It's 6:30am and the sun is just coming up. The park looks deserted in this chilly, wet morning, except for a grey Toyota in the parking lot with two surf boards strapped on the roof and clothes draped over windows -- a tell-tale sign that someone spent the night there.
I zip up my down jacket and pull out a push broom from the back of my car. As I look around the courts, I notice the early morning light is reflected on the giant puddles that form after each rain. I drop my broom and take a picture, before I commence my futile struggle against them.
It is one of the truths in my corner of the universe: Ford Park tennis courts suck pretty bad, even after the half-hearted resurfacing work a couple of years ago. But these are the only readily accessible, lighted public courts in the City of Redlands, where families with little kids, retirees, and regular working folks come out to play for a couple of hours and enjoy themselves.
That is why I fought hard against the City's "Ford Park Tennis Courts Improvement Project" in the fall of 2017, to keep the courts free and accessible to all. They were to charge $5/hour court fees, which would then be used for nice benches and landscaping around the courts. I started a Facebook group called "Free Ford Park," collected signatures, went to the City Council and told them no, cosmetic improvements would never make it a "first-class" tennis facility as they advertised, and that people would simply stop coming, if they charged $5 for these dilapidated courts.
My predictions were spot on, as it turned out. As soon as the City posted the fee signs and an attendant (who did little beyond collecting fees and handing out flyers) started hanging around during high usage hours, most regulars stopped coming. For weeks, the courts were deserted even on Sunday mornings, normally the most popular time of the week. In six months the City apparently collected so little money that it "dropped" the fees and abandoned the whole project. Once they took down the fee signs and the attendant's shed, people gradually came back.
I didn't fight only to play tennis in crappy public courts. The City left these courts unattended for good ten years with no maintenance, before they finally resurfaced the court that was at least twenty years overdue according to long-term regulars. There was no attendant and no regular cleaning for years. Nevertheless, a small group of regulars kept coming, and despite the poor court conditions, enjoyed themselves with friendly matches. If it was not for the presence of community members, who spent time here, lend a hand in keeping the courts clean, and made it a friendly place, it would have been deserted a long time ago. It was also one of the few places in Redlands that attracted a truly diverse group of people of all ages and playing levels, from -- literally -- all over the world and all walks of life.
The City's attempt to monetize what they perceived as "tremendous interest" in these course failed, because they did not take into account that it was not the pretty landscape or new nets that attracted people there. It was that community feeling that brought people to this place despite their inattention.
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