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We play tennis at McCarren Park a couple of times a week, so it's exciting to see someone trying to do something about those ridiculously busted old courts, which the Parks Department charges $100 a year or $7 an hour to use. But the folks involved with the McCarren Tennis renovation group aren't just demanding that the badly cracked courts get a long-overdue resurfacing, they've got much bigger plans. Those familiar with the park know that on weekends, the big concrete lot next to the courts is occupied by a crowd of, um, spirited softball players. Well, these fellows will be mighty interested to know that their tennis-playing neighbors have their eye on that lot, and are campaigning to have it turned into more courts! There is no way that happens without a riot, despite the fact that the entire area was originally devoted exclusively to tennis "once upon a time," as Brownstoner notes. We'll be sure to share that interesting bit of history with those softball gents this weekend, particularly the individual who inexplicably yelled, "HAMBURGER" over and over again for more than an hour during their game last Sunday.
McCarren Tennis Court Expansion Would Evict Softball Crew
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In one of the most heavily taxed cities in American, it's always disgusted me that the city charges for the courts.
If we ever had a soda tax, would we get rid of such user fees? Of course not. But common sense would tell you that if we tax the unhealthy, we can't bill the healthy?
Oh wait. Nothing makes sense. These dinosaurs don't give a fuck.
The $7 permit/season pass applies only if there is an attendant on duty, though this year has been better than last year in that regard. Having an attendant present keeps things orderly, because: honor system, my ass.
Maybe with more courts, there'll be more opportunities to play given the court hogs always on courts 6 &7 . (If you play there, you know what I'm talking about...)True story: I witnessed a standoff between hipster tennis players and the Polish guys on court 7 on Tuesday. I've never waged nor witnessed a successful coup of those courts until that day. The people waiting to play stood on the courts at the 6 o'clock changeover and refused to move. It was beautiful.
And, yes, I almost got hit in the head by a softball.
The NYC parks system for tennis is so absurd, I have many many anecdotes about arguments over courts, but I can't tell them because I get too angry and start ranting and raving..,,,I already forgot my point. I suppose anything involving "honor system" and NYC and Brooklyn is destined to be a laugh.
Yeah, and once upon a time Prospect Park was filled with tennis courts that are now softball fields. And that's a good thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUCDhvbQFmU
So are the hipsters playing tennis or softball? I thought they only play kickball in McCarren? Either way, they need to be removed from the park, whatever sport they play.
Why should anyone be removed? As long as they're paying for permits, who cares?
haha you hate hipsters AND sports?! The world really just can't win in "Dude69"s eyes.
this dumb. Repair the courts and monitor their use better, sure. Buy why do tennis players have more rights to the space than people playing softball or basketball?
McCarren is used for tennis and softabll about 12% of the time. The rest of the time McCarren is usually a giant sleeping bag/heroin hang out.
How about Tennis/Softball players versus the junkies?
I'm part of the McCarren Tennis group and wanted to clear this up. The headline of this post is very misleading -- no one is taking the existing softball field away. What's happening is this: the city is building a bunch of new softball fields (these are *not* made out of asphalt) down by the water, so this opens the possibility of moving softball from the current site to those new fields (there are several). If that happens, and provided McCarren Tennis can raise the money required, we then would hope to begin construction of new courts. The net result would be MORE softball fields and MORE tennis courts. That can't be bad.
In any case, the new courts are years away. What we hope to have done by next year -- goal #1 -- is the resurfacing of the existing 7 courts, new nets, and new windscreens. There are thousands of people who use those courts constantly, and this is WAY overdue. Visit http://www.mccarrentennis.org for more info.