11.1°C Not observed 
4
You can add the Lakeside Park outdoor basketball court dream to the long list of crushed hopes courtesy of our city council.
On Monday night local politicians once again decided to treat an ambitious youth-driven project with the bureaucratic trappings of "more study needed." Council rejected a well thought out plan to create a lighted basketball court (at no cost to taxpayers), providing a slim hope that it might be rekindled under a 2010 study of recreation services in the area.
Too often council becomes maternal with these types of projects. Though appreciative of the spirit and effort young people put forward, they put the enthusiasm crushing brakes on ideas by using delay tactics. Need proof... ask anybody who has been involved in the outdoor skatepark effort.
It's understandable why higher levels of government load up on reports and studies before the most basic decision is made. But municipal government is different because it's reachable by the little guy on the street. Yet our council too often kills ideas with process.
It's not only with youth, but other larger scale recreation efforts get bogged down in the City Hall labyrinth. Back in the late-90s council muddled along with development of the Lakeside Park pathway and playing fields. It wasn't until folks like Dave Cherry got involved and made the process move along did anything actually happen. Getting there caused controversy and upset a few people, but head down to our waterfront on a beautiful September day and it's hard to recall what all the fuss and delay was about.
Council's foot-dragging is also on full display at the top of Davies Street with the proposed park that's been stalled and delayed while council struggles to achieve a political impossibility — make everybody happy.
There comes a point where you have to make a call. And the right call isn't always finding ways to bog projects down in process.
![[Get Copyright Permissions]](http://license.icopyright.net/images/icopy-w.gif){kind=small}
Click here for reuse options!
C.C. says... 
I think the most important issues here are those that were presented by those spear-heading this project. 1) the Lakeside tennis courts are highly under-utilized, 2) construction procedures were still in a very flexible stage, meaning all necessary measures for basketball and tennis to coexist in the space would have been taken, and 3) basketball is a very popular sport in Nelson, and the Kootenays, especially with youth, whereas tennis is not.
This project, like the skatepark, held all kinds of potential that would have, and still could, benefit the community and economy of Nelson by using space more effectively. And what could be a better reason than getting kids and others active, and helping an already popular sport grow?
In regards to Steinlager's commnent, Hume School is the only outdoor court that is used in the community, simply because it is the best one. And it is far from ideal. The others are worse. Likewise, most of the tennis that is played in Nelson happens at the beautiful courts at Granite Pointe, not at Lakeside.
With no cost to Nelsonites, tennis players still able to play at Lakeside, and the creation of an incredible venue for basketball players, the killing of this project is absurd.
City Hall should stop retaining the status quo for political protection at the expense of bettering the community.
Posted on January 22, 2010 @ 2:51 pm PST | Report post to Editor | 3128609