Just something I was thinking about today

We live across the street from a park. It has two soccer / football fields and a baseball diamond. Ever since we moved to this house in 1998, there has been rugby played in the park all summer long. Rugby isn't a sport I follow, but I have nothing against it. I often watched in disgust however while the players would race into the neighbourhood (through the playground zone), jockey for a parking spot on the street, crank their tunes in impromptu car stereo competitions while waiting for their games / practises to start, swear like troopers at the top of their lungs, then drag race out of the neighbourhood (again through the playground zone). This happened several times a week at night and some weekends the field would be dominated by day long testosterone-fests.

Over the years my neighbour ( an older lady in her 70s - rest her soul) often asked them politely not to park in front of our homes (there's school lots and a whole side of the street open to park users), or to please can the car stereo contests, or to stop the drag races, but was always met with choice words not suitable for your mother. So this crap basically went on for at least 10 years while I've been here.

This year I noticed that the rugby players haven't made a showing at all. Curious, I mentioned it to another neighbour, who said he knew why. Last year he caught one of the players peeing on his front fence. Fed up, he called the City to complain about their continual antics that had been going on for years. The City said, "Uh, we don't know what you're talking about - we have no records of any rugby teams licensed to play in your field". So the neighbour invited the City official over to watch the next practise. Turns out the players had been using the park without permission. As soon as the City had proof and identified the clubs involved, they threatened the teams to get their asses off the field permanently, or their license to use any field in the city would be permanently revoked.

And they haven't been back since.