Here’s to pickleball, more regular maintenance

The city of Santa Fe can move quickly sometimes, and on the occasion of resurfacing courts at Fort Marcy park to create a place for pickleball enthusiasts to play, that’s just what happened.

Fans of the fastest-growing sport in the United States went to the city to ask for more courts — and just weeks later, six new pickleball courts were unveiled. The game, played with an oversized paddle and a baseball-sized whiffle ball on a court that is about half the size of a tennis court, is wildly popular.

Santa Fe being Santa Fe, the move isn’t universally praised.

Some tennis players say the courts at Fort

Marcy are used and wish they had been included in discussions over pickleball. Other critics point to deteriorating courts at Herb Martinez Park in midtown Santa Fe and wonder why courts closer to the Plaza were ready first.

Then there’s the deteriorating big slide at Ragle Park — also in midtown — unsafe to use and blocked off for now, but still beckoning children. All of that, on top of weeds, poor maintenance, drug paraphernalia and other problems at parks all over town. Why did District 1 get the courts?

It was cheap, that’s why. Resurfacing the courts for pickleball cost less than $30,000. Reconstruction on courts at Herb Martinez is expected to cost around $500,000. It’s fairly easy to find an extra $25,000 to $30,000, but a lot harder to find a half-million just sitting around. The Martinez courts should be receiving attention in the spring, so that’s encouraging.

Meanwhile, the new courts are ready for play and pickleball fans already are planning to expand.

The Santa Fe Pickleball Club and its members are hoping to double the number of the courts and eventually host regional and national tournaments, perhaps in a public-private partnership with the city. Pickleball tournaments are in our future.

That Melissa McDonald, the interim director of the Parks and Recreation Department, worked quickly to get this done is to her credit. We expect more pickleball courts to be placed in other parts of town — in some cities, they draw lines for both pickleball and tennis on the same court so all players can take part. With an estimated 450 people playing in Santa Fe, it’s obvious the popularity of the sport will create a need for new courts throughout the city.

Pickleball, or at least the reaction to citizens’ desires, should be an example. People saw what they needed, organized and persuaded an often slow-moving city to act. This is worth a celebration. But the question, both for city government and its park-loving customers, is whether this kind of success can be replicated — and not just for pickleball.