Culver City Blocks Shot at Ban on Basketball in Park

The Culver City Council has ruled against a proposal to ban basketball games at Veterans Park, favoring instead a six-month trial period to see if two community service officers, newly hired to patrol the parks, could alleviate problems at the basketball courts.

Residents who live in the area have complained that the two courts sometimes attract more than 50 players and spectators at a time. And with them, neighbors say, come alcohol, loud music, fights and obscene language.

Nearly 75 people crowded into a special meeting on the subject Wednesday night, and two distinct factions became apparent. Homeowners who live near the park and who favor a ban sat on the left; rows of basketball players and their supporters were on the right.

If the proposal for the ban, introduced by the Human Services and Park Commission, had been successful, it would have been the second time since 1982 that the city prohibited basketball in one of its parks. It was banned at Fox Hills Park under similar circumstances eight years ago.

Council members Wednesday said that if the officers could not solve the problems at the park, stricter measures would follow.

Other options discussed were moving the court to another part of the park or building a full court at Culver City Park, which is in an industrial section of town.

Opponents to the ban argued that relocation is not the answer, maintaining that it would only serve to move the problem to another area. Several basketball players questioned why the authorities are not simply policing the area more often and ridding the park of the people who are disrupting the neighborhood.

The council rejected a second HSPC proposal to utilize armed park rangers, and instead decided to test first the effectiveness of the unarmed officers, who are authorized to give citations and make arrests. The park officers will also carry walkie-talkies to get police backup.

At the meeting, residents claimed they are “prisoners in their own homes.”

Basketball players argued that banning the game at Veterans Park would not solve the problem, but rather unjustly punish the majority for the actions of a few.

Linda Buday, who moved to her home on Coombs Avenue in 1988, recounted an incident in which a man vomited in her front yard after shouting obscenities at her. She said alcohol, booming car stereos, people urinating on neighbors’ lawns and double-parking in front of her driveway were common events on her street.

Jerald Ryckman, 40, said: “It is being concluded rather hastily that the basketball players are causing these problems. I strongly and vehemently state that it is not these players.” Ryckman said he was a “seven-year veteran of the Vets Park basketball team.”

Several residents supported his claim, some suggesting that there were other reasons for attacking this particular sport in a park that is popularly frequented at night by many groups.

“I think this has been exaggerated out of all proportion of what is going on,” said resident Holly Harrie. “I think maybe there is an undercurrent racial issue that nobody here really wants to talk about.”

But other residents maintained that they were not looking to ban the sport, but merely to move it to a more appropriate location. “What we are after is not the stoppage of play,” said Tracy Thomas, who lives near the park. “What we have been looking for in pursuing this for one year is relocation to where a really good, aggressive game can be played. . . . The play as it exists in Vets is really not fitting in a neighborhood situation.”