On Tuesday, Riverside Park Conservancy held an official ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the park’s new pickleball courts.
Situated at 110th Street between the basketball courts and the refurbished skate park, these courts have been accessible since the beginning of July.
“Today we celebrated our five new Pickleball courts at 110th Street,” the Riverside Park Conservancy shared in a tweet. “The community has already been enjoying the courts, and we’re so excited to officially welcome this popular and fast growing sport to the Park.”
Welcome, Pickleball! ?
Today we celebrated our five new Pickleball courts at 110th Street. The community has already been enjoying the courts, and we’re so excited to officially welcome this popular and fast growing sport to the Park. What can we say — it’s a big *dill* ? pic.twitter.com/3cG9QCLRwC
— Riverside Park Conservancy (@RiversideParkNY) July 25, 2023
The courts are free to the public and operate on a first-come, first-served basis with no sign up required. In contrast, the recently opened pickleball complex that opened at Wollman Rink at the start of the summer goes for $120 an hour during peak time and $80 an hour for off-peak reservations.
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The new addition is the result of a District 6 vote on the Participatory Budgeting ballot that was help decide how the neighborhood would spend $1 million in city dollars. At the end of April 2023, Councilmember Gale Brewer announced the five winners which included new outdoor adult fitness equipment for Riverside Park.
According to a March 2023 report published by The New York Times, pickleball is America’s fastest growing sport, surging nearly 40 percent in popularity between 2019 and 2021. Merging net-based games like tennis, badminton and Ping-Pong, pickleball is simple to learn and played on courts that are smaller than tennis courts, factors that have likely contributed to its recent craze.
NIMBY I say, so far no pickle-jarring-ball noises near me (don’t wanna jinx it so I won’t say, but I am south of those unfortunates at 116th). People living near these courts are going insane with the constant pang pang noises of the game. NIMBY.
Our leadership and tax dollars are in complete disarray
And still the RSP Conservancy can’t do a thing about illegal riding of bikes, “bikes” and scooters in the park.
Central Park, though far from perfect, is much better about limiting bicycles and scooters to specified roads/paths.