​Greater Seattle Drop-in Pickleball Calendar

Dear Friends,

I wanted to tell the PB community about a focus meeting held at Lewis Creek Park on Tuesday by Brad Bennett and John Soriano, Community Service Manager and Advisors with the Bellevue Parks. Five Bellevue residents were invited for the 2-hour meeting with the purpose of hashing out some grievances that have come up, particularly with Eastgate Park courts becoming less of a shared court, and turning into a PB exclusive park which has drawn ire among the tennis community. I'm including some of the material they sent home with us to give you a heads up on what may be on the horizon, like possible guidelines for the shared tennis and pickleball courts in Bellevue. Let me just say that this is not set in stone and that there is more room for public comment before the final plan will be instituted. We are talking in months, not days. I've included a plan that Brad pulled from Asheville, NC of how they resolved the disputes by setting up blocks of time for PB/tennis.

There is also a map showing the distribution of tennis and dual use courts.

Of the 5 people, I was the only pickleball player, there was Robert Spindel (Barb's husband) who plays both tennis and PB; and the other 3 ladies were tennis players. We were chosen to participate because our names came up, and they wanted the people present to talk out our differences. I would have liked to see another PB player to add some balance to this equation but I'll try to summarize what was said. The main gripe was how Eastgate Park has turned into a pickleball "hotspot." I explained that there is only one other dedicated court (Hillarie) available to us before 4PM and it is the 4 court clusters that will tend to be more popular. BIS is the only dedicated 6 court PB venue and we can't use it until school is out.

One lady didn't like how the ladies at Lakemont were using their bags to weigh down the tennis net, to bring it to the correct height for PB. She called it "destroying public property." I said this was a very strong over-reaction, and it's not like defacing property or graffiti. I told them in order for this problem to be rectified, the city needs to stripe the courts properly and provide 4 rolling nets. The city is going to look into doing this since they want to minimize Eastgate Park being a hotspot. I asked why Lakemont was taken off by the city as one of the restriping locations and was told it was because of strong backlash from the neighborhood. Brad is going to review the funds available and see if he can put Lakemont back on to be restriped. Nothing is assured but I told them it would help relieve the strain on Eastgate Park if another nearby site (Lakemont) is available.

Most everyone thought every dual usage court has the potential to become a hotspot because of the growth of PB, but the tennis ladies commented that those who play in the morning at Lakemont are very respectful and always just stay their allotted time and then leave. I told them the 2 court configurations are unlikely to become hotspots, but because of the growth of PB, the 4 court clusters would likely see a jump in attendance as the sport grows. It's inevitable.

At Eastgate, they shared lots of stories where they or their friends tried to get on the courts and were rebuffed, or told to go somewhere else. If the courts are populated by pickleball playing adults, it is unlikely that those wanting to play tennis would have the courage to break up our fun. Even less of a chance if you were a child or teenager. I explained that the tennis players at Tibbetts refused to concede the courts when their time is up so this might be the reason more people ended up at Eastgate park. Plus it's shaded from the heat and people want to meet their friends.

When we made the proposal for dual usage courts in Bellevue, we had assured the city that we could share. I know one of the big draws is the social aspect. So, I shared David Lai's pdf with his concept of a weekly Tennis/PB sharing with different sports on different time blocks and days. Brad gave us a similar proposal from NC that had similar conflicts with players and that city devised this kind of plan on the dual usage courts to try and assuage the arguments. Bellevue would draw up a similar spreadsheet with the caveat being that if the court isn't being used, anyone can play, but if it is the posted time for either tennis or pickleball, people will have to defer to the time limits for all users:

• 1 hr-singles   
• 1.5 hr-doubles    
• 2 hours-groups of 6-12+

This takes into account all the drop in PB players. To make it equal, signs would be posted at all dual usage courts. And a QR code would be present for people to contact/give feedback if conflicts arise. Or be linked to other available courts in the city. The same rules that SMPA have posted at tennis courts would apply (Court shoes only, no skateboards, bicycles, skates or rollerblades...no alcohol, no paid instructions or classes, no non-service pets on courts, Parks and Rec would have priority for their programs). Please take a good look at this pdf, sorry the resolution isn't great but I think you can see they have it divided into 7AM-2PM; 7AM-12PM; 2PM-10PM or 2PM-9PM. The tennis ball is yellow green and the PB is white. So please prepare for what is on the horizon. Jessica suggested alternate days for ease of remembering, but the group said it was better to break the day up so both tennis or PB could be played within the same day. And equal rotation among all the dual usage courts was agreed to. This will hopefully mean that when it's not pickleball at Eastgate, then one can find a different dual usage court where it is.

Hillaire has only striped 2 PB courts (so total of 3 with the outlier) and aren't planning to add the other 2. The city knows this park and Highland have problems with lots of coaches using it for private instruction but it's almost impossible for them to prove. So I think the people who show up to play have to help enforce the time limit rule.

Robert says he plays PB every morning at Highland. Barb also plays in the morning there and says about 30 people show up regularly through Pickleheads. These are a nice 4 court cluster, like Eastgate.

When asked about the Airfield Park, Brad said the Master Plan has not been approved by the city yet because they are waiting for the environmental impact studies to be finalized which hopefully will be at the end of the year. Everyone was in agreement about the need for dedicated courts and they just can't come soon enough in Bellevue.

I brought up a possible work-around for dedicated courts with the Bellevue School District floating the idea of striping some outside courts at Puesta del Sol and Brad will look into that through his channels. When I asked the BSD facilities manager, she could not tell me anything. Ringdall and Eastgate Elementary schools were discussed. I think Connie told me that Big Picture will move into Eastgate and we all know the tennis court at Ringdall is in poor condition and it is also too close to the neighboring houses and was eliminated from consideration. There is the Silverleaf tennis courts which are also too close to houses.

The Robinswood Tennis Center striped 2 PB courts overlaid on their tennis court and Brad shared that the USTA is now saying any tennis court with PB lines cannot be used for official tennis. So the hopes that Robinswood would stripe more ended right there. None of the High School and Middle School tennis courts can be striped for PB, I asked and was told no by the district. The USTA has made that the rule of the land now.

So, I'd like to close by asking the PB community to show respect to our tennis community. Spread out among the dual usage courts more so Eastgate is not such a hotspot. If a tennis player shows up, please honor the time of 2 hours for 6+ people. Can you do that? I'd like for us to be a good example to other cities. The city will continue to reach out to the school district, and tap into other venues to add PB like the Boys and Girls Club or other community centers. It was interesting when I went to play at SBCC and chatted with Bill (manager) a little. He actually said some other places were fearful of adding PB because of the stories they heard. He said with indoor PB, the community center can control the number of courts, put a cap on the attendance to improve player experience, and he told them not to be scared. We need to all be good ambassadors of this sport and although it's human nature to be imperfect sometimes, we can try to share better.

Lisa Tsang