My city has a pretty nice park in it. This past spring, they spent a ton of money installing almost two dozen new tennis courts.
I haven’t played tennis in years, but the wife and I have been trying to be more active and get in shape. So we saw that there were all these new courts, and they were usually pretty empty, so why not? We bought a couple of cheap racquets and some balls, and drove over to the park.
There, we discovered that the courts were behind a pin-code locked gate. A big sign said, “Open to the public 5AM to 9PM” and had a QR code under it. I’m abnormally paranoid about QR codes posted in unmonitored public spaces, so I went to the city’s website and clicked around until I find out what was going on: you need to scan the code to go to a website to reserve a court for a certain time slot, and then they will email you with a unique code for the gate five minutes before your reservation.
This is, on its own, an insane system. The only upside I could come up with is that, if you save the link and book in advance, you’ll always be sure to have a court to use. But, again, there’s nearly two dozen of them and I’ve never seen more than three in use at a time.
But we were there, we had our equipment, so I caved and began signing up for this bullshit. They had me create a username and password, and finally I was able to select a court, select a time, and click “reserve.”
Except that when I clicked, it took me to another website to make another login. This was not a .gov, but some private company that I guess the city contracted with? And to make a login there, they needed my email, my phone number, my DOB, my zip code, and even my gender.
So to play a game on a public court, in a public park, in a city that I pay taxes to, I need to surrender tons of personal identifying information to a third party? Fucking why?! Who thought this was a good idea? What part of the community does this serve?
So, yeah, I’m taking the tennis stuff back to the store, I guess, and the spouse and I will need to find another hobby.
An unmonitored qr code locked gate you say? Sounds like a job for a prybar, or chain cutters.
Then everyone can use the commons
Email your city. That’s unacceptable use of taxpayer dollars
That sounds like not open to the public.
I’m laughing at the city planner that meticulously set all this up in anticipation of the courts being so wildly popular they required a booking system.
All that work and they’re sitting mostly unused.
Maybe the reason they’re sitting mostly unused is because much of the public feels similarly to OP and doesn’t want to jump through a bunch of hoops just to use a tennis court.
Its for damage
Yes because someone planning to vandalize something will schedule ahead.
Thats a BS excuse. Its for profit for that 3rd party company and whichever official is getting a kickback from it.
edit- Id also be willing to bet that if the city put this much “effort” into these courts, then there are cameras pointed at them and having a registration system to track damages is redundant.
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Its a tennis court, tf are you gonna do to damage it
Sit on the net?
Did any of the information it’s requesting have to be valid? I doubt they were cross referencing it against anything. So go be John Doe, a 69 year old Female with a birthday of 1/1/1970.
If it needs a real address, theres always 420 meme street, NY.
Gee I wonder why no one was using them 😅 thats fuckin dumb and an enormous headache even outside of privacy implications
Does your town still have a local paper or news channel? This would be perfect for the local “grind my gears” guy to chew on.
Slip in when someone else goes for tennis. Super glue the latch to the gate open. Duct tape it for good measure. Gate looks closed but it’s actually open. Tadaa.
Alternatively, smash that stupid fucking keypad with a big rock. 👍
Buy an angle grinder.
Flock cops at your door in 3… 2…
What do you think the first job of the angle grinder is?
I heard the wind is very good at taking down Flock cameras.
But only at angles.
Those poles snap off surprisingly cleanly, cable and all 😂
Did you complain directly to your local politicians? 'Cause they’re the Ines who really need to hear this.
I, too, am sick and tired of the government forcing me to contract with various third party commercial entities, BTW. We need more people to complain if we want it to change.
Is there a guard present? Who is going to enforce lack of reservation when there are other courts clearly not in use?
I’d say f this sign and just play.
If there’s a unique code for the gate as OP says, it sounds like it is otherwise locked
Sounds like they should jump the fence
If it’s tall enough to keep tennis balls in, I’d rather not 😬
I must have missed that part, thanks.
Sounds like some overzealous HOA board member got elected and is treating public spaces like their backyard.
I’d be raising hell with the local government about their asinine waste of public funds.
I’d also register as Mickey Mouse and other false info.
I’m not seeing anything about it being an HOA park either
I’m referring to the shared frame of mind the local council has with a stereotypical HOA board. ;)
You’ll have to break in, then convince whoever shows up ‘it was like that when I got here’.
Hopefully there’s no cameras.
That’s probably a carry over from systems built out for major cities and their park spaces. You would know in a second why it was necessary if you ever rolled over to an NYC park, hoping to play some tennis or handball, or whatever, only to find out that all the courts near you are being camped out by the same group of guys who are there so often, it seems like they live there. I could see if becoming the standard from major cities where it makes sense to make sure these resources can’t be dominated by a handful of individuals who don’t allow anyone else a turn, but then mindlessly carried over when installing them elsewhere in places where there isn’t the same need.
I understand your point, but even in a crowded city, this isn’t the solution. If your city’s courts are booked out, whether through online booking or people sitting outside and calling dibs, the solution is always “build more capacity.” The problem exists because more people want to use the area than the area allows. Forcing online registration shifts the problem: there’s more capacity because there’s less tolerance for bullshit, not because there’s less interest in using the space.
Are there no other courts available to you? We live in a very rural area but we go to the highschool to play on the weekends/evenings. It’s free and unlocked as opposed to the gym where we have to check in inside to get a key.
Our high-school courts aren’t open to the public. Every few months some unwitting adults go over to try to play outside of school hours, and the cops come and kick them out.
There’s a smaller park in a suburb nearby, but there’s only three courts and they always seem occupied. My in-laws live near a park with a few more courts that is actually open to the public, but it’s a 15-minute drive to get there. Part of the initial appeal was that the park with all the new courts was barely a mile from our apartment. All the extra hoops to use it are frustrating.
If i had the time and money, id be tempted to but a tennis net and set it up right out side the gated courts. If theres pavement nearby id use that but if not, roads work. Really drive home the absurdity of this whole situation. Maybe get the news involved.
Im a petty person when it comes to injustices.Maybe you can convince the nearby suburb to add online reservations for their courts so people can be able to go play without having to check if they are empty or wait for others to finish their matches.
this is annoying to me because there are all sorts of things I have used spaces like tennis courts for that I would not want to reserve for. I have had dogs to do ball throwing excersise and off leash training. I have messe around with a sling. In both cases I would only use it if no one was otherwise using it and if someone showed up I would go. Its not something where reserving one court would work but was a way I could enjoy some of our park infrastructure that I otherwise would not use when it was not being utilized. I mean the tennis courts around me get use sometimes but often times no one is there. Im sure there are other oddball uses to having an eclosed outdoor caged area. The reservation thing is dumb unless the courts are so freakin popular they are always in use 5am to 9pm. Which I assume are the park hours. Ours are closed sundown to sunup which pretty much means if you are in them a cop can come by and tell you to leave but like plenty of folk have come out for star gazing but also you get people drinking or something.
Huh. What country does that?
But yeah, it’s similar here. Back in the day, I’d just go to a museum, theme park, zoo, fair, adventure forest… In modern times you’d book online, have to arrive within some designated time slot, maybe create an account, pay online… You can try to just go there, but there’s some chance it’s packed or whatever and they don’t let you in. And nobody wants to waste half an hour driving there, so everybody does the online reservation ordeal for all kinds of minor things.
