Cambridge to revise bylaw that bans curbside hoops
Two nets get a summer reprieve but their future may not be a slam-dunk
CAMBRIDGE — The city will revise a boulevard maintenance bylaw to acknowledge curbside basketball nets after two residents fought city orders to remove their hoops.
Children have been practising dunks at a curbside net on Husson Place for decades. It’s cemented to a boulevard at the end of a quiet court.
So when the city ordered removal of the bylaw-breaking net, Susan Young went to council to ask them why.
“I’m really fighting this because of the length of time it’s been here and because of where it is,” she said. “We’re not the same as every other street.”
Husson Place is a quiet dead end with a handful of homes. The only cars you’ll see there belong to the street’s residents or their visitors, Young said.
The net won’t have to be removed just yet — council has given it a reprieve this summer while city staff work to revise the boulevard maintenance bylaw.
According to the bylaw, residents are not allowed to place anything 1.8 metres from the curb unless it is plants, grass or shrubs. The bylaw also prohibits anything taller than 20 centimetres to be placed on a boulevard.
Bryan Cinti thinks it’s far too vague.
“It would be better if we could figure out a system to include basketball nets on boulevards,” he said.
Cambridge council also gave his basketball net a pardon this summer after someone complained about his family’s Granite Hill Road hoop.
Like many others who have been hit with city orders in the past, Cinti didn’t know his basketball net was breaking any rules.
“We noticed hoops on boulevards on a walk one day and thought it was a spectacular idea,” he said.
His two young children often play basketball outside. He also happens to coach the sport.
“If someone doesn’t like people playing on the street, they get to use the bylaw,” Cinti said. “It just seems unfair to try to explain to your children why other streets have hoops and we can’t keep ours.”
Staff will return to council in September with proposals on how to revise the boulevard bylaw to acknowledge basketball nets.
Cinti and Young both want to see accommodations for special circumstances. In Cinti’s case, his sloped driveway doesn’t let his kids use a hoop without the ball rolling away. Young thinks her quiet, dead-end street is an appropriate spot for a hoop and it should not be treated the same as other streets in the city.
Deputy city manager Hardy Bromberg said the summer reprieve is only for these two cases because both parties came to council with requests after appealing city orders. It doesn’t mean complaints about other basketball nets on boulevards will be ignored.
“We will take in complaints when they arise and we will handle them appropriately,” Bromberg said.
“We will likely be a little more lenient just because things may change in September.”