{"id":5188,"date":"2003-10-18T10:04:05","date_gmt":"2003-10-18T17:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=5188"},"modified":"2003-10-18T10:04:05","modified_gmt":"2003-10-18T17:04:05","slug":"hey_you_kids_ge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/10\/18\/hey_you_kids_ge.html","title":{"rendered":"Hey, you kids! Get off my … street!"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 68-year-old couple on a cul-de-sac in baby-booming Highlands Ranch has been dealt a setback in their campaign to keep kids from playing in the cul-de-sac<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It seems that it’s illegal for kids to be playing in the street, so faced with hordes of annoying children in this bedroom community, the Zickerts were spending their day calling the sherriff and getting the parents of about two dozen families cited. Over and over again. Complete with surveillance cameras.<\/p>\n

“I don’t understand why they need to play in the street. Streets are for cars,” Fran Zickert says.<\/p>\n

In turn, the Zickerts claim, they’ve been subjected to curses, scrawled “I hate you” messages in their driveway, and moonings. <\/p>\n

Douglas County commissioners, who have to have been wondering if there were some real <\/i>county business to work on, have ended up identifying the cul-de-sac as a “play street,” which means that kids can legally play in it, so long as they clear the way for cars in 20 seconds, and keep equipment (backboards and street hockey nets) by the curb.<\/p>\n

Now, maybe I’m an unusual freak of nurture. I grew up on a cul-de-sac. I played in a cul-de-sac. I, for one, assume that when driving through a residential neighborhood, there will likely be kids playing in the street, and I adjust my speed and attention accordingly. I don’t look on this as some sort of Lord of the Flies <\/i>scenario, but as, well, part of life, something to expect, something natural and even to be encouraged. Aren’t we always ragging on our kids for sitting in their rooms watching TV or playing video games?<\/p>\n

Not that it’s a license to run out into the freeway or anything, and not that I expect to not verbally lambaste Katherine over her street-playing behavior. But that’s part of the tension and education of growing up: learning that rules are not absolutes, but that you’re expected sometimes to use your judgement. While the results sometime aren’t pretty, and, yes, can be tragic, the results of not <\/i>teach that lesson are even worse.<\/p>\n

The Zickerts aren’t impressed by the decision. Too bad. They claim that they have ten grandchildren, and love spending time with them. <\/p>\n

I wonder if they’ve polled their grandkids about the matter. Or their kids, for that matter.<\/p>\n

More commentary on both side of the dispute here <\/a>and here<\/a>. I have to say I find the “The Law is the Law, Dammit” attitude very illuminating; it’s part and parcel of the whole “Let’s exercise no discretion and judgement, let’s just set rules and then zap the hapless types that step over them” idea behind Zero Tolerance legislation in general. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 68-year-old couple on a cul-de-sac in baby-booming Highlands Ranch has been dealt a setback in their campaign to keep kids from playing in the cul-de-sac. It seems that it’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11209,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/03\/16\/look_ma.html","url_meta":{"origin":5188,"position":0},"title":"Look, Ma!","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 16-Mar-07 4:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"No training wheels! 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But there's a lot that seems like Big Picture Event Flashy Incredibly Cool Padding.That said, the final cul-de-sac scene is my favorite from the book, and it's perfect. I am tentatively thinking I'm going to see this in the theaters. View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7546,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/02\/08\/bike_walking.html","url_meta":{"origin":5188,"position":3},"title":"Bike Walking","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 8-Feb-05 6:51am","format":false,"excerpt":"Since I'd picked up Katherine early from pre-school (after recovering the car from the shop), we went for a \"bike walk\" around the block. 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Amusing bit of the visit was the vet not seeing Mimi at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Pets"","block_context":{"text":"Pets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/pets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5097,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/11\/02\/weekend_update.html","url_meta":{"origin":5188,"position":5},"title":"Weekend Update","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 2-Nov-03 8:29pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Stupid mundane details nobody wants to read, but which I feel compelled to chronicle ......","rel":"","context":"In "Gaming"","block_context":{"text":"Gaming","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gaming"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}