![\"O'Connor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/unnamed-3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The basketball hoop was installed by resident Stephen Goodwin in 2018. Photo: Thomas Emerson.<\/p>\n
When Stephen Goodwin was growing up, the streets were full of kids kicking balls, riding bikes and shooting hoops. Not anymore.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see kids playing in the streets anymore,\u201d the O\u2019Connor resident says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to be able to bring that back, and this is something that can be done at no cost to the government.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goodwin, a former PE teacher and education policy adviser, has become a familiar name inside sections of the ACT Government since 2018, when he spent his own money to install a basketball hoop on a patch of nature strip at the end of his quiet cul-de-sac on Finn Street.<\/p>\n
He got the idea after seeing a neighbour\u2019s small backboard set up awkwardly on the verge.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was situated in such a fashion I was worried kids using it were going to land on the curb and break their ankles,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, \u2018we could do better than that\u2019, so I had this idea to make our very quiet cul-de-sac into a sort of activity area for the local kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
It worked. The hoop is a hoot.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very popular,\u201d Goodwin says. \u201cI even had one guy a couple of months ago who\u2019d driven from Lyneham specifically to use it. He was just over the moon at having access to a hoop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unlike kids who play soccer, football or cricket, Goodwin argues basketball players often struggle to find free, casual places to practise.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you play a grass-based sport \u2026 you can walk around the corner to one of Canberra\u2019s thousands of ovals and practise your sport whenever you want, and you can do it for free,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who play things like basketball \u2013 we can\u2019t do that. With more and more schools being locked up, and limited access to indoor basketball facilities, there really is a crying need for this sort of infrastructure, especially in these older suburbs.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"O'Connor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/unnamed-1-1-1200x900.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Thomas Emerson with Stephen Goodwin and neighbour Zsi Soboslay. Photo: Thomas Emerson.<\/p>\n
But earlier this year, the driver of a rubbish truck complained about having to maneuver around the structure.<\/p>\n
Compliance officers arrived soon after and Goodwin was handed a notice ordering him to remove it. He\u2019s since been fined $220 for taking away the hoop but leaving the concrete slab behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a bit ironic, because now the backboard\u2019s down, we park our cars out there on the road and they\u2019re even more of a barrier to the trucks than the backboard ever was,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Undaunted, Goodwin has now teamed up with independent MLA Thomas Emerson to push for Finn Street to become Canberra\u2019s first formally designated \u201cactive street\u201d.<\/p>\n
This proposal calls for the government to not only grant an exemption allowing the hoop to return, but also to install clear signage designating the cul-de-sac as a 10-20 km\/h shared zone with pedestrian priority, and to permit simple painted markings for a basketball key and handball courts.<\/p>\n
\u201cCars obviously still [would be] fully able to use the road. It\u2019s not about reducing access,\u201d Goodwin adds.<\/p>\n
All this would be paid for through a North Canberra Community Council grant and, ideally, evaluated by a research body such as the University of Canberra, using \u201cwellbeing indicators\u201d from the government\u2019s Wellbeing Framework.<\/p>\n
He hopes it could also ease modern parental fears about letting kids play outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many kids do you see playing on the street these days? None. And that\u2019s all about parents\u2019 fears. What I want to do is create that safe space \u2026 like they have around shopping centres, where pedestrians and cars share the road and cars know that pedestrians have right of way.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"O'Connor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/unnamed-6-1-1200x800.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Should it stay, or should it go? Photo: Thomas Emerson.<\/p>\n
Emerson has already written to City Services Minister Tara Cheyne, urging the government to keep the hoop and support the pilot.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiving residents greater ownership over their shared public spaces is a powerful way to drive community connection and belonging,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many of us don\u2019t know our neighbours. We need more initiatives like this to help us reconnect \u2026 and foster healthy communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ACT Government should be applauding and facilitating these kinds of low-cost, community-led solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
He believes a successful trial in O\u2019Connor could serve as a model for other suburbs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019d be fantastic to see more kids playing on Canberra\u2019s streets.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proposal already has the backing of the North Canberra Community Council and Basketball ACT, so Goodwin says all it\u2019s waiting on is the government.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust work with us rather than trying to enforce a rule which is not always in the best interests of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The basketball hoop was installed by resident Stephen Goodwin in 2018. Photo: Thomas Emerson. When Stephen Goodwin was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-299002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}