The Basketball Courts

Today I found out about something really sad. 2 years ago, when we came to Spain, the city had just recently built some brand new basketball courts along with a skate park right next to it. Yesterday, my dad and I dressed up to go play basketball and walked over to go shoot some hoops. What we saw was depressing to my father and confusing to me. Instead of a basketball court and a skate park, all that we saw was a flat area of cement with the pole from the old basketball hoop, and a flat area of dirt covered in trash.

My father, who wanted to investigate what had gone on, walked over to the little cafe right next to the courts. There, he saw an elderly woman drinking some water, and he asked her if she knew anything about the courts. She said that the courts were torn town, maybe a couple of weeks ago, because the people that lived next to the courts, mostly elder couples, complained about the racket that the kids made during their nap time and late at night, when they were trying to sleep. But what they weren't very aware of , was that those basketball courts, and that skate park, are just about the only recreational activities that an adolescent has to do in our small town. So the only things that these kids are stuck with doing, are making graffiti on public parks and walls, and smoking, two horrible things to do. 

So what the people who live around the courts and skate park did, was complain to the city about the racket that the kids were making, and sure enough, the city went and destroyed the basketball courts and the skate park. 

After the woman at the cafe explained to us what had happened, we slowly walked home, thinking about what a bad decision the city made in tearing down the only things a kid had to do in this quiet seaside town.