Courting controversy: Do urban basketball courts foster community or violence? - The Globe and Mail
Supporters see urban courts as safe spaces for youth to play – and grow. Tristen Mason, all bent knees, dangling arms and furrowed brow, takes several decisive steps backwards as he guards an opponent who is dribbling up the court. The intensity of his movements breaks for a moment – as does game play – when a woman in a salwar kameez obliviously, comically, pushes a stroller right through the middle of the court, her two young children, faces buried in snow cones, shuffling... Such are the perils of playing pick-up basketball on a “court” that is really just two portable nets set up for a community barbecue in the parking lot of a suburban plaza beside a bouncy castle and shaved ice stand. On a recent scorching August day, this was one of the few places the basketball-crazed teens in the neighbourhood of Colonial Terrace in south Mississauga could play five-on-five, practice alley-oops and even throw down a handful of dunks on nets... But by next summer, Mr. Mason and his crew should have a brand new court to call their own – one where the nets are actually planted into the ground – thanks to a $225,000 grant from the MLSE Foundation. In the GTA, no public park facilities are more fraught than basketball courts – which, despite their popularity, are fewer in number than other recreational facilities. Source: www.theglobeandmail.com
