SPARE CHANGE: Pickleball players getting squeezed out as game grows in popularity

Jim Gillis
·3 min read
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Some mid-August oddznendz:

• Wow. Those pickleball players must be a rowdy crowd.

The Newport City Council recently enacted a curfew on pickleball playing because of noise complaints from neighbors near Hunter Park.

What I know about pickleball I could scribble on a piece of confetti. I do know many of the players are about my age (read: oldish) and are passionate about the game, something they can play when the legs are no longer spry enough for squash or tennis.

Sounds like fun, actually.

I have no doubt the neighbors’ complaints are valid. It’s just strange that pickleball seems to rev up the players and turns them into a public nuisance.

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The council did not impose a curfew on apparently more sedate tennis players. Maybe when a sport is known for all-white clothing it has a calming effect.

Jim Gillis.
Jim Gillis.

Bottom line: As we know, Newport is squeezed for recreational areas. Pickleball is one more demand on an overcrowded landscape. City Manager Joseph Nicholson, Jr. said maybe the Newport Bridge project could open up some land.

If Bishop’s 4th Street Diner must close, how about some pickleball courts — a more needed and beneficial addition than one more mini-mart.

• I was a passionate racquetball player in the 1980s and '90s. The YMCA had four courts, often full, the old Newport Athletic Club had courts, so did some local hotels.

How did this sport suddenly vanish? I’m not sure there’s a court left on the Island.

• Sounds like a scary scene this past weekend on the Block Island Ferry, where several brawls broke out.

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Some of the fighting started outside the popular Ballard’s, which hosted a reggae festival. Reggae? You’d think the contact high would have mellowed out everyone.

Jail away on the Block Island Ferry?

• Good luck to City Councilor Kate Leonard, as she bypasses a reelection bid. She’s served 26 years.

Kate and I disagreed on a few things. But some people seldom take time to consider how much time a city council member invests in the job. Kate spent much of her time on the phone with constituents. Topics might be school spending or a downed stop sign.

Twenty-six years of that might send a person into the hills for good. But it was a big chunk of Kate’s life.

• “If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” Former President Donald J. Trump in 2016.

• A belated R.I.P.: Chris Burns.

• Apparently the Anne Frank meme furor is over.

Two weeks ago, Tiverton’s Atlantic Sports Bar and Restaurant posted an anti-Semitic meme with a sick reference to Anne Frank, who died in a concentration camp at age 15.

This drew worldwide publicity (as far as Jerusalem). Owner Messias Dias has never commented publicly, but doubled down and told New Bedford, Massachusetts, talk show host Jessica Machado he thought the meme was funny.

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The restaurant issued a written apology, a formulaic PR-style mea culpa.

When state Rep. Jay Edwards, a Tiverton Democrat, recently organized a forum including Holocaust survivors, Dias was nowhere to be found.

That’s a shame. It would’ve been a classy move to show up, express regrets and apologize. And he could’ve heard Holocaust survivors recount their pain.

Or perhaps he has no regrets and feels no need to apologize.

If so, that’s sad.

Jim Gillis is a Daily News columnist. Send him email at jimgillis13@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: SPARE CHANGE: Pickleball players in Newport RI getting squeezed out