I'd been thinking about starting this blog off and on for a few weeks, but it was a wise and well-written Letter to the Editor in the Advocate this morning that got me to take the step. It was a response to a number of articles about Stamford's parks, and a proposal to replace natural grass fields with artificial turf and build fences around some of the fields.
Here's the letter ...
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/opinion/letters/
To the editor:
It seems that every sports organization in town wants its own exclusive field, and they all want them in our public parks. Then when they get the fields, they are treated as private property, fenced off and locked up, thereby denying the use of parts of parks or those fields by anyone else. So much for "public."
Now I see that we have a plan that would take a whole park, not just part of one, and make it into several permanent soccer fields. Fences as high as 20 feet would section off these fields, and they would use up just about all of the West Beach Park field. A big public park, gone. Now for the private use of the soccer league only.We are a growing city. We need all the parkland and green space we can acquire. We can't be losing any.
Soccer fields are a great use for that property, as long as the grass field remains for the use of the rest of the citizens when the games are over.
Many parents have complained that the fields are dangerous because they are bare soil, and hard in places. I would think that the city could refurbish those fields with soil and grass for far less than the millions of dollars it is proposing to put in synthetic fields and build fences to keep the ordinary citizens out.
Our waterfront parks are a great and valuable resource. We should endeavor to keep them as green space, open space and multi-use as much as possible.
On many occasions last summer, I observed evening soccer games and volleyball games being played on the big grass field on Cove Island Park - almost every night, as a matter of fact. When the games were over, the field was available for the next activity, open to everyone.
Jim Bailey
Stamford
Mr. Bailey has expressed the problem more clearly than I could have, and I am grateful to him for describing it so clearly and to the Advocate for publishing it.
Public parks are very important, and keeping them usable and available for the maximum number of Stamford's residents strikes me as a priority. I am always happy to drive by parks and see the fields jammed with children playing sports, with their families looking on, or adults playing (ditto).
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