Crain’s Cleveland Interview
Recently, Joel Hammond of Crain's Cleveland Business interviewed us on our quest to help return hoops to the city of Lakewood.? He just wrote his story and it's now published on their website @ http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20090709/BLOGS04/907089969.? Read the article, and if that's not enough, you can check out the entire interview below...
+ How long has this been in the works?
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Since the hoops were first taken down, we have all had an individual urge to fight to bring them back.? However, our group did not formally organize until March 31st of this year.
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+ You're obviously passionate about this; what drives that? Is this something you did when you were young?
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I’m definitely passionate about this, and it’s definitely something I did when I was young.? Though it’s been torn down for over 5 years now, most Lakewood residents would know exactly what you were referring to if you mentioned “The Cage”.? Located at the corner of Woodward and Madison (on the edge of Harding School’s property), The Cage might not have been the most aesthetically appealing site in Lakewood, but it was definitely never underutilized.? Packed within the boundary of old rusty 12’ fences were three sets of basketball courts made of indestructible hoops and a beach of uneven cracked up asphalt.? It was a bit neglected, but it entertained hundreds of Lakewood hoopsters every (weather permitting) day.
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Often, the three courts weren’t enough.? There were usually a couple teams of 5 waiting to play on the court of the next winning team.? Growing up, I and many others would play there for hours in between our summer jobs’ work schedules.? Because the teams were always random, you usually made a new friend every day.? It taught me how to cooperate with others besides just my closest friends.? It also gave some a perfect platform to develop their leadership skills.? It was as important of an element to my social development as it was to my physical fitness, and all we ever needed was a pair of high tops and a jug of water …someone else always brought the ball.
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+ Do you know when the courts were originally removed? Were they all across the city? What prompted the removal?
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There were courts spread all across Lakewood.? The Cage was the main site for somewhat organized competitive play, but there were also hoops installed at a majority of our parks and schools.? The locations were spread out so that a hoop was available to all of Lakewood’s youth regardless of what ward they lived in.? They were all removed in two phases.? The first was the remodeling of our public schools; the hoops were removed during the construction with the general understanding that they would eventually be relocated on the property or replaced.? The residents of Lakewood later found out that the hoops were never included in the final site plans to begin with.? The second phase was a more intentional response to a series of complaints at Madison Park.? The hoops were removed based on the premise that there’s a connection between basketball and violence.
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Most of Cleveland’s public hoops were removed months before we removed our final hoop in the first half of 2007.? Because Clevelanders had nowhere else to play, they migrated to the next closest available hoops.? Madison Park was where they ended up.? It’s a problem whenever you have out-of-towners utilizing our public facilities and causing trouble.? It’s unfortunate for the residents who were able to peacefully utilize the courts for all of the previous years.? Eventually, a stabbing that occurred at Madison Park was the last straw for Mayor George.
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Nevertheless, Cleveland’s hoops have since been reinstalled and we believe it’s a safe time with our very conscious plan to bring outdoor public basketball hoops back to the residents of Lakewood.
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+ Overall goal? I see a map on your site, but it also seems like a revitalization of the sport on a broader basis also fits as a goal, right?
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The map on our site does show our overall goal – the reinstallation of hoops across Lakewood.? An important part of our plan to recognize is the way we differentiate between “hoops” and “courts”.? To begin, it’s our goal to install “hoops” in areas that will have a limited surface area to play on.? This is a conscious effort to first make basketball available to those who need it the most – the youth.? Full sized “courts” will attract the youth, but they will also attract all other age groups and skill levels in mass amounts.? Hoops will only attract youth who want to shoot around or play a game of H-O-R-S-E, because that’s all there will be room for.? Hoops can be thought of as simple playground equipment, while courts will require a more detailed plan before they’re reintroduced to the city.? Simply explained, the playing surface for the hoop locations will be far too small to attract the large groups of people looking to start competitive games.? Therefore, it’s our belief that the city is ready for an immediate installation of hoops across the map.
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A long term goal of ours is to also bring back full-sized courts that will be capable of hosting highly competitive games just like The Cage was able to do back in the day (only in a cleaner and even safer environment).
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As far as revitalizing the sport of basketball goes…? I don’t think it’s necessary.? Basketball is a good old American sport.? We’ve been seeing more and more portable hoops set up in the middle of streets than ever before.? Lebron James alone has done as much for the popularity of the sport within our community as our little organization could ever dream of doing.
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If anything, we’d like to think we’re revitalizing Lakewood’s commitment to free healthy social activities.? Lakewood is a very diverse community.? It’s the reason a lot of us choose to reside here.? But unless you’re into the bar scene, there’s definitely not an enormous amount of free community activities to jump into.? There have been some great organizations popping up recently to counteract that though, and we’re just trying to continue on with that trend.? There’s no reason Lakewood residents should be deprived of something as simple as basketball hoops.
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+ Have you met with the city? Are those officials receptive to the idea? What are their concerns?
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We have met with a majority of the city council, the parks director, police officers, the Recreation Dept., and others (meeting dates have been posted @ http://lobc.org/2009/06/08/progress-to-date/).? None of the people we’ve met with (besides a couple neighborhood police officers) have expressed any individual resistance, but all have explained, “we’re fighting an uphill battle.”? This is a battle we're fully aware we're fighting; this is why we deemed it necessary to form an organization.? Nevertheless, each individual we’ve met with that we’ve expected the most resistance from, has agreed that bringing hoops back to Lakewood would be a very positive thing for the residents.
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Additionally, we’ve received full-fledged support from people like Lakewood High School’s coaching staff (including Varsity Coach, Phil Argento), LHS’s Athletic Director – Bob Thayer, and many other big names that will be released when the time is right.
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Finally, the support from the people who count the most, the residents, is in the process of being documented on our website via our blog (http://lobc.org/2009/06/08/support-the-cause/).? We plan to release our website (lobc.org) to the public very soon through a flyer that will be published in Lakewood’s own Lakewood Observer.
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+ Explain the plan, which takes into account some concerns you freely admit: Overcrowding, unruly behavior, etc.
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Well, the plan for the hoops is as simple as what I mentioned earlier – just put them in.? The limited playing area will act as the only necessary security measure.
The implementation process of the full-sized courts is going to be a bit more in-depth.
Not only have we been taking thorough notes on the feedback we’ve received from the city officials that we’ve met with so far, but we’re also taking advice from neighboring communities who have safe and successful outdoor basketball courts.? We have not released a final proposal for the court implementation yet.? We are first waiting for a reaction from the mayor to our phase 1 hoops proposal.? We just sent our official letter to the mayor last night (http://lobc.org/2009/07/06/letter-to-the-mayor/).
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A sneak peek into our full-sized court plan would reveal things such as: fully fenced in courts with one entrance and one exit, hours of operation, resident-only access during certain hours of the day, ID cards, registered guest passes, a voluntary or minimum-pay court manager, security cameras, increased police patrols, etc…
