The popularity of pickleball is evident just about everywhere in Hawaiʻi. Honolulu officials opened the state's first dedicated pickleball complex at Ke’ehi Lagoon Park last summer.
Over at Ala Moana Beach Park, tensions between tennis and pickleball players prompted the city to make a section of the courts off-limits to pickleball. Turf wars at parks are nothing new, but when push comes to shove and police are called in, something has to give.
That's what happened at Ala Moana last fall — and several times this year. The Conversation talked with Parks and Recreation Director Laura Thielen about the challenge of getting players to share court space and the need to revamp court rules.
"Because of the different methods, pickleball is more of a group sport with people rotating in and out, and tennis is more of a two- or four-person sport for that 45-minute play period, we decided to make an effort to separate them where we could. So we identified less-used or underutilized courts in all regions of the island to convert to dedicated pickleball," Thielen said.
"Now this tension is erupting because the compromise apparently was not sufficient to address all the needs. And that's why we want to go listen to the community to find out what was it about the compromise that was insufficient?"
But she said rules will not resolve the fact that there are more players than available facilities, especially at certain times of the day. The same can be said for football versus soccer, lap swimming versus family swim, baseball versus softball, etc.
"A lot of times it boils down to adults having a challenge in sharing limited recreational space. And at the end of the day, the criminal justice system is not the way to handle this. I mean, it really is going to come down to us as adults being a little bit more empathetic, patient and willing to make compromises," Thielen said.
After this interview occurred, the city worked out a compromise with the Oahu Pickleball Association last Tuesday and removed signage at the Ala Moana tennis complex that prohibited pickleball in the tennis practice area.
Thielen said the city is also tweaking park use rules. Oʻahu residents can weigh in on park issues in their neighborhood at the mayor’s upcoming town hall meetings.
A section of the city website is dedicated to helping the public find one of 197 courts at 95 parks.
This story aired on The Conversation on March 26, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. Sophia McCullough adapted this story for the web.
