January 2024 - Parks & Recreation - 46

TRENDS
light Data, a transportation analytics
firm, finds that walking activity
nationwide declined an average of
36 percent since 2019. In some Midwest
urban areas, walking trips have
declined up to 50 percent, a shocking
turn toward sedentary behavior.
One interesting correlation about
the decline of walking, says Emily
Adler, director of content for Streetlight,
in Bloomberg's urban news
site, City Lab, is that " If walking is
declining less in warm weather metros,
or coming back faster, it suggests
that walking is becoming primarily
a form of recreation. " Adler speculates
that more recreational walking
is good for public health outcomes
but less so for walking as a mode of
transportation to destinations.
The implications for parks and
recreation are significant. Recreation
programmers, health staff and
trail managers should have a ready
audience
to promote the muchneeded
health benefits of walking by
offering more guided and self-guided
walking activities in 2024. Other
program trends, such as family
engagement activities, outdoor
youth programs and senior walks, are
tailor-made for parks and recreation
to lead the way through walking.
More Pickleball - More, More, More
Like Godzilla rising from the sea,
the recreation behemoth pickleball
has still not slowed its seemingly
unstoppable march through cities
as the fastest-growing recreational
sport in the nation.
Along with all the good that
pickleball brings, the noise factor
is drowning out even residents of
communities who are most willing
to accept the good about the sport:
healthful
active recreation, great
for older adults, all ages can play
- what's not to like? Unfortunately,
conflicts over noise are growing.
Neighbors are suing neighbors.
Public hearings in some localities
have become so heated that law enforcement
has had to intervene.
As a result, park and recreation
agencies have become much more
careful when deciding where to site
pickleball courts. Some agencies are
now conducting sophisticated sound
studies when planning new courts,
and are looking at sound abatement
measures that will reduce the
incessant " thwack-thwack " noise
that travels improbable distances
from pickleball courts. Centennial,
Colorado, a suburb of Denver, has
just lifted a six-month moratorium
on new courts and passed first-oftheir-kind
regulations that prohibit
any courts within 250 feet of a nearby
home's property line. Also, any
new courts will require a city permit
within 600 feet of a home and noise
Long a feature of public parks and plazas
in Japan and Europe, self-cleaning
toilets are making inroads in U.S. cities
such as in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
46 Parks & Recreation |
J ANUAR Y 2 0 2 4 | PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
must be under a 47-decibel limit.
In one unusual twist, the conservation
group Birds Connect Seattle
has objected to the conversion of
old unused tennis courts in Lincoln
Park into pickleball courts by Seattle
Parks and Recreation because they
believe the noise will harm certain
species of birds, including hawks,
owls, ravens and eagles that nest and
roost in nearby big trees in the park.
The group also objects to the potential
prospect of installing lights
on the courts at some future date,
which they believe would be especially
harmful to the birds. However,
this hasn't deterred advocates
for more pickleball courts, who
feel they have been promised more
public courts soon.
Seattle Parks and Recreation Director
Anthony-Paul " AP " Diaz
explains that existing nearby tennis
courts in Lincoln Park have been
very popular with older adults from
a senior community that lives nearby.
The only way to provide pickleball
courts was to convert some of the
tennis courts, which was not a good
solution. A staff member suggested
repurposing some unused and in disrepair
tennis courts that were used for
maintenance storage as new pickleball
courts. " We thought it was a winwin, "
says Diaz. However, when the
bird nesting and roosting issue came
to light, that created a new problem.
To begin to resolve the conflict, Diaz
has committed the department to doing
a sound study to see if the new
noise would affect the birds. Where
the new pickleball courts would be
located, he explains,
is already an
active recreation area with daytime
noise from athletic fields, an outdoor
summer pool, and aircraft landing
nearby. " We want to protect nature
too, " Diaz says. He notes newly approved
sound-deadening equipment
recently endorsed by USA Pickleball
PHOTO COURTESY OF CITY OF GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN
January 2024 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2024 - Parks & Recreation
