By BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
As pickleball explodes in popularity, tennis players are losing ground in the city of Mountain View.The Parks and Recreation Commission voted on Thursday to paint lines for six pickleball courts on top of two tennis courts at Rengstorff Park. Each sport will have a dedicated time to use the space, against the wishes of the Mountain View Tennis Club and the city’s Tennis Advisory Board.
Pickleball is considered …
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I have identified the issue being the high demand for Pickleball and Tennis courts. I offer a viable solution to this issue. Build larger parks for many recreation activities, especially space for Pickleball and Tennis Courts, by collecting parkland fees from developers in lieu of them donating small parcels for a public park as they do nowadays. Millions of dollars could be collected from developers of housing and commercial office building developments to purchase large parkland the size of Rengstorff and Cuesta Parks. Both have a clear nexus to the need for public parks. It’s very important the PRC, the EPC, and City Council work together on implementing this type of remedy. No single agency can go it alone and must collaborate and coordinate much more than they do now. There really is no barrier I can see to collecting fees over time from many developers, except to change the city code 41.1 to allow for the collection of fees from developers of office buildings (not retail stores). Purchasing larger public parks would be more beneficial to the community by providing additional recreational facilities, picnic areas, dog parks, walking trails, open space, integration with urban forests and wildlife habitats, etc. It could also help solve the high demand for more Pickleball and Tennis courts.
From the headline, I thought that the article was announcing a much-needed crackdown on those notoriously thugish pickleballers. Alas, I was disappointed, and the pickleball reign of terror continues unabated.
This language describing Pickleball sport and its players is quite c(rude). Many if not most Pickleball players are life long Tennis players and have decided to switch to Pickleball thus having vacated substantial space on Tennis courts for Tennis players. Some gratitude is due here. The existing Tennis courts thus DO belong to Pickleball players, for the same players will be occupying substantially less space than in the past, thus benefiting Tennis players at large.