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. Let's bring them back.
Filmed in May 2025, while the work was still underway. The finished spaces opened that September. Watch on YouTube
The campaign board
Courts restored so far include Pomonok, Harborview Terrace, Patterson and the Seven Stars Court at Tilden — with more finished every season.
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
Pomonok, Harborview Terrace and the Seven Stars Court — what got built, who decided, and the 250 still waiting.
See the courts
Leagues, clinics and a bus with a rim on the back — plus the artists who decide what goes on the ground.
See what happens next
Build your own NYCHA court, save the picture, and post it with #EveryCourtCounts.
Build your courtWhere 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