The Pioneer Park Basketball League
There’s this guy on Twitter who keeps posting about Pioneer Park’s homeless population in a really low-brow way. He stops to take photos of what he sees as “conflicting” images, then uses them to argue against the $20 million upgrade to the park, which is slated for completion by the end of this year. One of his recent posts shows a homeless person with a necrotic arm passed out near the tennis courts while children play nearby. He uses that photo to claim the park improvements will only benefit the people who already “loiter” there between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. He fails to mention that shelters have curfews. People leave the park not because they’re done "loitering" — but because they know they’ll lose their bed and meal if they don’t check in on time. Now that I’m living near the park and connected not just by proximity but by community, I find those blind takes misguided. For the past few weeks, around 6 p.m., I’ve walked over to the basketball courts. Yes, the ones surrounde...