As Mom always said: Go play in the street (UPDATED)

First no dogs on Fountain Square, now this? Cincinnati City Manager Milton “NoFun” Dohoney is proposing an ordinance to ban all game-playing in city streets. It’s already illegal to use roller skates, skateboards or the like in the street except at a crosswalk. But police, according to Dohoney’s memo to City Council, increasingly find that residents are using streets to play basketball, baseball and football – kinda like most of us used to do when we were kids. What’s next? A rule requiring pedestrians to walk single file on the sidewalks and to avoid stepping on cracks?

UPDATE: On Wednesday, Dohoney issued a statement saying he was withdrawing the proposal because it "did not get the proper vetting in the Administration before I advanced it (and) I want to find a reasonable solution and exhaust other options before proposing an ordinance that affects citizens citywide." Translation from Bureaucratese: "We caught so much flak on this that we've got to take it back to the drawing board -- or bury it in the circular file." And why is Dohoney's office submitting ordinances that are not "properly vetted" first anyway?

Seriously, of course, there are legitimate safety issues here. The charm of playing stickball or H-O-R-S-E in the street has to give way to the hazardous realities of modern life. Nobody wants to see players struck by cars or traffic snarled by stubborn street athletes.

The ordinance also would allow officials to close roadways during low-traffic times to use as “play streets.” If city officials are really serious about that part of the proposal, they have an opportunity to turn a “thou shalt not” into a community-building positive.

A British organization called Living Streets, which “promotes walking through the creation of streets and public spaces that are accessible, safe and supportive,” proposes that the availability of play streets be expanded at residents’ request, making streets available on Sunday afternoons for youngsters to meet and play. Further, it advocates designing and adapting streets to allow year-round play in some areas.

The idea, notes Living Streets, is to promote “social cohesion” – something Cincinnati could certainly use as well. As Robert Frost might or might not put it, good streets make good neighbors.

Still, you wonder just how widespread the “problem” of unauthorized street sports really is in Cincinnati, and whether city officials have bigger things to worry about right now. Come to think of it … maybe while they’re at it, City Council members will consider an ordinance to require that the Bengals play in the streets – along with non-incumbent council candidates, of course.