Basketball nets won’t be taken down at parks, City of Toronto says

The City of Toronto said its workers will no longer take down basketball nets from its parks in the evening.

This comes after a video made the rounds online showing a city worker taking down basketball nets at Phin Park near Danforth and Greenwood avenues on Wednesday.

“Not all basketball courts in parks have their hoops removed in the evening, just those in close proximity to homes. But removing basketball hoops at 6 p.m., as we saw in the video posted last night, is not reasonable,” city officials said in a statement on Thursday.

“Effective immediately … the City — in consultation with Mayor Tory’s office — has suspended the removal of basketball hoops from its parks so residents can continue to enjoy a game of basketball in the evening.”

Below is our statement on the removal of basketball hoops in some parks. This practice has been suspended effective immediately. pic.twitter.com/pdt2zDWiNW

— City of Toronto (@cityoftoronto) June 27, 2019

Earlier in the day, Mayor John Tory said kids should be able to play good, healthy activities, such as basketball, outside in the daylight during summer and that the city will deal with neighbourhood noise complaints as they come.

“I can understand that at 10 o’clock at night, or 11 o’clock at night, people saying they’re concerned about the noise. But at 6 o’clock in the evening or even 9 o’clock in the evening at this time of year, we should be doing everything we can to get as many kids as possible to be playing basketball in our public parks,” Tory said on Thursday.

After the video was posted, Tory chimed in on Twitter saying, “The city should be putting basketball nets up not pulling them down. We should absolutely be encouraging kids to play in our city.”

The City should be putting basketball nets up not pulling them down. I’ve delivered that message to our parks staff tonight – they agree. We should absolutely be encouraging kids to play in our city. https://t.co/Sk1UQn5UVC

— John Tory (@JohnTory) June 27, 2019

While speaking with reporters on Thursday, Tory said he has asked park officials to stop removing the nets at the park immediately.

“I think we’re going to have to establish the principle that as long as there’s daylight — as many of these parks don’t have lights and so there won’t be as many people playing basketball in the dark — as long as these places are there for public use, as long as we have kids who want to play basketball, we want them to be doing that, we want them to be engaged in that kind of positive, fun activity especially in the summer months, and we’re going to opt in favour of that,” Tory said.

Last year, residents in the area and the city agreed to have the nets removed at that park in the evening because people were playing basketball well after midnight. According to the rules at the park, the basketball court is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The mayor said he understands that some people want to come home to a peaceful environment after a hard day at work but that just isn’t realistic in a big city, especially during the summer months where 6 p.m. means as much as three more hours of daylight for the kids to play outside.

“For us in government, having a big city is a balancing act all the time,” Tory explained.

“The only reason anyone was out taking down basketball nets was because there had been local pressure from some people that the noise from playing basketball was disturbing them, and so our responsibility is establishing that balance between people living a peaceful life but also making sure kids have the opportunity to play basketball.”

The city posted a complete statement on Twitter on Thursday.

Below is our statement on the removal of basketball hoops in some parks. This practice has been suspended effective immediately. pic.twitter.com/pdt2zDWiNW

— City of Toronto (@cityoftoronto) June 27, 2019

Coun. Mike Layton said he spoke with the general manager of parks, and effective Thursday, nets won’t be removed.

After speaking with GM of Parks, I’m told that effective tomorrow the city won’t be removing nets. https://t.co/scFnCsIT3X

— Mike Layton (@m_layton) June 27, 2019

Earlier this week, the Toronto District School Board reversed its decision to remove basketball nets from two courts in Riverdale after hearing from parents.

The board had considered removing the nets from Dundas Junior Public School and Queen Alexandra Middle School after 6 p.m. after neighbours complained about the noise.

Officials decided against it after an outpouring of support for the nets to stay up, including from Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri.