Starting Monday, March 29, parks around the city will begin have basketball rims returned to their respective courts. The decision comes nearly a year after the hoops were first taken to mitigate recreational basketball and a corresponding spread of COVID-19.
Syracuse’s Parks, Recreation and Youth Commissioner Julie LaFave announced on Wednesday that all 39 parks will have their rims returned this spring. Each Monday, one park from each “quadrant” of the city will get its baskets back, beginning with four — Burnet, Kirk, McChesney and Thornden.
“We felt warmer temps here, winter’s over,” LaFave said. “It’s time to get the rims back up.”
Both Saturday and Tuesday are expected to reach the low-60s after this past week flirted with the high-70s. Another reason to add the baskets was to prevent “creative alternatives” that restless residents were starting to assemble in lieu of actual rims, LaFave said. The commissioner added both colleges and high schools are playing again, so it’s become increasingly difficult to justify leaving the rims off.
“We’re not out of this pandemic yet,” LaFave said, “But I think that we’re getting closer to it, so I really just hope that we can bring some physical activity to people and kind of a sense of normalcy.”
Syracuse Parks and Rec posted the news to their Facebook page and received a record number of shares as well as a plethora of positive feedback. There will be negative comments at some point, LaFave said, but she hopes the vast majority will enjoy this restoration. Below is the schedule for the next three weeks of returns:
Week of March 29
- Burnet Park
- Kirk Park
- McChesney Park
- Thornden Park
Week of April 5
- Barker Square Playlot
- Barry Park
- Clinton Playlot
- Eastwood Heights
- Lewis Park
- Lincoln Park
- Onondaga Park (Upper)
- Roesler Park
- Skiddy Park
- Sunnycrest Park
- Washington Park
Week of April 12
- Comfort Tyler Park
- Home Wheaton Park
- Libba Cotten Grove Park
- McKinley Park
- Ormand Spencer Park
- Schiller Park
- Spirit of Jubilee Park
- Westmoreland Park
- Wilson Park
- Van Duyn School
- Dr. Weeks School
