- Hoopers and crackheads rejoice.
The City of Lakewood, which quietly removed all of its outdoor basketball hoops in recent years, will reintroduce a court at one city park sometime in the next couple of weeks. For years, public hoops have sparked controversy in Cleveland and area suburbs (“Where Hoop Dreams Die,” June 30, 2010).
Supporters say kids need a place to play, while critics claim basketball hoops will turn those kids into crack-smoking hip-hop artists.
For now, the crackheads win: Two side-by-side, half-court hoops will be installed on a tennis court at Kaufmann Park, which is tucked behind a Drug Mart in the middle of town. By November, they’ll convene another meeting to talk about whether anybody actually uses them for anything other than narcotics commerce. At that point they’ll keep the hoops, yank them, or possibly add more.
The Lakewood Outdoor Basketball Committee, a volunteer group charged with raising money to fund what once was the cheapest game this side of spin the bottle, has agreed to pony up $3,500 for new hoops and poles just like the ones the city dutifully destroyed in recent years. “We don’t think it will be a problem,” says co-chair Nadhal Eadeh, adding that pledges have already been secured. His group is also on the hook for providing volunteer court monitors.
This article appears in Aug 4-10, 2010.
Why is the city catereing to tree – hugging liberals ???? Lakewood will soon realize that the majority will win this arguement, not the minority …. no pun intended. After about one – two months of these idiots playing basketball, the arguing and fighting will begin. And it won’t be the local kids, it will be the SAVAGES thatcome to neighborhood parks and destroy them. Within about a year, the basketball hoops will again be removed and the SAVAGES will have moved on to cause fear and intimidation elsewhere !!!!
Stitcharoo, you’re racist. Just stay in your white-bread suburb where you belong and don’t worry about us.
I think they should put caged-in courts in place, with a small fee to get in. The small fee would help to discourage the “SAVAGES”, who are just out to cause trouble for free (they probably wouldn’t want to pay to cause trouble, when they could do it for free somewhere else).
This way, the kids who just want to play, could do so without too much trouble. Lakewood is also small enough that the police could easily call by this area on a regular basis, which should probably be part of a regular patrol route anyway, regardless of basketball hoops existing.
Hey rockanroll … who are “us”? Are you ready to continue to have these SAVAGES totally destroy neighborhoods as you quietly sit and stand by hoping that they don’t do any more damage to your city / property or kick the sh*t out of a small child who wants to play there, but is being pushed out for them to play.
And NOT ONCE did I mention any race….. You assumed I did ! “Whites” are a minority in Cleveland and will soon be in Lakewood. But NOT ONCE was race mentioned !!! I just called them SAVAGES, and if you believe I’m acusing another race, IE: blacks, they so be it. No matter where basketball hoops are placed, there is always trouble. If they want to play so much, then have them go to a rec center to play, of the city streets. And if they say they can’t afford a rec center, thensave your money by NOT spending $ 200 for a pair of baskeball shoes and buy within your means ….. Oh, I’m sorry. They’d rather look good than just play the game. They’ll never become a pro athlete, but they think they can. Yeah, whatever.
Oh great..idiot posts from the cleveland.bomb crowd.
Relax, Stitcharoo. You’ll be all right, basketball hoops or not. Especially because you probably don’t even live in Lakewood. It sounds a little too urban for your taste. No offense.