Basketball Players Wait on Remodel at Carl Schurz Park, Picklers Get New Paint Job

Pickleball players on the Upper East Side’s Carl Schurz Park are now enjoying freshly repainted courts, after they alerted the Parks Department about some cracked seals. The three courts opened just last year, and have quickly become both a beloved recreational resource and a controversial flashpoint.

In the meantime, the park’s basketball courts–which sit a stone’s throw away from the brand-new pickle courts–remain in rough condition. Missing nets and outright gashes are visible in the concrete.

Yet help may finally be on the way for the long neglected basketball courts. The NYC Parks Department confirmed to Our Town that there is a proposed plan to fix up the park’s entire recreational area, which ostensibly includes the basketball courts, although a designer of the plan won’t be selected until the fall.

Picklers who spoke to Our Town were pretty happy about the new courts. They all admitted that the man known as Albert the “Pickleball Doctor” had served as the paint job’s main advocate before the Parks Department–which is unsurprising given that he sets up the nets every morning, and in many ways fostered the Carl Schurz pickle community.

A pickler named Pamela said that there were “big potholes” all over the courts that needed to be fixed, and that it was becoming “dangerous.” She plays on the courts four or five days a week, starting last summer, and claimed that a Carl Schurz pickleball T-shirt was in the works: “The Parks people here are pretty involved, and they’re always coming over…they do a very nice job taking care of the park.”

In what was possibly a reference to some verbal fights that broke out after the courts first opened, Pamela conceded that “there was a lot of controversy” around Albert, but that “we should all be grateful” for his work maintaining the courts.

Nathan, another pickler standing nearby, shared Pamela’s reverence for Albert. “He’s a retired anesthesiologist. What do they say: ‘If you build it, they will come?’ I guess ‘if you bring the nets, they will come,’” he joked, in a reference to the classic Kevin Costner baseball film Field of Dreams.

A couple days later, as evening approached and as picklers enjoyed their new courts, basketball players laced up to shoot some hoops.

Jason Berger, who had been playing on the courts for 24 years, noted that “there were a couple things about the courts that could use improvements. They could put on nets a bit more often. The discoloring of the courts are a bit unattractive, aesthetically.”

Berger was somewhat bittersweet about the proposal to repaint the courts, given that he had played on them since his childhood. However, he added, “residential improvements are necessary for the upkeep of our neighborhood. If that’s what they’ve decided to do, then I’m all for it.”

As far as pickleball went, Berger said, he didn’t partake: “I play ping-pong and tennis.” Yet he, for one, wasn’t sad that picklers had found a new home for their hobby. “You see people that my age, who are 24 or 25, playing right there. You see people who are in their 50s, 60s, and 70s playing with the 20 year-olds too.”

Despite his appreciation for the picklers, there one condition Berger emphasized that he had, and it was pretty nonnegotiable: “I’d like to keep my courts, if not a second court. That’s be great.”

Nick, who was getting ready to hoop with his friend Vince, grew up on the Upper East Side and said that he had learned to play basketball on Carl Schurz’s courts. “You see the patchy bits? They get really slippery. People twist their ankle,” he said. He was happy that a proposed rework was in the cards.

As far as pickleball went, Nick clarified that he had just played for the first time recently. He found the courts to be a “nuisance” at first, because of the noise, but he no longer “really has a problem with it.”

What would cause a problem for Nick–and likely for Jason Berger, as well–was the desire by some Carl Schurz picklers to acquire another court, which would inevitably jut in on the basketball courts. Nick had heard of this scheme, and pointedly said that he was “radically opposed” to it.

Nick’s friend Vince concurred: “It was a little bit of a bummer that they didn’t repave the whole court, when they did the pickleball side.” As for now, hoopers will be in for a bit more waiting on that front.