PITTSBURGH — Moore Park in Brookline is a common meet-up spot for people to play basketball, and during the summer time, neighbors say it’s usually filled with kids. The park closes at 11 p.m. and, according to neighbors, it used to have lights on until that time, but that stopped this year.
Samuel Dodds has lived across from Moore Park for 21 years
“In the springtime, we noticed that the lights were getting turned off like several hours before they were supposed to,” Dodds said.
He says every summer he expects to hear kids playing at night since they’re out of school.
“We like to hear pickle balls getting popped over the net, we like to hear tennis balls getting hit, we like to hear kids playing,” Dodds said.
But not everyone feels the same about the noise, and this year, a lawsuit was filed by residents who felt the pickleball court was too loud.
“It’s not just the sound of the paddles and the balls off the paddles, but people playing it,” City Councilman Anthony Coghill said. “They get excited, competitive, and they’re yelling and screaming, so the neighbors have a complete legitimate complaint there, and we’re trying to make everybody happy. We did put a soundproof barrier up around the fence.”
Coghill says this year, the decision was also made to turn the lights off on the pickleball court.
“In order to try and work with the residents there, the noise late at night, we decided to shut the lights off at 8 o’clock so they can’t play past 8 o’clock pickleball, but at the same time that shuts down the basketball court.”
Brookline neighbors say it’s created a real issue.
“Last night there was a kid playing basketball - they had headlamps on and I think one of the kids got hit in the face with a ball,” Dodds said.
Coghill says the plan is to move the pickleball court to a different location. Until then, Coghill says they’ll work out a short-term fix for the summer.
“We’re going to work that out, whether we have to break the circuit - just put lights out on the pickle ball court and leave them on the basketball court,” Coghill said.
Coghill says he’s working with the city and public works to move the pickleball court further away from homes. He says he hopes to do this next year.
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