Illustration by Tabitha Walters
Cities continually wrestle with intrusions of The New. In Ann Arbor parks, the intrusive newcomer is pickleball. It’s been around since 1965, but really took off during the pandemic.
Ann Arbor’s parks and rec department has opened multiple courts at Leslie Park, two at Burns Park, and single courts at several others. Hunt Park is not among them—yet several years ago, pickleball lines appeared on its tennis court.
A group of enthusiasts became regulars and even set up a website for scheduling the pickleball court. But Kimberly Mortson, communications specialist for parks and rec, emails that the work was done without official input.
Related: Pickleball Power
The department subsequently surveyed Ann Arborites about pickleball at parks. “Based on the number of negative responses,” Mortson says, they decided against it at Hunt. “The most frequent complaint was the closeness of neighboring houses to the courts and the amount of noise that pickleball creates.” The sound of a solid paddle hitting one of the sport’s hollow plastic balls can be up to 25 decibels louder than even the hardest-swung tennis racket connecting with a fuzzy tennis ball.
Tennis remains more popular, with more than 24 million people playing the sport in the U.S. in 2023, compared to about 14 million pickleballers. But pickleball is growing much faster, setting off contests around the country over courts created for basketball, roller hockey, and tennis.
Many cities have seen public demonstrations and lawsuits. In Santa Monica, California, a pickleball storage shed was set on fire.
Nothing so dramatic has happened here, but though the lines are gone from Hunt Park, the mystery of how they got there remains. And the city continues to debate how far to accommodate this particular aspect of The New.
“We anticipate having another public engagement for additional pickleball opportunities and areas in the Spring of 2025,” emails deputy parks department manager Scott Spooner. “After that public engagement, we will re-evaluate the status of Hunt Park, as well as other parks and tennis courts in Ann Arbor.”
Related: Pickleball Pals
This article has been edited since it appeared in the April 2025 Ann Arbor Observer. Scott Spooner’s last name has been corrected.
Calls & letters, May 2025: Scott Spooner
Our April Up Front article on “Pickleball NIMBYism” got the last name of the deputy parks department manager we quoted wrong: he’s Scott Spooner, not Scott Spencer. Our apologies to Spooner and our thanks to reader Kathy Semak, who emailed to let us know about the error.
I call BS on many of the claims in this article. The court at Hunt Park is bordered by a grove of trees and a hill on one side and a field, berm and a road on the other. I’d love to see documentation of the complaints, probably the one disgruntled tennis player who was ticked off that our pickleball group was enjoying the facilities. Most of all, I’d like to know why the rec department would spend scarce money to remove lines that had been there for many years. Note to rec department: please spend our tax dollars on increasing recreational opportunities, not decreasing them.
Pathetic. The article states “We anticipate having another public engagement for additional pickleball opportunities …” yet the Rec Department removed existing lines for existing pickleball opportunities. Pathetic.
When we choose to live in a neighborhood, we understand that there will be noise — whether a motorcycle, a teen rock band practicing in the garage across the street, neighbors having a backyard party, or someone working on their car in their driveway with music playing. We understand that neighbors make noise, and we try to be neighborly and live with it.
The court at Hunt Park is hundreds of feet from homes on the north and south sides — too far for the pickleball sounds to be heard. The court is protected by a berm and trees on the west side. That leaves about three homes on the east side which can hear the pickleball sounds.
While certainly the residents in these few homes on the east side deserve the respect owed to any resident, it seems a little overbalanced to shut down a recreational activity which lasts for 2-3 hours a week — and which is at least 200 feet from the homes on the east side — in order to avoid the sounds of pickleball.
When a teenage rock band practices across the street (which actually happens for us), we do not call the police (though we might want to). If they would play after 9 p.m., we would indeed call the police. We are trying to be neighborly, and balance our desires with the desires of others.
I would ask that the neighbors of Hunt Park, and the Ann Arbor Parks and Rec Department, consider if the actions to close down the Hunt Park pickleball activities are an overreaction and are overbalancing the desires of a few neighbors.
I chose to live in Ann Arbor because it is a thriving city bursting with things to do. I live near the railroad tracks. And I knew this when I moved in. When the trains go by, they are one of the sounds that remind me that I am a part of this city.
When I walk past Hunt Park, which I do frequently, I sometimes enjoy the sounds of the children playing soccer, or teens playing basketball, or residents playing pickleball or tennis. And sometimes it is quiet. All these sounds are part of our city, part of our neighborhood. Cities have quiet hours, which should be respected. But during the day, the sounds of our city are what make it our city in the first place. We don’t limit building permits because the construction will make noise. Why would we shut down a pickleball court which provides residents with an opportunity for recreation and wellbeing?