And end the scourge of unsanctioned Wiffle ball in their midst!

Seems the kids built their field on overgrown town property, and the neighbors don't like them having healthy, outdoor recreation near their homes.

Vincent Provenzano, 16 years old, experienced his Kevin Costner moment one Sunday afternoon in May after a thrilling day of Wiffle ball in a friend’s backyard. He came home, gazed at a field of weeds, brush and poison ivy in an empty lot off Riverside Lane, turned to his friend Justin Currytto, 17, and proclaimed: “If we build it, they will come.”

After three weeks of clearing brush and poison ivy, scrounging up plywood and green paint, digging holes and pouring concrete, Vincent, Justin and about a dozen friends did manage to build it — a tree-shaded Wiffle ball version of Fenway Park complete with a 12-foot-tall green monster in center field, American flag by the left-field foul pole and colorful signs for Taco Bell Frutista Freezes.

But, alas, they had no idea just who would come — youthful Wiffle ball players, yes, but also angry neighbors and their lawyer, the police, the town nuisance officer and tree warden and other officials in all shapes and sizes. It turns out that one kid’s field of dreams is an adult’s dangerous nuisance, liability nightmare, inappropriate usurpation of green space, unpermitted special use or drag on property values, and their Wiffle-ball Fenway has become the talk of Greenwich and a suburban Rorschach test about youthful summers past and present.

“People can remember how much fun it was to go out in the woods in the summer, build a fort, do something fun and creative, so there’s something pretty cool in what these kids did, especially at a time kids grow up in such an incredibly structured and stressful environment,” said Lin Lavery, one of three Greenwich selectmen, who inherited Wifflegate while the first selectman, Greenwich’s version of mayor, is on vacation.

“But we have a situation that’s escalated,” Ms. Lavery said. “Neighbors are upset that it’s too close to their property; building has been done on town property; there are issues of traffic and drainage. We’re hoping to come up with a compromise, but there are a lot of issues to address.”

Actually, it strikes me that there is only one -- the fact that we as a society have moved so far from the standards that were in place a mere three or four decades ago, when the town's mayor would have patted the kids on their backs for their initiative and improvement of the property. The town would then bring it up to snuff -- having told the neighbors that this was an improvement and an amenity for the city, not a public nuisance.

Alas, we are now in a different, litigious age when NIMBYs with clout are able to strike down things that benefit the public -- whether those are US Senators shutting down wind turbines needed to establish energy independence because they would create a barely discernible smudge on the horizon, or neighbors who are worried that letting the towns young people engage in healthy, wholesome recreational activities might disturb their own serenity.

Posted by: Greg at 01:51 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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