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“Our goal is to make Tucson the youth pickleball capital of the country.”
Frank Barletta recently moved to OV from a tiny apartment in mid-town Manhattan, where his family of four had to deal with street crime, congestion, high prices, trash and sidewalk poop.
Not surprisingly, the Barlettas are much happier today in our sunny Shangri-La!
Frank has jumped right in and launched Ready. Ready. Set. Pickle!, a youth after-school pickleball program he seeks to spread across the greater Tucson area.
When he moved to Oro Valley, Frank didn’t know many people in the area, so he took Pickleball 101 — and immediately loved it! He showed up to open play at the OV Community Center and was warmly welcomed.
Consider what it was like for the Barletta family raising their 4- and 6-year-old daughters in the Big Apple:
“In Manhattan, we lived in a 600-square-foot apartment. It was very, very expensive. The area was very dirty. There were murders, and lots of petty crime. We lived about 5-7 blocks from the United Nations, and the Empire State Building. There were lots of dog feces and trash everywhere.”
Frank and his wife started to look into healthier places to raise a family:
“When I was living in NY, I wanted to seek a better life for our kids. A place that we felt would give them all the things that we felt were important. We built a spreadsheet of places in a few states. We slowly visited them. When we came to OV and Marana, we felt like this would be a great place to raise our kids.”
OV’s great schools are typically the #1 draw for young families:
“The schools are top in OV,” says Frank. “So far, our experience has been great. We feel that the kids are now getting a great education.”
Frank’s daughters – who are now thriving in their new desert home – immediately noticed a difference when they arrived in OV:
“Hey, Mom: there’s no dog poop on the sidewalk here!”
As luck would have it, the Barletta home is right across from the OV Community Center. And he’s quite excited about his youth pickleball “passion project”:
“Ready. Set. Pickle! is designed to make it affordable for families and fulfilling for the kids. Our goal is to make Tucson the youth pickleball capital of the country — starting with schools and community programs.”
When new arrivals like Frank experience our unique community, they often want to give back:
“I personally believe that we can call this place ‘home’. That’s why I’m investing in the community.”
Both Frank and his wife believe that they can be better parents in OV:
“My wife and I believe that we can raise our family here. We have everything we need to provide a good life for our kids. This takes some of the pressure off of us as parents so that we can enjoy ourselves more.”
The Barlettas have been exploring the community, enjoying food spots like Seis Kitchen, Raijin Ramen, and Fork & Fire.
They are not going to miss NYC’s chilly winters and oh-so-muggy summers:
“The weather here is fantastic. There’s golf, outdoor sports, hiking, parks, walks…so much to do.”
Frank is not naïve about our summer heat, as the Barlettas moved into their new home on August 1 – right in the middle of the summer sizzle.
“It’s only three months of the year that it’s hot, and there are things to do inside, and you can swim. You can also travel to places life Flagstaff, Sedona, or even San Diego and Mexico.”
Frank has found that meeting new people is different in OV than in NYC.
“Many people here are retired, so they don’t care what you do professionally. I think Oro Valley offers a unique mix of local and more transient people with different perspectives. There are Tucson natives, snowbirds, retirees…. people from all over the U.S. If they retire here, it often means they achieved some kind of success earlier in their lives and there is nothing bad about being around that.”
He also notes that the Town does a great job of bringing together the community for year-round events.
“There is always something to do, like the events the Town organizes for Halloween, Christmas, the arts…all these events have been super-nice. The Town is super-supportive. The Fire Department and the Police Department always show up. OV always puts its best foot forward.”
And how do OV people compare to Manhattanites?
“People are generally happier here.”
Frank runs an AI-powered cybersecurity and IT management venture that serves Greater Tucson. His goal is to provide affordable IT management and education to small- and medium-sized businesses in the greater Tucson area.
Frank lauds the Chamber of Commerce and the Town for being very supportive of OV-based businesses. He then makes a rather intriguing comment about running a business from OV:
“The sun shining makes it easier to accept a ‘no’!”
When pressed, he goes on to explain:
“Failure is part of life, and part of business. You can fail here, and it doesn’t hurt as much. The sun is shining; it’s beautiful…the taxes are better in Arizona, but that doesn’t really play a factor. It’s the quality of life that allows me to be better at time management, and better at the services we provide.
“I would tell people considering a move to OV: You can genuinely enjoy your day after a full day of work.”
