As Richmond Hill residents push for more pickleball courts and recreation amenities, a harder question sits underneath the enthusiasm: can municipalities still afford to build — and maintain — everything residents expect?
By Editorial Board
At a recent Richmond Hill council meeting, residents lined up one after another to support the city’s Richmond Green Revitalization Plan, particularly its proposal to build 12 new pickleball courts. Delegates spoke passionately about the rapid growth of the sport and the need for more recreational infrastructure across the city.
But for many in the pickleball community, the discussion extends beyond simply building courts. In a message circulated to members ahead of the meeting and the city’s public survey deadline, the Richmond Hill Pickleball Club argued that successful pickleball infrastructure depends not only on physical courts, but also on organized clubs, structured play, and long-term planning for future demand. The group urged members to advocate for enough indoor and outdoor courts to avoid the access pressures already emerging in other municipalities, where memberships are being capped and court availability has become limited.
Politically, these are easy moments. Few elected officials want to oppose a recreational amenity with broad public appeal. Parks and recreation projects are visible, tangible, and popular. Residents see them as part of the basic responsibility of municipal government — alongside libraries, playgrounds, pools, and community centres. Councillors and mayors, meanwhile, often see these projects as lasting achievements that can be highlighted during the next election campaign.
And yet almost nobody asks the uncomfortable question sitting underneath the enthusiasm: can we actually afford the system we are building?
That question sits at the centre of The Bison Principle: Clarity, Discipline, and Courage in Local Government by Jamie Sabbach, a municipal leadership expert with more than three decades of experience in parks, recreation, and local government management. Sabbach’s book argues that municipalities often drift into financial and operational stress not because individual projects are bad, but because local governments continuously add new commitments without fully confronting their long-term consequences.
Cities cannot endlessly accumulate amenities, facilities, and service expectations while assuming the money to sustain them will somehow appear later.
Jamie Sabbach
The book’s core message is simple but uncomfortable: leadership requires clarity and discipline, not just responsiveness. Cities cannot endlessly accumulate amenities, facilities, and service expectations while assuming the money to sustain them will somehow appear later. Sabbach argues that local governments must learn to align public desire with long-term financial reality — especially when infrastructure obligations continue expanding faster than municipal resources.
The “bison principle” itself comes from an often-cited difference between bison and cattle during storms. Cows tend to run away from storms, which can keep them trapped inside them longer. Bison, by contrast, move directly into the storm, shortening the time they spend in difficult conditions. Sabbach uses that metaphor to argue that municipalities should confront difficult realities head-on instead of avoiding uncomfortable conversations about cost, maintenance, sustainability, and trade-offs.
That idea connects closely with the philosophy of Strong Towns, the North American urbanist movement focused on municipal financial resilience. Strong Towns argues that many municipalities have become addicted to expansion while underestimating the long-term cost of maintaining what they build. New infrastructure creates immediate political excitement, but decades of maintenance obligations quietly follow behind it.
Visibility Bias in Municipal Decision-Making
There is a structural asymmetry in how cities experience infrastructure.
Some things are invisible when they work:
- pipes under the ground,
- roads without potholes,
- stormwater systems that never overflow.
Other things are highly visible even before they exist:
- new parks,
- upgraded tennis courts,
- expanded community centres,
- pickleball courts in every ward.
This distinction matters because visibility drives political pressure. Residents understandably respond to what they can see and use. But Strong Towns analysis reminds us that the most important municipal systems are often the least visible — precisely because they are working as intended.
We notice roads and water systems only when they fail. We notice parks immediately, even when they are still being planned.
The Politics of Pickleball
Pickleball courts are not controversial. The sport is growing, residents want access close to home, and municipalities are expected to respond to changing recreational trends.
The problem is not the courts themselves. The problem is the assumption that the difficult part is simply finding the capital money to build them.
In municipal politics, there is often an unspoken mindset surrounding parks and recreation projects:
“We just need to get it built. We’ll find the money to keep it going later.”
That mentality is precisely what both Sabbach and Strong Towns warn against.
The upfront capital cost of a facility is only the beginning. Every new court, park upgrade, splash pad, or recreation centre creates permanent obligations:
- maintenance,
- resurfacing,
- lighting and utilities,
- staffing,
- insurance,
- programming,
- and eventual replacement.
These costs do not disappear after the ribbon-cutting ceremony. They become recurring obligations layered onto every other obligation the municipality already carries.
This is how cities quietly shift from maintaining systems to continuously expanding them.
The Additive City Problem
Sabbach’s The Bison Principle frames good governance as clarity under constraint — the discipline to face reality instead of continuously accumulating commitments.
In practice, municipalities rarely debate whether existing service levels are already financially stretched. Instead, discussions focus almost entirely on additions:
- another park,
- another amenity,
- another expansion,
- another subsidy.
Each individual request appears reasonable on its own. But collectively, they create a city that becomes increasingly expensive to sustain.
Strong Towns describes this as a long-term structural problem: municipalities tend to expand their infrastructure footprint faster than their long-term maintenance capacity.
And because parks and recreation facilities are politically popular, restraint becomes difficult. No councillor campaigns on the facilities they chose not to build.
The Politics of Visibility
There is also a political imbalance embedded in municipal budgeting.
Residents see and celebrate new recreation projects immediately. A renovated park or new pickleball court becomes a visible sign of investment and community improvement. Politicians benefit from that visibility too.
But very few residents celebrate:
- a properly maintained storm sewer,
- an adequately funded asset management reserve,
- or a successful pipe replacement project completed under budget.
The irony is that municipalities depend far more heavily on those invisible systems than on the highly visible amenities that dominate council delegations.
This creates a dangerous political incentive structure: visible projects receive enthusiasm and pressure, while invisible infrastructure receives obligation without excitement.
The Development Charges Problem
This debate becomes even more important as municipalities face uncertainty surrounding development charges and growth-related funding tools.
For years, many municipalities relied heavily on development charges to help fund growth-related infrastructure, including parks and recreational amenities. But as provincial policies increasingly pressure or reduce those revenue streams, cities face a more difficult financial environment:
- rising expectations,
- growing populations,
- but weaker tools to fund expansion.
That exposes a reality municipalities have often postponed confronting directly: growth does not automatically pay for itself forever.
The Real Test of Municipal Leadership
None of this means municipalities should stop building parks, trails, courts, or community facilities. Recreation matters enormously to quality of life, social cohesion, and public health.
But both The Bison Principle and Strong Towns argue that sustainable cities are built through discipline, not accumulation alone.
The difficult question is not whether a project is desirable. Most are.
The difficult question is whether the municipality can maintain that project — alongside every other existing obligation — for decades without undermining financial stability elsewhere in the system.
That conversation is far less exciting than a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
But it may ultimately matter far more.