At 50, Costa Mesa is not unlike those of us who are staring down the
barrel of middle age. It's not old, but it's not young either. The
knees hurt from time to time. The hair's thinning in some places and
fading to shades of gray in others. But still we've got some energy
and a half century of wisdom behind us. Or so we should hope.
What I have seen of Costa Mesa at 50, during my yearlong tenure on
the city's Parks and Recreation Commission, is a city that indeed has
energy and a lot of hope for a better future. These are things to
hold on to. But there's plenty to fret about, too.
The hopeful things about Costa Mesa are these. In the 1990 to 2000
census period, the city's population of 5- to 9-year-olds increased
by nearly a third. Its population of 10- to 14-year-olds almost
doubled. And its contingent of 15- to 19-year olds grew by nearly
40%. Clearly, Costa Mesa is a family town -- a place where parents
feel good about raising their youngsters. That's a good thing.
Another hopeful sign is the outstanding quality of our Parks and
Recreation Department programs. Costa Mesa provides thousands of
children opportunities to learn, run, laugh and play in a world that
increasingly demands more of their parents' time, which means having
fewer ticks on the clock to spend with their kids.
That aside, here's where the furrowed brow comes in. From several
fronts, an ill wind is blowing through town that seems to want to
uproot and dismantle many of the recreational institutions -- and
their support structures -- that keep our city's youngsters happy,
engaged, fit and off the streets.
Ponder these headlines for a moment.
Last summer, members of the Mese Verde Villas Homeowners Assn.
marched -- with attorney in tow -- before the Parks and Recreation
Commission and the City Council. Their condominiums, sandwiched on
Iowa Street between TeWinkle Intermediate School and the San Diego
Freeway, they claim, were being inundated with the sounds and sites
of too much Little League baseball, an onslaught of AYSO soccer
games, and the usual symptoms that go with kids and families playing
organized, supervised sports on the weekend and after school. They
demanded that the city reduce the number of hours our city's youth
could play on these fields.
Just two weeks ago these same folks stood before the city's
Planning Commission, lobbying to force Costa Mesa Little League
groups to remove their sponsor banners during the week from the
outfield fences at the TeWinkle School's baseball diamonds. The
