The basketball hoops were removed two years ago from Play Lot 2, on 19th Street South and 11th Avenue. This year the picnic tables are going, too. All that will be intact at the park is a small playground.
Residents say drug dealers who live near the park use the picnic tables as a resting place while they wait for buyers to drive by and they use the courts as a place to congregate.
Several young adults and children are upset, but Chrisshun Cox, president of the Melrose-Mercy/Pine Acres Neighborhood Association, said the hoops and tables create a haven for dealers and are not worth the traffic they bring through.
“The drugs are out of control and everybody knows it,” Cox said. “They (the dealers) are not embarrassed. They will do it right in front of you.”
Play Lot 2 is one of four in the city. Each has a basketball court, playground and pavilion. Only one of the play lots still has a basketball hoop. A play lot on Auburn Street between 18th and 22nd Avenues South had picnic tables removed earlier this year. This resulted in an apparent decrease in problems, city officials said.
“The play lot is being used by riffraff for gambling and drug selling when the play lot is supposed to be for children,” Regenia Wade, neighborhood coordinator for the city, said.
Many young people miss the basketball hoops. They do not see the drug dealers as much of a problem.
“The goals would make it more exciting. Basketball gives you something to do,” Da’Shayne Harrington, 11, said.
“All we have to do now is stand around, and when we do that people think we’re causing trouble,” Courteney Jones, 18, said. “We’d really appreciate it if someone put the goals up.”
The only place to play basketball within five blocks of the park is at a neighborhood home, according to the young people in the area. One family owns a portable rim that they often pull into the road so others can play.
“The cars come through and stop the game,” Jones said.
And the games often don’t last long, because neighbors call the police.
“The cops say you have to be 15 feet from the curb,” Willie Calhoun, 14, said.
Then the youngsters have to pull the hoop into their driveway where they can play smaller games of two on two.
“What can we do? We stand on the corner, they think we selling drugs; we sit in the park, they think we selling drugs; we ride our bikes, they think we selling drugs,” Tim Jones said.
The closest park to Play Lot 2 is Campbell Park, where there is a pool and basketball court. Campbell is about five blocks from Play Lot 2.
With a fully functional park so close and several activities put on by the city and by local organizations available for young people, Cox said she does not know why Play Lot 2 needs basketball hoops or picnic tables.
“I’d like them to get rid of the courts and use the lots for the children,” Cox said.
Cox said the lot would better serve the community as a “tot lot.” That is a lot designed specifically for young children.
The play lot is couched between several child-care centers. Many of them already bring children to the playground during the day.
“Our kids go to the park,” Donna Johnson, assistant director at Kings Kids Academy child-care said.
With so many young children in the area, the drug dealers and other forms of criminal activity are especially troubling, Cox said.
Johnson lives close to Play Lot 2. She said, “It would be nice to have rims, but…”
