Lonely, but much-used, b-ball net smack on the corner of Bloor Dufferin to become condo sales office. BCI grad Nick Vo shoots a few hoops.

OPINION:

Is my high-school basketball court soon to be gone? Capital Developments, who have purchased the school lands at Bloor and Dufferin, have proposed taking over basketball and tennis courts to build a condo sales office.

Soon that last, lonely basketball net on the corner will be gone.

Are the hoop “dreams” of the youth and students from the Bloor-Dufferin community coming to an end? Whether it was a friendly pick-up game between residents, an intense game between Bloor Collegiate Institute and St Mary Catholic Academy students for bragging rights or just people coming out to shoot a few hoops–we can all remember playing on the cracked surface of the Bloor-Dufferin tennis courts.

Along with the proposed sales office, Capital Development have also pitched an artist’s alley and market square in the form of container markets. The market square will be amazing if it turns out to be like stackt—a cultural marketplace designed out of shipping containers on lower Bathurst St., or Market 707—a unique street food market at Scadding Court made up of shipping containers where people are able to dive into a variety of foods from different cultures.

This proposal sounds like a good idea but my immediate questions are who will be running this market? Will residents, business owners and people have a real voice in what is sold there or is it a corporate tool to sell condos?

While I love the idea of having our very own shipping container market here in the Bloor-Dufferin community, I cannot imagine the basketball courts being replaced by a condominium sales office.

To their credit, the developers have included a basketball net in their plans. But you can’t beat the nostalgia of standing on the foul line on a warm spring night, with the court illuminated by the streetlights and the headlights of that busy corner.

And some joker says: “Make this shot and the Raptors advance to the championship round.”

Nick Vo

BCI Class of 2014