{"id":2650,"date":"2023-05-17T07:19:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T11:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/2023\/05\/17\/takoma-park-to-permanently-close-other-side-of-laurel-avenue-for-pickleball-courts\/"},"modified":"2023-05-17T07:19:00","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T11:19:00","slug":"takoma-park-to-permanently-close-other-side-of-laurel-avenue-for-pickleball-courts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/2023\/05\/17\/takoma-park-to-permanently-close-other-side-of-laurel-avenue-for-pickleball-courts\/","title":{"rendered":"Takoma Park to Permanently Close Other Side of Laurel Avenue for Pickleball Courts"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"670\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/takomatorch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/pickleball.jpg?resize=1024%2C670&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2649\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/takomatorch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/pickleball.jpg?resize=1024%2C670&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/takomatorch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/pickleball.jpg?resize=300%2C196&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/takomatorch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/pickleball.jpg?resize=768%2C503&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/takomatorch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/pickleball.jpg?resize=1536%2C1005&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/takomatorch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/pickleball.jpg?resize=1222%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1222w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/takomatorch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/pickleball.jpg?resize=922%2C603&amp;ssl=1 922w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/takomatorch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/pickleball.jpg?resize=675%2C442&amp;ssl=1 675w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/takomatorch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/pickleball.jpg?resize=360%2C236&amp;ssl=1 360w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/takomatorch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/pickleball.jpg?w=1722&amp;ssl=1 1722w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>TAKOMA PARK, MD &#8211; Three years after closing the northbound lane of Laurel Avenue to expand outdoor seating for restaurants during COVID, the city council voted 6-1 in favor of closing the southbound lane to build new pickleball courts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We heard about yet another bizarre state grant to block vehicle access to roads, so of course we applied&#8230;and won!&#8221; said the City Manager. &#8220;Now Takoma Park residents can enjoy their new favorite sport of pickleball while also enjoying their longtime favorite sport by arguing about it on their local listserv.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Takoma Park does not currently have any dedicated pickleball courts, and meeting the demand for space to enjoy the increasingly popular sport was difficult. Just as the city&#8217;s multi-year search for a dog park site ultimately produced an inconvenient and difficult to use location, the only potential pickleball site that didn&#8217;t result in residents threatening to chain themselves to something in protest was the middle of the street in the business district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Naturally, however, many residents were still angry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This is a public nuisance!&#8221; shouted Constance Komplanor. &#8220;These pickleball bullies are just out to take over every square inch of land, and if we don&#8217;t fight back, we will we lose every one of our precious parking spaces.&#8221; Komplanor then began incorrectly paraphrasing Martin Niem\u00f6ller before getting distracted by the construction of a new apartment building across the street and stomping off in a huff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The southbound lane will remain open until May 31st, after which the new restaurant Motorkat will be fully open and create a massive traffic nightmare for all.<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TAKOMA PARK, MD &#8211; Three years after closing the northbound lane of Laurel Avenue to expand outdoor seating for restaurants during COVID, the city council voted 6-1 in favor of closing the southbound lane to build new pickleball courts. &#8220;We heard about yet another bizarre state grant to block vehicle access to roads, so of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2649,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,8],"tags":[114,701,1009,1101,24,970,1130,140,979,122,490,1347,993,640,309,1351,320,668,638,130,1349,116,1028,1353,94,98,93,111,1348,433,1278,2,104,1352,164],"class_list":["post-2650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-sports","tag-amazon","tag-community-vision-takoma","tag-dc-humor","tag-dc-news","tag-dc-satire","tag-dmv-news","tag-dmv-satire","tag-fake-news","tag-google-news","tag-historic-takoma","tag-jokes","tag-laurel-avenue","tag-maryland-news","tag-maryland-satire","tag-moco","tag-moco-news","tag-moco-permits","tag-moco-planning-board","tag-moco-satire","tag-montgomery-county","tag-motorkat","tag-nimby","tag-old-town-takoma","tag-parking","tag-parody","tag-political-satire","tag-satire","tag-satirical-news","tag-takoma-bev-co","tag-takoma-metro","tag-takoma-news","tag-takoma-park","tag-takoma-torch","tag-takoma-traffic","tag-takomatorch","wpcat-17-id","wpcat-8-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/takomatorch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/pickleball.jpg?fit=1722%2C1127&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paPZSG-GK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}