Marseille, 2012

to a Parisian park one day to toss a baseball back and forth in what we Americans call a game of catch.  But a security guard quickly told us to desist, explaining that this game was not on the list of allowable activities.   I took that to mean that every form of recreation was banned in this park unless explicitly approved.  (Had the ball been of the soccer variety, we would have been left alone.)  An article this week in The Economist reminded me of that day some 20 years ago.   Trustees of Munsey Park, N.Y., a village on Long Island, recently banned street basketball for aesthetic reasons (the hoops spoil the manicured village landscape) while still allowing street hockey (whose goal posts can be removed after the game).   Apparently this is only one example of an increasing tendency of local administrations to curb street games in America.   A former Socialist prime minister of France once declared that government exists for the purpose of making rules and regulations.   What other reason could there be?

Toulon, 2013

Mumbai, 2011

Paris, 2013