
The popular game of pickleball has taken over many public parks and spaces, and Culver City’s courts on Elenda Avenue are under just such a siege. At a special meeting of the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Commission on Monday, July 22, 2024, the PRCS commission listened to reports from staff, and got a close look into the nuanced and complex issues of racket sports.
Should the city re-stripe the courts? Should there be sound mitigation panels? Should the city limit the times that people can play pickleball? The courts are used by folks for tennis, paddleball and pickleball, and the tremendous popularity of all these games has created challenges for both the parks and the neighbors.
PRCS Director Ted Stevens went into depth with how other cities deal with the challenge, including Beverly Hills, Gardena, Hawthorne, Irvine, Manhattan Beach, Long Beach, and many others.
More than twenty people spoke from the podium, and while there was a lot of dialogue, those speaking to the commission were respectful and generally offered either helpful suggestions, or apologized for their own enthusiastic (loud) and perhaps profane exclamations while playing sports.
Howie Jacobowitz, speaking from the podium, noted that while the game of tennis isn’t really growing, pickleball is. “We have 50% more people playing pickleball than playing tennis (on the Elenda courts) and that has been the case for many years now.”
Barry Goldstein offered that “The nearby residents, of which I am one, are not against paddleball or pickleball. Nor are any of the players pro-obnoxious noise… what we are all looking for is a way to share the pleasure of the courts and not have to pay a price for it.” Goldstein noted that the noise of pickleball was “percussive, impulsive and persistent,” putting it in the category of “hard to measure and hard to tolerate…highly stress inducing.”
The ball that is used to play pickleball is a hard plastic with air holes, allowing it to move at a greater speed than the kind of solid ball used for paddle tennis, or the traditional soft rubber bounce of a tennis ball. It does not just change the speed of the game, it radically changes the acoustics.
The commission concluded the agenda item with changes to what kind of racket sports would be permitted at what times and facilities, and that temporary signage will be posted in regard to the new configuration. New striping can be paid for out of a PRCS fund that is explicitly for that purpose.
Judith Martin-Straw