Maybe if Chastain86 has access to a truck, him and a buddy could introduce those signs to a dumpster. 
:DChrist knows I would.
Chastain86, you are NOT out of line. Not at ALL! Since we’ve moved into our house, also in a subdivision just north of Dallas that is a Very Nice Place To Live™,we have experienced this problem out the wazoo. Only without the annoying yellow barricades. It seems like the parents around here think it is ok (when it’s actually against city code,funnily enough) to put portable basketball goals up on their yard that stick out into the street. There are about three dozen in my subdivision alone so I’m constantly almost hitting kids who are playing half-court basketball out in the damned street. That and the family who moved in three houses down from me recently has a pair of middle-school age (they look like they are 12-14ish) girls who think it’s ok to ride their bikes all over OTHER people’s yards. One day I went down and politely explained to their mom I didn’t want her kids to ride their bikes through MY yard since there is a sidewalk AND a street they could ride on. Imagine that…riding on the SIDEWALK!:smack: The mom just as politely and patiently explained her daughters didn’t want to wear helmets and so she told them they could only ride on the grass. I cannot put a fence around my front yard to keep them out though I would dearly love to because a fence would be against home owner association policy(and the HOA is another rant entirely).
So I feel for ya buddy.
IDBB
Call the cops next time. I’m sure they will get a citation for blocking the road. What if an ambulance or fire truck had to get down that street? Children and cones would be flying like bowling pins.
The only thing I’d say, Chastain, would be that maybe it might have been good to talk to the parents about it before the committee…that way you could explain rationally and clearly your views about the dangerousness of it and they wouldn’t have felt like you were getting them in trouble behind their backs.
And THEN if that didn’t work, go tell on their sorry asses to the committee.
Y’know, the thought DID cross my mind to do exactly that. However, the problem was this: We’re not close with the neighbors at all. Honestly, I don’t think I know one of their names, so Mrs. Chastain and I simply refer to them as Baby Factory Mom and Baby Factory Dad, and Little Asshats. 
Still, at the time, it seemed like it would have been totally out of the blue for either of us to broach our neighbors on their questionable parenting, so we decided in our infinite wisdom (ahem) to bring the Association in on it. Apparently our Association is also made up of morons, because it’s evident that whatever they told the neighbors also included the identity of the complainees–hence all the snide remarks. Shit, if I wanted to be ostracized by the neighbors I’d have aired my grievances to them myself and saved a phone call. I suppose it really wouldn’t matter either way–I’m the only neighbor around Baby Factory Family that doesn’t have any kids, so the rat was probably easy to pick out.
Glad to see others feel similarly to me about this.
I’m toying with the idea of leaving the URL for this thread taped to their windshield one day this week. Thoughts? 
Do you live on a public street accepted by the municipality or a private road owned by the subdivision?
I do not know Arizona law, but in New York, barricading a public street without a permit in the absence of a bona fide emergency is a criminal offense. North Carolina takes a more flexible attitude towards necessary temporary blockage (e.g., emplacing manufactured housing, utility repairs) but I’m fairly sure requires a permit for any extended barricading.
One obvious point that both you and your neighbors have been overlooking is the idea of emergency vehicles requiring access to that street.
You might research AZ law on the subject (if somebody doesn’t jump on it first and post it here) and present that to the committee.
Call me overly cautious, but I don’t think that would be a good idea.
Chances are that reading this thread would get them pissed not only at you, but also the Chicago Reader. I can’t speak for the Admins here, but I imagine that they would prefer it if you didn’t involve this board in your personal disputes in such a direct manner.
we used to live in an area of belfast where the kids played in the street. being a smart kid, i worked out how to open the front gate and join them.
my parents moved.
seriously, the kids should be in the garden or the park.
roads are for cars.
Our neighborhood is a single street - I live on the cul de sac at the end. All the kids play in the street, but they also all clear the way for cars. And the speed limit is 25, so it’s not like we’re racing thru.
The problem we had was the kids who cut thru our yard to get to the conservation area behind our house. All of our neighbors had put privacy fences across their property and ours was the only one that had access. I told at least a half-dozen of them to quit going across our property before it stopped. Plus when the neighborhood association told everyone that the conservation area was NOT a play area, they reigned in their young 'uns.
I’ll be so glad to get out of here, tho. I liked it better when we lived in the 1+ acre per house developments.
You weren’t at all out of line, Chastain. HOAs are half a step below fascists. “You vill conform!” I don’t live in an HOA neighborhood and never will. And if one ever forms around my house, they will be told to do several physically impossible sexual acts on themselves.
If you own your house, nothing lower than your municipal government should be able to tell you what to do with it. Period. I have no responsibility to uphold someone else’s property values.
Sorry…the very concept of HOAs ticks me off. It’s my anarchic side…
Let me just add my voice to the chorus, Chastain; your neighbors seem to be behaving asininely. No kid should be taught to play in the street, particularly if the street is open on both ends. I live on a dead-end street, and still the kids on the block don’t play in the street; their parents don’t let them. What a concept! And actually going to the extent of putting up signs to try to enforce your bizarre brand of kids’ recreation strikes me as pathological in the extreme.
The people who used to live next door to me were sort of textbook example of what you’re talking about. We live about a five-minute walk from a great park; not only does it have wide expanses of green, it has a playground with jungle gym, two softball fields, a river, a pond that doubles as an ice-skating rink in winter, tennis courts, basketball courts, and a swimming pool! Guess how many times my ex-neighbor took her kids to play in this park. That’s right: zero. In three years. She preferred to let her kids loose to pee in her front yard in broad daylight (yes, this actually happened. More than once).
So, in short, you go, Chastain!
She probably thought there were Bad People[sup]TM[/sup] in the park, so she kept her pwecious kiddies on the front lawn. Or maybe she’d miss her stories if she had to accompany them. :rolleyes:
Chastain86, you were most certainly not out of line. What concerns me is the “you’re taking a big risk” comment. Could this be construed to be a veiled threat?
Haj
Chastain86
100% agree on your rant.
These parents are fucking morons.
It amazes me how we all got by without yellow barricades in our streets growing up.
I hope some of these yuppie skum sucking baby factory asshat idiots are reading this. Wake up!!!
Whew. Thanks.
Actually, it’s kind of sad. She spent all her time inside with her daughter (their youngest), and her two boys were left to fend for themselves in the yard all goddamn day. No wonder they behaved like they were raised by wolves. Knowing the explanation didn’t make it any easier on her neighbors, though. Thank God they moved.
I for one think that the OP is way over-reacting.
Look, it’s really simple: your neighbors put up these barriers, which they had no right to do. However, the goal of those barriers was laudable in my opinion. I am 25, unmarried, no children, but the way some people drive down residential streets makes me want to rip them from their cars and beat them to a bloody pulp.
The reality of your situation is this: you have chosen to live in a residential neighborhood with lots of small children. Children will play in the street. I did when I was a child. My children probably will too. I bet you a million bucks that you did it as well. If you should accidentally hit one of these children, is it really going to be any consolation to you that you were driving the speed limit? That you, at least, were obeying the law? Sometimes 25 mph isn’t slow enough.
I appreciate that you are frustrated, and I appreciate the frustration of your neighbors at being forced to take down the barriers. So I propose a new way of handling this, one that does not involve snide comments.
When you pull onto your road, drive slowly. So slow you’re sure it’s too slow. You will be able to watch out for the kids who might be playing in the street, and your neighbors will have nothing to make snide comments about. I understand that as a non-parent you see this whole situation as an issue of rights, but I think that people spend too much time bitching about their rights and not enough time thinking of each other. Is slowing down a little really going to ruin your whole day? Are those thirty extra seconds you might have to spend getting to your house that precious? Be nice to your neighbors, and hopefully they will be nice to you.
Methinks Kyomara doth protest too much. On with the lynching of horrible neighbors!Down with HOAs!
IDBB
Yes, Kyomara, it would be a consolation to me that I was obeying the speed limit while I ran down somebody who was breaking the law. That’s one reason why we have the laws.
I suggest getting a bumper sticker saying, “If you don’t like my driving, don’t play in the street.”
What do your neighbors think the park is for?
I say get the bumpersticker.
IDBB:D
I went through this all summer with some of my parents’ neighbors’ kids. They would play out in the street during the hour when most people come home from work. This isn’t a side street, either; it’s an access street that leads directly from the gate. Another neighbor put a stop to it (at least temporarily) by driving up slowly and quietly and blasting his horn at them. That got the kids’ attention long enough that they’d listen to how dangerous (and stupid) playing in the street is.
The sad thing is, there are playgrounds within the subdivision so traffic wouldn’t be blocked by playing kids.
My main beef during the school year is bored kids playing in the street while waiting for the bus, but that’s a different thing entirely.
Robin