City Park boasts vast recreational offerings: a zoo, a science museum, tennis courts, a golf course, athletic fields, fishing ponds, jazz concerts, running trails, paddle boats and more.
But something is missing.
"I'm a 51 year old native of East Denver. I have an unsettling question to pose," Reader David M. asked. "Has anyone EVER seen a basketball hoop in our CITY PARK?"
Coming off of a Nuggets championship and a year when rec centers will be shrinking their hours, some residents are looking for more places to play.
So what's the deal? Does the park have hoops?
The answer, according to Denver Parks and Recreation spokesperson Yolanda Quesada, is no.
In recent years, basketball hasn't been in demand at City Park.
"The department completed a Vision Plan for City Park in 2018 and at that time, basketball courts were not an amenity requested through the public process," Quesada explained. "However, the addition of basketball courts is something the department would consider in future improvements to the courts and amenities in the park."
As far as Parks and Rec staff and Denverite can tell, there is no evidence of basketball courts at City Park in past decades.
"We have not come across any historical drawings, maps, aerial photos or references to basketball courts in City Park," Quedsada noted.
Denverite did find references to a City Park basketball team in newspaper clippings from the 1910s, but there is no indication that games or practices were held in the park.
Longtime community leader and coach John Bailey, who has used basketball to engage youth, says Denver Parks and Recreation has plenty of courts inside and outside rec centers, and their omission at City Park isn't that big of a deal.
He can't imagine demand is particularly high for outdoor basketball courts right now, since kids prefer the heat and air conditioning at rec centers.
"There's not a whole lot of kids that are going to be going outside and playing during the summer in the heat," Bailey said. "And they're not going to be out there playing at all during the winter time."
For those who do want to play outdoors near City Park, they have a few options within a couple of miles, including Skyland Park, Martin Luther King Park and the Clayton Park Courts.
Of course, with Parks and Rec summer camps canceled and rec centers curbing hours, outdoor courts could be in higher demand.
Bailey says Mayor Mike Johnston, who cut Rec Center hours to pay for city budget shortfalls he attributes to Denver's response to the arrival of new immigrants, needs to do more to ensure youth programming is available in the summer of 2024 to curb an already sharp increase in violent crime.
Bailey, who backed Johnston, fears that without more recreational activities Denver will see a rise in gun violence.
He would like to see the private sector fill the gap in funding for Parks and Recreation, and he also wants the administration to have a stronger vision for how to prevent violence through community activities.
"I've made it known to the mayor that if there's something I can do, either in violence reduction or recreation, in terms of helping them come up with a vision, I'd be happy to do that," Bailey said.
