I Thought I Escaped This

I grew up in an affluent suburb of Chicago and people bitched about the stupidest things. They bitched about how loud the music is played outdoors at restaurants downtown even though it wasn't as loud as the traffic going by on the street. They bitched about the bike paths being built hundreds of feet away from their properties. They bitched about how late the lights could be on at baseball fields. I thought when I moved away from there, I would not have to listen to such trival municipal squabbles. But apparently, whenever there is money, people need to find something to bitch about. Case in point, McLean, VA, a very affluent suburb of Washington, D.C. The West Lewinsville Heights Citizens Association is going to the Virginia Supreme Court against Fairfax County over an issue that could to tear this country's moral fiber apart, soccer fields that are within a few hundred feet of the neighborhood.

The homeowner's association is upset that Fairfax County approved the building of the fields without discussing it with them. The homeowner's association claims that the soccer fields create too much noise and have their lights on until 10 PM. Oh the humanity!! You would think that the way the homeowner's association is bitching about these soccer fields that 10,000 people come to these soccer fields every weekend and root during their son's or daughter's game like they were watching Liverpool or Manchester United. But that is not the case. What is really burning their ass is that the soccer league that plays there, McLean Youth Soccer, is allowing Marymount University (located in Arlington County) to play there and up to 150 people show up to watch their games. Are you kidding me? What's even more unbelievable about this situation is that even if the homeowner's association wins this lawsuit, it will only ban Marymount University from playing there. So people who live in the neighborhood will still have to deal with all this "noise" and the lights being on until 10 PM.

While to most rationally thinking people, this dispute seems to be quite petty, the people in Fairfax County seem to thrive on being petty. Recently, when another park was being built in McLean, the neighbors near the park stipulated that "musical performances there be limited to non-amplified '5-string and/or woodwind instruments.'" If I ever become like any of these people in Fairfax County, I want somebody to hit me repeatedly.