Persimmon Place Subdivision Wants to Ban Kids From Playing Outside

The big vote was on April 27th, last Friday.  Can you please respond with the outcome? Did parents and homeowners hire an attorney? Can they please provide a lead.  Here in California we are faced with the exact same situation.  My eight-year old daughter's responded:  "Mom, can they take away our freedom"?  Out of the mouth's of babes as the saying goes.   Besides the loss of freedom of children playing in their front door where they can be seen and heard by parents, what do these non-children families, which by the way most have dogs think?.......that the kids should move off their property onto the street to play where there is real traffic?  Do their dogs not make noise or represent same issue of "safety" with respect to cars "parking"? Shall we stop kids from playing in front of their homes and ban them only to TV and video games so they do not get any exercise at all and contribute to more to the real threat to the nation with the epidodemic of childhood obesity at the crippling affect this will have on the entire country?  What are they thinking?  Kids need to play for their own health and well-being.  This is not just an issue of freedom but of health in the community and the nation!

I have to say I have never thought children could ever be banned from playing outside. Until MondayJune 27, 2011. My children and I were BANNED from playing in our common yard right outside of our patio ( which is also a common area). The President of the Board came straight over to us and said we were not allowed to play in the common areas. When I asked her to show me where it states that in the laws/by-laws she couldn't. She claims it's there though and we were breaking the law and I should take my 4 childrens to the city park. One of my children is disabled. Two are special needs. We have been discriminated against for the last 3 yrs Ive lived here, but, this just takes the cake ! Is this discrimination? Discriminating against children with disabilities? Discriminating against family? Someone, anyone....HELP! This board has made my life miserable and has pushed anyone out with kids or is young, single, married or anyone who has stood up to them. The President has been trying to make this a senior home without actually putting it in writing. What can I do???????

Although this seems a little extreme to me, I can relate. I live in apartments and my building, which is set apart from the rest, is made up of one-bedroom units and no kids live in it. There is a playground in the back corner with basketball and other playground-y things. Recently, one family of little brats have taken to playing around our building and their main source of enjoyment is to ring our bells and run. It pisses me off because they shouldn't be playing there anyway and for some reason, because our complex is gated, these lazy parents seem to think it is one huge backyard for their brats to run around in, harassing the people who are unfortunate enough to live here. And of course, when I finally tracked down the unit where they lived (because normal people wouldn't approve of their kids doing this, so they couldn't possible know) I was called a BITCH after the father, a preacher, no less, denied having kids!! So although it seems easy to judge the woman in this article, you really have no idea what the situation is till you live it!!

Life imitates the Twilight Zone. Pretty soon, after the third infraction, the HOA will put the little fartlings to death, and then peace and quiet will reign supreme. Till the noisy Turkish family with the 8 kids moves in, then try enforcing your stupid HOA rules. See if that don't get your cars keyed.

Ah neighbors, will we ever get along? Of course, not. Only solution is to move. It's not that hard.

This one just drives me insane. It's not like they're living in a 55+ community. This is just your average run of the mill Ticky-Tacky House neighborhood. Shouldn't people be absolutely elated that their children are playing outside instead of sitting on their asses in front of a TV or a computer?

I spent my entire childhood hanging out in the middle of a street; riding bikes, rollerblading, riding a unicycle, drawing with chalk, and playing hockey. I mean the list really does go on and on and we were not bothering anyone as long as we were off the street by 9PM (a curfew set by our parents - 11PM is our town curfew).

People really just shock me with this sort of stuff. If this passes... well our world is just going to Hell in a handbasket.

Pete, please keep us up to date, I really want to know what the outcome of this one is.

COMMON AREA IS FOR EVERYONE THAT MEANS KIDS CAN PLAY THERE ALSO. IS THIS A SENIOR COMPLEX RETIRMENT OR FOR FAMILY'S W/KIDS SEEMS TO ME A COMPLEX FAMILY,W.KIDS NEED TO HAVE SPACE WHERE THE KIDS CAN PLAY SAFE BUT NOT ON ANOTHER'S PERSONS LAWN DRIVEWAY. CAN'T WAIT TO HEAR OF THE OUTCOME.

It is very rare to see kids playing outside now and days with the internet and all those gaming systems so to take this away from kids who like to be outside this is very sad. I hope that this women causing this gets laid since it sounds like she needs some. Leave these kids alone to have fun, grow up and make memories as kids do. They are growing up way to fast now and days. Ugh I hate bitchy people.

excessive noise says it all.The old bats don't care about "danger" it's a cul-de-sac, peeps drive slow anyway.They do not want children around.Did HOA let that be known before the sell of a house? Nope.Now, too effing bad.

Oh my god, "Beth Lane" sounds like a pain in the ass... here's another quote from the child-hater:

Board member and 16-year resident Beth Lane couldn't agree more.

She said when she moved into the complex in the 300 block of N. Ridgewood Avenue in Edgewater, it was made up primarily of older adults like herself, but recently several owners have rented their two or three bedroom town homes to families.

Is she TRYING to sound like a cranky old bat?

"Board member Beth Lane said the issue is a matter of safety.

"If I had kids and was looking for a place to live (knowing) there is no place for kids to play except in the driveway I would not think that was safe," Lane said."

So it's an issue of safety, though there have been no problems. The proposal specifically asks for a ban on "loud toys" (those are unsafe, now?).

I like that "If I had kids..." that's pretty telling. I mean, the bitch is pretty much saying "We don't want parents with children living in our association, and if they do, then they're evil bad parents who hate safety!"

Even having embraced my inner curmudgeon at an early age, I'm hard pressed to see WTF these dingbats are on about with not wanting kids to be playing outside. This truly ranks up there with the stupidest things I've ever heard.

I wanted to add this: I saw one of the mothers on the news and she said that her unit is in a cul-de-sac and that's where the kids are playing. She said that the people that drive in the cul-de-sac know the kids are there, and the kids know to get out of the way when a car is coming. The story didn't seem to me like it was a situation where kids are doing wrong. It seems to me like the HOA wants the neighborhood to target young professionals or retirees without children. I think they just see children as a nuisance. The mother on the news said that she would love to see how they try to make them pay their fines. I'm interested to see how this pans out because it could be the benchmark case needed for all the dumbass HOAs out there.

Oh those poor unsupervised kids are going to have to get their lazy parents to take them to a park. Boooo hooooo.