I have fond memories of playing basketball in the street with my younger brother and all the neighborhood kids. When a car comes down the block we'd always just yell "car!" and move out of the way. In my opinion Norton Street is plenty wide to play a game of basketball while still safely allowing cars to get by. These kids have reclaimed public space in a way only children can. We should celebrate this marvelous achievement, not complain about it all day.

That is your opinion, I have lived here for over 30 years and not had this problem here. So what ever you have done when you were a kid is your business. And no its not wide enough when you have about 20 kids in the middle of the street playing teams and sitting in chairs taking up parking spaces and speaking foul languages to people who blow the horn at them. When one of these kids are hit and killed just the way kids are being hit and killed throughout ours new haven streets ever year then I want to see what you would say then.

many of our streets, like norton, need to be slowed down to a shared, park like space so kids can play on them. i was just in a city in the midwest, and half the streets in the residential areas were blocked off and paved in ways so that people (not just cars) could use them. we don't need every street to be a highway. that is what kills people and kills the quality of life in this town.

let whalley and boulevard carry some traffic cross town and turn the others into 5-10MPH thoroughfares for local traffic and living.

i thought there was a park right near this location? or atleast a parking lot? i agree that these kids are going to get hit by a driver. it's only a matter of time.

Taylor,

You are right ! There is a park down the street that has a basketball court, baseball field, open field where we played when we were kids living in this neighborhood. And we always played in the parking lot down the street after business hours and on weekends. Not only that , if someone had a basketball court we didn't play with it in the front yard or the streets, We played with it in our yards. Our parents didn't allow us to play in the front yard because they cared about our well being. These parents don't care because they are not even out there all day or night when these children that are 4 years old running around in the street. And teenagers from other neighborhoods come in and destroy, disrespect because they don't live over here. And on top of all of that the police ride by and don't stop to do anything about it.

I appreciate your concern for the safety of these children and adolescents and I do believe it is a noble (and human) concern. Nevertheless, I feel it is important to recognize that the seemingly obvious notion that these kids are creating an unsafe situation by playing in the street is not necessarily true. I'm not saying that anyone can prove that it's false and that there's nothing to worry about; all I'm saying is that the empirical data might suggest a different conclusion. For years planners have struggled to understand why bicycle fatality rates in Europe--where pedestrians walk all over the street and cyclists never wear helmets and ride their bikes all over freakin' creation and drivers behave as if this is a giant game of bumper cars--were so DRAMATICALLY LOWER here in the states--where pedestrians and cyclists fear for their lives and drivers follow the rules (believe it or not) much more dilligently than anywhere this side of Japan (where motorists, and people in general, are notoriously law-abiding). This alone doesn't necessarily prove anything (individual observations rarely do). However, recently public health researchers have noticed something else, pedestrian and bicycle fatality rates have proven to be inversely proportional to the number of pedestrians and cyclists on the road over time in city after city in the United States. Last year, Portland, OR reported the fewest number of pedestrian fatalities since they started keeping record in 1928. In New York City, where a lot of people wouldn't even think about cycling has simultaneously seen a dramatic rise in the number of people bicycling to work and an equally impressive drop off in the rate of bicycle fatalities. There are obviously a lot of factors involved and much more research needs to be done before anyone can say anything definitively, the "safety in numbers" theory is gaining steam.

Obviously, this sort of general knowledge is only ever marginally applicable to any single case. My point is merely to point out that there is at least a possibility that children playing in the streets might actially make our streets safer and reduce traffic fatality rates.

Several grammatical corrections to the previous comment:
--Delete the "In" that appears before "New York City."
--Insert "but" before "the 'safety in numbers' theory."
Thanks!

Another grammatical correction:
--insert a comma after "even think about cycling" to properly set off the appositive.

They play in the street because there is no place else to play . Some of these kids might be voters . Maybe these bloggers are trying to tell us that they are gentrified preferred residents and plain in the street and children are a thing of the past - probably the same landbarons who post "no children -no pets" in their rental ads.
Anyone for kick the can

typos are catchy -lost my spell check (vistas)
playing...in..the..street...
Kickin ones can ? ..?

Is the hoop on wheels? Just go out at 4am and Wheel it down the street to the next block.

i drove by there once , i saw two Ladies on a porch observing. So maybe when someone drove by the "guardian" at the time went inside for lemonade,for when life hands u a lemon...

to clear up everything, just today cops came by because the kids were in the streets disrupting traffic. And because of this BASKETBALL COURT i has been attracting young teenage drug dealers on bikes. After a while we will have another drug block just like the streets behind us like winthrop and carmel. I have seen how these neighborhoods go down. I have been here before and I refuse to have myself , my wife and kids or my parents who live here as well to afraid to come out to cut grass or work in the garden because these kids who have no respect for their elders take over our neighborhood!!

this issue has been fixed. I thank the New Haven Police department for all their assistance through this situation.

I want to thank the new haven police department for their assistance through this issue.

I own the house two blocks down from the basketball hoop, and before the hoop was removed, I had awful personal experiences with the basketball hoop. The most annoying part was not only watching the kids run into the street but also watching the basketball hit my car over and over. When my roommate went out to the boys and asked them to make sure they tried to guard the cars from the ball, a 40-year-old man who had been sitting on the porch came down and screamed at her. He said that he had every right to have the basketball hoop there, and then asked her if she wanted to see a ball hit a car---- and SLAMMED the ball into her windshield!

I really didn't mind the hoop at first, since I was pretty familiar with the boys who originally used it. But then, like most unsupervized activities, youth from all over came to play, leaving their trash behind and even breaking my fence rails.

What most of the prior posts don't mention, and most probably don't know, is that the hoop had been in the back yard for the last three years, and was used almost every day. They didn't need to "reclaim the road." They have a backyard, that's paved, and two great parks just blocks away.

I own the house two blocks down from the basketball hoop, and before the hoop was removed, I had awful personal experiences with the basketball hoop. The most annoying part was not only watching the kids run into the street but also watching the basketball hit my car over and over. When my roommate went out to the boys and asked them to make sure they tried to guard the cars from the ball, a 40-year-old man who had been sitting on the porch came down and screamed at her. He said that he had every right to have the basketball hoop there, and then asked her if she wanted to see a ball hit a car---- and SLAMMED the ball into her windshield!

I really didn't mind the hoop at first, since I was pretty familiar with the boys who originally used it. But then, like most unsupervized activities, youth from all over came to play, leaving their trash behind and even breaking my fence rails.

What most of the prior posts don't mention, and most probably don't know, is that the hoop had been in the back yard for the last three years, and was used almost every day. They didn't need to "reclaim the road." They have a backyard, that's paved, and two great parks just blocks away.

Wow - that sucks, but not surprising in the least.
So much for the responsible Adults watching over the Chilldren.
He might have some girlfriend in the house even more terrified than the neighbors.
Might not even live there, just sippin on the Mad Dog 21 and seized the opportunity to scare y'all , scare the kids , scare the ex

Let's all go to 371 Norton and play in the street.

There is and always was a Parent watching their kids . These kids live there, it's no different than these students skateboarding or throwing a frisbee.
Next time you have a question or suggestion dear kind neighbor -
You go to the Parent or guardian that was obviously watching their kids . Sadly and truthfully these Yalies do not have the intelligence to deal with an Adult but want to admonish and talk down to your children.
So lacking in class that the end can only justify their mean

First, kids should not throw a frisbee or play basketball in the road. Second, parents always watching their kids? You should not watch your kid run into traffic. Third, how is asking for a middle school kid to guard the ball from hitting the car a sign of a lack of intelligence or a way of "talking down?" I own my house, have lived her for over three years, and have never had a problem with any of my neighbors. If you live on this block, I'd love for you to come over, and explain how a parent throwing a basketball at a windshield show intelligence or class.

I heard they stay within the bounds . From the curb to the bike lane do they play with such skills , such mad skills , jealousy will get ya no where woman... They are a lot smarter in regards to getting out of the way of oncoming traffic.
Unlike these polypropylened latex skivy wearing bicyclist who do'nt have enough sense to move out of the way

We need to stop. It's going to be a long hot summer and these things can be settled man-o-a-mano .
Why don't you all have a block party ?
Cook up some hot dogs , Tug o War , Be as one with your community . Unity .

I'm a Black WomaN , and i know when the ***editted for content*** are good and when they are not.
These are nice folks from the suburbs who only want to Gentrify that area and open gift shops. Lady i know you were right , and if they bother you again than I will move out

They just might be setting up drug dealing operations and will use that as a front and cover - they would have to get rid of any area do gooders

I do remember that! I didn't know that someone was rude to your roommate. We have to keep our neighborhood peaceful , if not it eould be the wild wild west here.

I think a block party is a great idea. Building relationships may be the only solution to any neighborhood issue. Is anyone familiar with setting one up? I saw one a few weeks ago on Elm by Ellsworth. I teach here in New Haven, so I currently have some free time and would be happy to spearhead it with some advice.

That sounds like a great idea but I would rather have a forum in which we can all meet maybe every month to discuss issues concerning the neighborhood. Having a block party just puts a band aid over the problems that are going on.

Seems like the issue was fixed. will close.