Build basketball courts at Jeanne-Mance and La Fontaine parks, Plateau resident implores

What do a closed-off street, a seasonal hockey rink, a tennis court and a parking lot have in common?

Those four spots – at two Montreal parks – have the potential to be converted into basketball courts, according to one Montrealer.

That’s what Louis-Pierre Poulin has been hoping to see for six years now. The resident of the Plateau-Mont-Royal has been trying to convince the City of Montreal to build basketball courts in his neighbourhood.

Poulin has been eyeing La Fontaine Park and Jeanne-Mance Park as top candidates.

“Our hope is that we see a real basketball court at the norms with the real size, with real hoops,” he said.

“In the neighbourhood of Plateau, I think more than 100,000 people live here. And we have zero basketball courts from the city. Yes, (there are) some baskets at the high school, some baskets on the wall in the primary school, but city courts, the number is zero.”

That’s where Poulin’s four suggested locations come in. The first is to convert one of 12 tennis courts at Jeanne-Mance Park.

“You put one basketball net at the extremity, you put another basketball net at the other extremity, you remove the tennis net, you redo the line, and you have one full basketball court,” he said.

Another suggestion is to construct a surface on a field within the park where a hockey rink is built during the winter.

“Right now here, it’s a hockey rink during the winter and during the summer, it can be transformed and used as a basketball court,” said Poulin.

The Plateau resident is also proposing that Duluth Avenue, which runs through the park and has been closed to cars, could also work.

“Can put two nets and you have a basketball court,” he said.

An old parking lot at La Fontaine Park is also a space that Poulin believes could be converted into a basketball court. The city says that they are looking into the cost of installing a court in the park, but nothing has been committed to.

Basketball appears to be quite popular in Quebec. There are more than 50,000 members in the Quebec Basketball Federation. A number of NBA players such as Luguentz Dort and Bennedict Mathurin are from Montreal.

Poulin created a petition to have basketball courts installed in the Plateau. So far he has about 1,300 signatures. He is holding out hope the city will build some courts in his neighbourhood, but he is cautiously optimistic.

“As long as I don’t see a real plan as a real written plan after six years, I don’t believe it anymore,” he said.