The city's game was born on the blacktop
The parade is over. The courts that made New York a basketball city are still here — and they're falling apart. Help us raise $20 million and bring every one of them back.
Filmed in May 2025, while the work was still underway. The finished spaces opened that September. Watch on YouTube
The campaign board
To put every court in public housing back in play
New surfaces, new rims, new art, and the leagues to fill them — development by development, until there isn't a court in NYCHA a kid can't play on. Courts restored so far include Pomonok, Harborview Terrace, Patterson and the Seven Stars Court at Tilden.
Why the courts
New York didn't learn the game in a stadium. It learned on cracked concrete behind public housing — chain nets, bent rims, and pickup runs that ran past dark. Those courts are the roots of the city's game.
Today, hundreds of basketball courts across NYCHA developments are worn past playable: faded paint, broken backboards, surfaces no kid should have to dribble on. The fund that helps restore them is small. The need is not.
Our Courts is a campaign by the Public Housing Community Fund to resurface, restore, and reopen the courts that built New York basketball — and to keep them open for the next generation.
Proof it works
At Patterson Houses in the Bronx, PHCF's Green Space Connections program took a cracked, faded court and made it a place the whole community shows up for. This is what your gift builds. Drag the slider to see the difference.
Patterson Houses, the Bronx · Court restoration by Hoopbus · PHCF Green Space Connections
Go deeper
Where your gift goes
Get in the game
Start a team fundraiser, nominate a court near you, or ask your employer to match.
Be part of restoring the courts that made New York a basketball city. Every court counts — and so does every gift.
● Donate to Our Courts
