Mississauga city council has voted to keep its residential street sports ban in place, meaning hockey and basketball on the road will remain out of bounds.
The Nov. 6 vote came more than a year-and-a-half after Ward 2 Coun. Alvin Tedjo brought forward a motion aimed at amending the bylaws, noting that some residents have “weaponized” the existing rules to prevent kids from playing on their streets.
Mississauga has observed the ban since 1979. It was amended in 2010 to also include the prohibition of sporting equipment, like hockey and basketball nets, on the roadway.
Wow. Seems anti-childhood. Safety conscious, yes, but still…isn’t there a third way?
Truly being safety conscious would be doing things like traffic calming, removing through routes from side streets, lower speed limits and other solutions that don’t revovle reatriction of children. This does a little bit to improve safety but mostly shifts blame to parents and kids by making it illegal to play in the street, which might be the only outdoor space some kids have access to.