{"id":4291,"date":"2022-05-01T22:54:33","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T05:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seattlemetropickleball.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/01\/dear-board-of-parks-and-recreation-commissioners\/"},"modified":"2023-07-15T11:03:28","modified_gmt":"2023-07-15T11:03:28","slug":"dear-board-of-parks-and-recreation-commissioners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seattlemetropickleball.com\/dear-board-of-parks-and-recreation-commissioners\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners,"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last month, the Board of Parks Commissioners organized a Q&A session regarding the upcoming Seattle Park District funding plan. They asked you to submit your questions ahead of time<\/a>, which you did. You sent in over 50 pickleball-related questions. That was over half of all questions submitted. Unfortunately, not a single one of your questions was answered during the Q&A session<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 1st, the Seattle Metro Pickleball Association sent the following letter to Seattle’s Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dear Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before your April 14 meeting, you invited Seattle\u2019s citizens to submit questions regarding the upcoming Seattle Park District Funding Plan via an online form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 90 questions were asked. Close to two thirds of those were related to pickleball. Nevertheless, not a single one of those pickleball related question was addressed during the Q&A portion of the meeting. Instead, Brian Judd said \u201cSeattle Parks and Recreation has received many comments advocating for more pickleball courts. We have heard you<\/em>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pickleball players do not feel heard. They did not just ask for more courts. They had specific questions about fund allocations, about the data underlying the funding plan, about tennis privilege, about getting lights so people can play in the evening, about getting pickleball lines finally painted in a color that we can easily see, about the need for pickleball nets to make the sport accessible to people who cannot afford to buy their own net or the means to transport it, about growth, about your support for a sport that has  a different culture, and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pickleball community spent a lot of time and effort providing Seattle Parks with about 50 pages worth of feedback<\/a> when they were asked for their \u201cbig ideas\u201d for the future of Seattle Parks during the lead to the Strategic Plan. This was summarized in two words in Seattle Parks\u2019 presentation to the Board of Commissioners: \u201cMore Courts\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 14th, the pickleball community asked you dozens of specific questions at your invitation and yet again all these were reduced to the same two words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you would like the pickleball community to feel heard, please consider answering some of the pickleball related questions that you collected through your online form. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

–Miguel de Campos, Seattle Metro Pickleball Association
–Frank Chiappone, Seattle Metro Pickleball Association, President
–Jerry Kindinger, Seattle Metro Pickleball Association, Past President<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P.S.: To make your life a little easier, here are most of the pickleball-related questions that were collected through your online form. No attempt was made to aggregate similar questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funding<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n