While on a walk with The Wife around the city of St. Paul we noticed that several parks had something weird going on with them. In at least two parks in the West 7th/Crocus Hill neighborhoods seemed to either have the basketball hoops blocked off with a neat contraption to stop anyone from putting a ball through a hoop, or they had the hoops removed wholly from the back boards.

I am not sure what the deal is, or why they would want to stop kids or even adults from playing a productive sport and make them find an alternative activity. I don’t quite get why they would block hoops or remove them, but I think it’s a really dumb idea to make park facilities unavailable for public use for no apparent reason.

Do you think parks should be closed when they aren’t being used for officially sanctions St. Paul Parks and Rec events? Or should they be available for public use at all times?