On Tuesday, May 19, voters in the Hudson City School District will be asked to vote on the proposed $59.2 million 2026-2027 school budget (and a 5.8 percent increase in the tax levy) and for two members of the Board of Education. On Tuesday, too, voter input will be sought on whether or not to add pickleball striping on the historic tennis courts at Montgomery C. Smith School, which is part of the grand design originally known as the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Educational Center.
It is not clear where the idea of adding pickleball striping to the tennis courts originated or why the suggestion is being seriously considered, but it is. Aside from the issue of the appropriateness of altering the historic tennis courts in this way and mingling what may be a just passing fad with a serious sport whose history dates back to the sixteenth century, there are problems associated with pickleball, especially when pickleball courts are introduced into residential neighborhoods. This article, published last year, explains the issue: "These Communities Pulled the Plug on Pickleball." Our choices should be informed by the experience of other communities.
The polling places for Tuesday's vote are:
- Hudson Central Fire Station, 77 North Seventh Street
- Greenport, Stottville/Stockport, Ghent Greenport Community Center, 500 Town Hall Drive, Greenport
- Claverack, Livingston, Taghkanic A. B. Shaw Fire House, 67 NY-23, Claverack
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As an avid tennis player, former Division 1 player at Siena College and Hudson High School stand out and top singles player and Hudson High tennis coach as well as head coach for the Columbia County Youth Bureau, I will say I am a purist when it comes to keeping tennis courts tennis courts and pickleball courts pickleball courts. The gravitas surrounding combining tennis courts with pickleball courts has come with the influx of new people to our area. This is in no way should be spun as a "nativist" having yet another gripe about new people in the area but alas, I'm well aware of how things play out here. At the end of the day, facts are facts. As a tennis player, I think I speak for all of us when I say we really don't like playing tennis on a tennis court next to someone playing pickleball on a tennis court that has or has not been made suited for pickleball by drawing new, additional lines. Firstly, there is the obtrusive and jarring clunk of the paddle hitting a plastic ball that we just don't have with tennis. Secondly, there are known rules and etiquette that tennis players follow that may be unknown to newbie pickleball players and often unfollowed. I have also thrown my hat into the pickleball ring and I quite like the game however, I think the courts should be kept separate. With all of that being said, in no way should this have anything to do with approving the school budget. I feel some people are grasping at straws and at the final hour, claiming to have interest in our youth as a justification for voting no on the school budget. I have seen comments from people stating that our kids can't read. That is a flat out lie, as I am a reading mentor to these kids and all of them can read and the people who are stating they can't are also reading mentors. And those are my two cents, for what it's worth.
ReplyDeletePS: When mentioning the tennis greats of Hudson as was done in previous postings, it is neglectful to not mention the best ever produced from our area, Megan Yeats. Thank you.
-Justin Weaver
Sharing this (relevant to this Gossips story) banger from Instagram from none other than Mr. Allen. No relation to Allen St.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.instagram.com/p/DYZtYEhtBuG/
There are people playing pickleball there just about daily and the noise is minimal if not existent. There is no noise actually.
ReplyDeleteI'm so conflicted on this. On the one hand, I've never quite bought into the argument that pickleball presents this incredible noise inconvenience.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, and on the off-chance I'll ever play tennis again which must have last happened over the 30 years ago, the gratuitous additional lines on the court would annoy me. I happily side with Justin's purity argument.
In the end, I'll probably vote no purely based on the fact that drawing these lines would cost a few bucks and given that people appear to play pickleball on these courts without them now, they don't seem needed.