ST. LOUIS — Work has started on the soon-to-be home of basketball courts in Forest Park, park officials said Thursday — a development some in the city see as an overdue step to make St. Louis’ premier park more racially inclusive.
Grading and underground utility work are complete, and sidewalks have been poured at the site of the future courts just south of Lindell Boulevard, near the Dennis & Judith Jones Visitor and Education Center.
Upcoming steps include planting trees, building a spectator pavilion, and eventually pouring the asphalt, as the courts approach their expected completion this summer, said Dominik Jansky, a spokesman for Forest Park Forever, a nonprofit that helps maintain the park. Installing courts has been under consideration for several years.
“We’re excited,” said Jansky. “There’s been a lot of interest as people walk by the site or see the signage.”
People are also reading…
The park has long catered to a multitude of sports and recreational pursuits, with two golf courses and designated spaces for softball, baseball, soccer, rugby, cricket, fishing, archery, ice skating, biking, boating, handball, pickleball, racquetball and tennis.
But not basketball — an omission seen as a glaring and intentional absence, for years.
“Basketball is a very popular sport and recreation activity among African Americans, especially young Black males,” said former St. Louis Alderman Antonio French, back in 2016. “And many people have interpreted this lack of basketball courts in Forest Park as an ‘unwelcome sign’ — as a signal that the group that that sport most appeals to is not welcome or encouraged to come to the park.”
Why are there no basketball courts in Forest Park? This week, I filed legislation to finally change that. pic.twitter.com/WrjhFnClnR
— Antonio French (@AntonioFrench) September 27, 2016
French helped sponsor bills in City Hall aiming to install courts in the park in 2016 and 2017. Those measures faltered, but separate community members and groups, including one called Whereas Hoops, have focused on the issue in recent years.
Forest Park is not the only high-profile public space in St. Louis to construct new hoops, nor the only one where basketball courts have been conspicuously absent in the eyes of Black residents, critics and prospective hoopers.
New hoops have recently come to places such as Chouteau Park near The Grove, and to Tower Grove Park, where they were removed decades ago before returning last year.
Construction began on the basketball facility in Forest Park in November. It will feature two full courts and two half courts on a blue surface, based on renderings of the site.
Jansky said an art installation of some kind may eventually be added to the site, too, but that it would move forward on its own separate timeline.