Re: “North Saanich councillor calls for pickleball courts to be ripped out,” Nov. 1.

We need to add more courts, not destroy existing facilities such as the ones on Wain Road in North Saanich.

A 2025 study by the Capital Regional District and Peninsula Recreation Committee found that the Central Saanich, Sidney and North Saanich area has below-average numbers of pickleball courts, compared to Langford or Kelowna.

The idea that destroying a perfectly good facility when municipalities are spending money building new ones makes no sense.

The Wain Road courts were closed because of the objections of a small handful of neighbours to the noise generated by the balls hitting the pickleball paddles.

Much work has been done on sound mitigation, with major advances in the past two years. The OWL paddle, developed in B.C., together with new, virtually silent pickleballs and acoustic panels on fences, offers solutions that make the noise of pickleball manageable. Further advances, such as 3D-printed pickleballs, are coming.

Perhaps the most important reason to consider re-opening rather than destroying the Wain Road courts is cultural: The facility engendered a special kind of community meeting space for people of the area to meet and socialize, the kind of community that is hard to replicate in other facilities.

That spirit still flickers and can come to life again if everyone involved in determining the future of these courts is reasonable and willing to compromise.

I plan to attend the Nov. 13 open house at the Wain Road fire hall to let North Saanich councillors know why these courts should be reopened, not destroyed.

Roger Graves

President, Victoria Regional Pickleball Association

I’m 85 years old and have lived in Victoria for 71 years. Our family started a business in downtown Victoria in 1956.

I would like to congratulate the engineering department and the previous councillors, and the present councillors, on how they have screwed up the traffic downtown.

Their latest fiasco is Blanshard Street.

You’re driving in a driving lane, get to a red light, only to find out that the cars in front of you don’t move — they are parked in a driving lane.

We won’t talk about Wharf Street, Fort Street, Cook Street — the list goes on.

The city has discouraged shoppers from coming downtown, hence all the vacant and boarded-up stores.

In spite of it all, our family business is still downtown.

Jack Schaddelee

Victoria

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