Playing Smart changelabsolutions.org | kaboom.org 28 Niagara Falls, New York Population 50,193 Development pattern High-density small city Population density 3,956 per square mile Median household income $31,336 Number of kids under age 18 10,387 Partners involved City of Niagara Falls Niagara Falls Housing Authority Winning Because I Tried Niagara Falls Police Athletic League Summer Basketball Tournament Like many small cities across the country, the city of Niagara Falls is home to large pockets of lower-income, at-risk communities. Many of these neighborhoods had basketball courts, but time – along with vandalism and other illicit nighttime activities – took its toll. The city was “spending a lot of money to maintain marginal courts where people didn’t want them anyway, and we were getting complaints from neighbors who lived nearby,” says Thomas DeSantis, the city’s senior planner. “We wanted to use all of that money to create one large-scale park with actual programming. It led to a much more elegant solution that let us do more things than anybody thought we’d get.” That solution was Legends Basketball Park, a 4.5-acre, inner-city, state-ofthe-art basketball park. It boasts indoor courts, outdoor courts with stadium lighting and bleachers, locker rooms, and an auditorium. The city works with local community groups to offer programming for both youth and adults – from finance workshops to exercise classes to health and wellness fairs. Four joint use agreements were essential to making Legends work where other basketball courts had failed. City councilman Charles Walker was a central figure in forging the partnerships that created Legends. One-fifth of Niagara Falls’ population is 18 years old or younger, and he dreamed of offering kids a safe place to play basketball that would overcome the stigma of courts leading to trouble. “The idea was not just to do a park, but to get the community to start programming there for kids and adults.” Councilman Walker created a committee to brainstorm ways to make safe courts a reality. As committee members – city staff, business leaders, and residents – talked about their goals, they realized the answer was a new court that engaged the entire community. Working with the city, the committee first established a joint use agreement with the school board to use the field at Harry Abate School as a city park. The city invested $280,000 in Legends, and acquired an additional $35,000 in donations from local businesses and individuals, including a state senator. Another $30,000 came from tax revenue from a nearby casino.
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