Seattle Parks is working on a few things that should be right up Capitol Hill’s alley. We told you recently that the Seattle parks board is considering a plan to close most of Volunteer Park to automobile traffic. You can see their briefing on the proposal here.
There is another briefing scheduled to be part of the board’s meeting on Thursday that Cap Hill might also be interested in.
The subject: Non-tennis Activity on Tennis Courts. Also known as dodgeball.
Photo by M.V. Jantzen
Last summer, Parks kicked dodgeballers off the Cal Anderson tennis courts because they weren’t playing tennis. As part of the decision, the Parks board pledged to look for an alternative location near Capitol Hill that was dodgeball and “non-tennis” appropriate.
Now the board is considering 16 locations on and around the Hill that have potential to be used exclusively for “non-tennis” activities. Yay. Down with tennis! These locations include:
- TT Minor playground
- Miller Playfield
- Lowell Elementary
- A planned park at 12th and James
And several other options — some of them so wacky the briefing descriptions dismiss the location out of hand. Don’t even think about it Lincoln Park Courts, you are too crowded with parks storage to host dodgeball.
Parks board meets tomorrow night to discuss the non-tennis and Volunteer Park briefings. Send your feedback to [email protected] . The Volunteer Park traffic closure will be discussed at a public meeting on Feb. 26th. No public meeting scheduled for dodgeball yet.
What a waste of space to have a separate court/playfield dedicated to every ‘sport’. Why can’t the dodgeballers use the tennis courts? No one uses them at that time. Seems like a good public use of park real estate to have 50 hipsters throwing balls at each other rather than empty pavement waiting patiently for 2 people to come the next day.
Agreed it’s kind of silly but at least they’re actively looking for a solution instead of just saying no. It’s mostly a safety issue, as I understand it. Parks needs to make sure they don’t have risk issues by allowing unsanctioned use of the facilities they manage. So, in some respects, this is really just about labeling an existing facility in a new way though they are also going through review process to figure out what kinds of changes might be needed to better ensure safety.
Dodgeball can be played on any hard surface. Tennis, however, requires a much smoother, specialized surface that’s been all but ruined by street-shoe wearing dodgeball enthusiasts and scars from fixie-hockey.
Additionally, those two tennis courts cost the city thousands to construct (thousands that likely won’t be seen again for some time given the economy), and are a very precious resource being 2 of only 10 tennis courts in Seattle’s densest neighborhood.
You mean, tennis can’t be played on anything but expensive special surface? http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Tim_Henma, go on…follow the link.
And…you mean to say…your special surface…can’t take…street-shoe abuse? What is it origami? poppycock.
Besides, dodgeball can’t be played on just any hard surface. For example, the middle of the street is no good. It needs a cage around it, or else the balls will go flying in all sorts of directions.
Something that can’t be multipurposed doesn’t belong in a dense urban environment where real estate is scarce.
Seems like a handful of people, who don’t enjoy the random fun of the evening, complaining about a portion of the park that THEY DON’T EVEN USE.
Why don’t they just stop complaining about it, let people have their fun, and drop the issue.
I call Bullsh*t!
And if that’s how they want to play, then I say we just boycott the park altogether. One of the best things left about the hill is the random events, like dodgeball at Cal Anderson, that make it worth living on the hill. It’s the spirit of event, not the event itself.
Remember what that park USED to be? They need to stop complaining, and just GET OVER IT!
bring dodgeball back:
http://www
Dodgeball can be played on any hard surface. Tennis, however, requires a much smoother, specialized surface that’s been all but ruined by street-shoe wearing dodgeball enthusiasts and scars from fixie-hockey. Additionally, those two tennis courts cost the city thousands to construct (thousands that likely won’t be seen again for some time given the economy), and are a very precious resource being 2 of only 10 tennis courts in Seattle’s densest neighborhood.
Considering 99% of the people that live on capitol hill dont play tennis, 10 tennis courts is alot.
You and everyone knows, the majority of the time the courts are not being used.
Its quite a terrible investment of thousands of dollars to build a structure only allowed for one use.
Most of the cyclists who play bikepolo, dont use fixed geared bikes. Take a look. In two years ive only seen them play one time on the tennis courts, most of the time they play on the basketball court, again another court not being used most of the time.
Most dodgeballers wear court shoes while playing dodgeball.
Your right dodgeball can be played on just about any hard surface. But like tennis, dodgeball needs an enclosed area.
If your going to bring in the whole economy thing, then allowing dodgeballers to play in cal tennis courts would be a plus for the city. No more meetings and need for building a court.
You could have up to four people playing tennis, or was the case tonight, literally more than fifty people simultaneously playing a massive game of dodgeball. And it was pretty amazing seeing people from ages ten to fifty+ all playing together… and for some of us, a game we hadn’t played since our childhoods, several decades ago. I really can’t see tennis bringing people together like that.