Fencing meant to mute pickleball noise called an eyesore by Arlington neighbors

ARLINGTON, Va. — The noise associated with the fast-growing sport of pickleball has been an ongoing source of frustration in Northern Virginia. In an effort to address the neighborhood noise at the Walter Reed Community Center in Arlington, acoustic fencing was installed around the courts to try to tamp down the racket.

Work to install the fencing began this week, and now that it has been put up, some neighbors are complaining that the fencing is an eyesore. The new fencing is taller, and has black soundproofing material around it.

A Facebook user posted photos of the new fencing on the social media platform. In her post, the concerned neighbor made it clear that she was not pro- nor anti-pickleball. She questioned whether the black fencing was the best way to handle the issue.

"What used to be a nice park view will now be a view of a giant, black box," she writes. "There has to be a better way to please both sides."

In case you are somehow unaware, pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in America. The game is a hybrid of ping-pong, racquetball, and tennis. We asked the experts about whether the sport is actually louder than tennis or other sports.

Professor Kausik Sarkar at George Washington University studies complex sonic problems as applied to the medical field. For this issue, he had a simple hypothesis: the harder, plastic outdoor pickleballs might produce a louder pop than the softer tennis ball.

“The pickleball is hard and the paddle itself is also hard,” he said, “while the tennis ball is soft.”