A few years ago, in 2010, the County Park across the street the basketball courts and the soccer field were reopen after a construction program to create a good soccer field for a local parochial school to practice. The par three golf course had remained opened and the basketball courts were redone with the construction. The County Park System put up all four basketball rims and nets on the new backboard and they were locked in place. Immediately a small group of neighbors complained about the nuisance of the full court basketball players and linked it with what they perceive as a rising crime rate in the neighborhood. I checked out the crime rate with police department and it turned out that the crime rate on the block was higher when the courts were shut down than when they reopened.
However, there had been a change in the players on the basketball full court that probably was behind some of the vocal complainers. The basketball courts had been around for over 30 years and had started with young adults white males playing full court basketball. There had been an active Asian young adult group using basketball courts and old soccer field before construction.
However, as basketball rims were taken down in park after park in surrounding white neighborhoods after they were used by African American young adult males; many young men had drifted over to play basketball in Doyne Park.
I need to admit there was some behavior problems with some of the young men but after talking with them and hearing their experiences of discrimination the behavior got better. We launched a Resurrect the Rims campaign but nevertheless one of the full court rims was taken down to prevent full court basketball playing by anyone. The two half courts were never a problem and were kept up. For awhile the three remaining rims that were left were locked and taken down each night by the parks department.
After a number of neighborhood meetings and mention of the nasty word “segregation” all four rims were put up last year and left up. The behavior of the young adults improved and even one of the organizers of removing full court rims who lives right behind the basketball courts remarked to me things had changed and we a good summer and fall.
When the weather turned and golf course opened in March we asked the County Parks Department Chief of Administration External affairs when the rims would be restored and since two rims were stolen last year, we asked that the rim locks be restored.
This year the two full court rims were restored but the two half courts, at least to my observation, were not. I thought that strange since no one had ever complained about the half courts used many by children, teens and families. The head of Administration and external relations said she would look into it but never responded.
Today I noticed one of the full court rims were taken down. I called the Director of Administration and she said it was an “operation decision” decision to not put up the half court rims this year and she did not know why one of the full court rims was missing. I ask about the Operation decision to not put up the two half court rims. She said it was a ‘team’ decision although and she was part of the ‘team’, although when I asked her before she did not know why the rims were not up. She added that there had been some complaints, not to her whose job it is to relate to the community, and the compromise was not to put up the half court rims which were never a problem to anyone. With my civil rights complaint I had made some noise and now I guess some unidentified individual or individuals had made more noise than I. I told her I did not think park policy, especially when it relates to issues of segregation, should be made on who makes the most noise but on policy to make the parks safe and accessible to as many persons as possible.
I spend some time today, away from garden work and MAPS research project, on this issue. Whenever it seems we win a small battle for racial equality or anything there is another setback and we are put on the defensive.
I mentioned all the above to say once again the lesson I learned in the resistance to military at Marquette or the Cry of the Poor Petition struggle, do not allow the opposition by ignoring the message or marginalizing the messenger to throw one in a defensive move. One of the fundamental rules of warfare, even nonviolent warfare, is not to allow the opposition to keep you on the defensive mode all the time but to go on the offensive and make them play defense.
There was a new Director of County Parks appointed today and maybe he, like the former Parks Director who had been fired after many years of sustaining an award winning park system, restore our grand parks. No matter what he can do or not do we all must stay on the offensive and keep doing the right thing with our parks and certainly not foster neglect for the endangered species of young Adult African males.
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