly I call the police.

[Oeditpus Rex]

3. Every time I see one, I think

"Good on the kids for bein' outside shootin' hoop." :thumbsup:

[BikeWriter]

4. It's healthier than the boob tube, but I'd rather they be on a patio...

than in our streets. Our streets are intended for vehicular travel, not play.

[Oeditpus Rex]

8. I'd rather they be in a gym

with a proper basketball floor, backboards, rims and nets, etc. Same goes for baseball, football, soccer and what have you. But such facilities aren't readily available in most cases. And I'll never discourage kids from sport.

I recall the time five or six of us were playing Three Flies Up in the street — about 10 years old, we were — and the 17-year-old who lived in the next block (this was in the days when you knew your neighbors) came hot-rodding down the quiet residential street at about 45 mph. We got out of the way in plenty of time, but as he barreled through he leaned on his horn, and in what might've been my first-ever act of civil disobedience I threw my glove and hit his right rear fender. He stood on the brake, jumped out of the car and yelled, "YOU TRY THAT AGAIN AND I'LL KNOCK THE SHIT OUT OF YOU!"

I don't know if I have a point. I'm just sayin'.

[bigwillq]

5. I'm cool with it.

We have a lot of those in the neighborhoods by my house.

[BikeWriter]

6. Do the kids up there move out of traffic's way?

[bigwillq]

7. Not all the time

but I don't care as long as they're playing hoops and not getting into different kinds of trouble.

[philosophie_en_rose]

9. As long as the kids are careful & polite, it's okay with me.

I don't like the idea of little kids playing in the street, but teenagers shooting hoops in the street is okay. As long as they watch for cars and MOVE when the car comes, it's fine.

[BikeWriter]

12. The moving part is what some of the street gangs have a problem with.

[fishnfla]

10. I have a huge problem with it

I stop my truck and yell loudly "pass me the ball dude!"

I dont move my truck until I hit a long shot. Sometimes I show up for work all sweaty

I cant believe you are bitching about this

I cant believe you call the cops if they dont get out of your way

<shakes head>

[BikeWriter]

11. Hey, I have a license to be in the street.

You haven't seen the way some of these "kids" act.

[Gormy Cuss]

13. Basketball's nothing. Street hockey is the real deal.

Seriously, whether street games are acceptable depends on 1)the level of traffic on the street 2)the attitudes of the players and 3)the availability of alternative locations. In my neighborhood street hockey was a big deal and it was played in the street because that was the only available recreational space. There weren't patios or driveways in front of garages. Most of the residences were multifamily with tiny buffer zones, not real yards. Kids had no other practical choice except of course to eschew playing street games. This was back in the Stone Age before those portable hoops were available so it may be basketball games there now.

The street was a shortcut for drivers avoiding the adjacent thoroughfare. We had a fair amount of traffic and frequently the drivers were speeding. The truckers were the most tolerant and considerate of the lot. The worst pissants were the jacket-and-tie wearing men driving ego mobiles. They were so important that slowing down for a block apparently just ruined the whole day for them.

So I say, it depends. If the kids don't cede the lane after the completion of the current play, they're being jerks. If drivers can't be bothered to slow down a little, so are they.

[LeftyMom]

14. We had them on my street growing up

but it had very little through traffic, because it's circle that connects to a side street.