The tennis courts at the Jackie Robinson Park Playground in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn are locked and residents want to know why they can’t access them.
A coalition of Bed-Stuy residents recently posted a Change.org petition urging Brooklyn Borough Parks Commissioner Martin Maher to clarify why they lack the same access to their tennis courts as those who use the borough’s other walk-on tennis court facilities.
According to NYC Parks Department regulations, the public is required to have access to parks, and “outdoor tennis courts are open daily, weather permitting, except when under construction or repair or when reserved for tournaments or special events.”
Even though it’s winter and we are in an extreme cold spell, avid Bed-Stuy tennis aficionados expect their local courts to be accessible. “Unlike the courts at Fort Greene, Lincoln Terrace, Leif Ericson, Highland, South Oxford and more,” their petition reads, “we are not permitted to play during daylight hours or walk on the court freely. The Parks Rules and Regulations section 2-01 clearly states that courts are open daily, weather permitting, barring construction, repair, or special events. This should apply to the Jackie Robinson courts as it does everywhere else. Yet these public parks are locked, and the public locked out.”
The four courts at Jackie Robinson Park, located at Malcolm X Blvd. & Chauncey St., were renovated recently. Following years of shoddy maintenance, the resurfaced courts were re-opened in the summer of 2023. The courts remained open throughout the subsequent 2023-2024 winter season. The courts remained open this year as well, up until December.
The Brooklyn Parks Department sent this paper a statement regarding the Jackie Robinson Park’s courts: “We have closed the tennis courts at Jackie Robinson Park Playground during the winter months due to repeated vandalism and misuse during the prior season. We look forward to reopening the courts at the beginning of the season in April.”
When asked for details about the vandalism — like on what dates they occurred and whether, as a result, the courts would be permanently closed every year from now on — a parks department spokesperson said they would reply with more details later.
Bed-Stuy resident Kenny Bruno told the AmNews that he had spoken to a representative in Commissioner Maher’s office and had already heard those two reasons for the court’s closings. “One is that there’s been vandalism. And two, in his words, [it] is ‘illegal charging for tennis lessons.’ But those reasons don’t hold up, honestly.
“First of all, I asked him what the vandalism is because I don’t see any. He mentioned that someone had clipped the lock. Well, if it wasn’t locked, nobody would have clipped the lock. So that would resolve the vandalism issue. Secondly, unauthorized charging for lessons isn’t happening in the winter. But even if it did, that’s not a reason to punish the entire tennis community. That means someone did something unauthorized; that’s an individual issue, and now the rest of us are facing a collective punishment. So that also makes no sense at all.”
Another Bed-Stuy resident, Stefanie Siegel, founder of the non-profit community group Bailey’s Cafe and a member of Friends of Jackie Robinson Park Playground, said she thinks locking up tennis courts has more to do with an ongoing issue community members are having with the Parks Department and its recent selling of the contract for the tennis courts to Omar Durrani, the founder & CEO at Protennislesson.
Last spring, Durrani outbid Bed-Stuy tennis coach Frances Ferdinand for the exclusive right to teach tennis classes on the park’s four tennis courts. Ferdinand had long been offering free and low-cost tennis lessons to area children and adults under her organization, HQ Tennis.
Ferdinand was the original person who pushed the Parks Department to make the repairs on the Jackie Robinson Park tennis courts; because of her efforts, the courts were resurfaced and repainted. But when the next open bid for the parks’ tennis courts contract became available, Ferdinand was outbid for the concession: Durrani offered tens of thousands more than her and won the contract.
The rivalry between two tennis instruction companies may be at the root of why Jackie Robinson Park’s tennis courts are locked closed, at least for now, while Brooklyn remains in a deep freeze.
I would first like to say that I am the individual who was cutting the locks at Jackie Robinson tennis courts. My name is Ralph and I not only a 53 year old resident of this community but I am also a proud 53 year old resident of the building directly from the courts, which was built by JACKIE ROBINSON THE BASEBALL PLAYER with his own money and construction company. My grandparents were the first residents to move into the building after leaving Panama for America and it was directly after that I was born and I have been here since. In order to understand why I did what I did and I will continue to do is because of this. I attended PS 21 CRISPUS ATTUCKS in the 80’s when Crack was destroying families and producing young black gangsters and criminals. At that time the TENNIS COURTS that THE PARKS DEPARTMENT makes the tax payers and residents pay for a permit to play on was an empty dirt lot, that we use to flip on dirty mattresses and play on old tires and then it was turned into a baseball field. Now here is where the real history begins. The Jackie Robinson tennis courts were opened in 1988, and at that time this area was flooded with Crack addicts, stick up kids, broken families, and crime. A BLACK MAN named MARIO was in control of the courts and he is the beginning of tennis for this community. In 1989 the TAWANA BRAWLEY case had BROOKLYN completely separated because it was a case about a young BLACK GIRL being ASSAULTED by WHITE MEN. The rap group PUBLIC ENEMY had a song out at the time called FIGHT THE POWER and it was filmed on the corner of CHAUNCEY AND MALCOLM X and then they gave a speech on the tennis courts and for this community that was a proud moment. MR MARIO had a student a young BLACK GIRL named FRANCIS and as time went on she ended up taking over the courts and putting her blood, sweat, and tears into making sure she shared tennis with everyone,but more importantly, she is the reason why JACKIE ROBINSON TENNIS COURTS ARE SO BEAUTIFUL AND THE PEOPLE LOVE IT. COACH FRANCIS introduced the community to tennis and made sure that it was free for anyone who could not afford it. My daughter who i have custody of learned how to play tennis for free because of COACH FRANCIS. Now I say all of this to say that the PARKS DEPARTMENT is bat shit crazy if they believe that WE THE PEOPLE WHO WERE BORN AND RAISED HERE WILL PAY FOR US TO LEARN OR PLAY TENNIS, NOR WILL WE BE ISOLATED BECAUSE WE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO AFFORD A PERMIT. You also are bat shit crazy if you think that it doesn’t seem kind of racist that you would CHARGE PEOPLE TO PLAY TENNIS, but less than 10 feet away I CAN PLAY BASKETBALL AND HANDBALL FOR FREE. Now that alone should end the debate, but since I KNOW THAT THEY WILL COME UP WITH SOMETHING TO SAY I’M WRONG, HERE IS SOMETHING ELSE.
IF IT WAS FREE WHEN IT WAS ONLY US IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD, WHY IS IT NOT FREE WHEN THE NEIGHBORHOOD CHANGES. In a small way it seems like GENTRIFICATION IS CAUSING SEPARATION, and I don’t give a shit how much money I don’t have, not MYSELF NOR MY DAUGHTER OR ANY OTHER PERSON IN THIS COMMUNITY WILL BE ISOLATED FROM ANYTHING IN THIS COMMUNITY: GET IT?
I would rather live on my feet than die on my knees. So with that being said, I’M NOT BEGGING FOR NOTHING!
#THEURBANDAD #JACKIEROBTENNISCOURTS