Mary Cheh has turned Cleveland Park/Cleveland Park North into her personal political asset

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree last thing to worry about, but I liked Hearst green (grass). It was only used for informal soccer, but was a nice shaded park and a green space as noted. Mosquito infested due to the drainage... hope they can get a handle on that.

Fake plastic grass covering a four acre field is an environmental disaster.

I took a walk by yesterday and it is still 'soupy' as heck down there. Because the field is stepped down and has sloped sides, it has always been a little shady and dank. They are going to have to have incredible ongoing maintenance and drainage to keep the grassy swamp it was from turning into a really, really unappealing plastic swamp next to the swimming pool.

So now it's 2021, and as I walk by every morning with my pup, I see the clear cut hills, the muddy field, some construction where the tennis courts used to be, and a pvc pipe at the corner of Quebec and Idaho that spews water down the street 24/7. It's a mess. It's been a mess for the last year at least.

Fenced, ugly, unusable. Give me the old Hearst Park with scrub trees and soccer games any day.

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That spewing water is crazy! I miss the old park too . It's going to be a snazzy recreation center (if it's maintained, otherwise less snazzy and probably really sad looking). It's not going to be a "park".

[Anonymous]

Something I don't understand aesthetically is why they didn't go for an infinity edge from the street vantage for the pool works. Right now there is an ugly wall coming up about 6 feet on one side of the park. As the park is a basin, they could have designed an infinity view so that the view would be green (trees and field)-- even if the field is plastic. I feel bad for the neighbors as well as those of us who walk the park by-ways who had a green view that will now be blocked. It would have been far more interesting architecture to work with the landscape and viewpoints.

[Anonymous]

Mary Cheh is working off old, old ideas. I wish someone half her age would run for office. She is the worst kind of incumbent.

[Anonymous]

Old ideas like bike lanes and ending the crappy and dangerous reversible lanes on Connecticut Ave?

No, I am liking these new ideas to make our streets safer and more livable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have just taken up tennis. Will there still be free, public courts at Hearst?

UDC, Behind the police station, Chesapeake and Connecticut, Livingstone and 41st, Ft Reno, Turtle Park. Lafayette.

18 courts within 5 minutes that are free of charge and almost never in use.

Have at it!

NP- The public tennis courts are packed. We’ve been using them twice a week all year and it’s hard to get a court.

There were many beautiful large trees cut down at Hearst. Some of the oldest, largest trees in the neighborhood. Really sad.

Lots of people used to sled at Hearst before the pool construction. Tons of kids sled at Trageron this year and in past years despite the sign.

[Anonymous]

There was no snow this year.

That said, the scrub trees and decades of weeds were cleared out. I am not going to be sad about that.

The stately trees that are healthy, remain, and hopefully will for another 100 years!

[Anonymous]

So they are putting a grass sod at Hearst, not astroturf. That's great news.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So they are putting a grass sod at Hearst, not astroturf. That's great news.

Until it is shredded by the dogs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So they are putting a grass sod at Hearst, not astroturf. That's great news.

Until it is shredded by the dogs.

To be fair, it's not just dogs. I live close by and there is a long history of that field struggling with sitting water and over use including lots and lots of soccer on weekends. That said, the city clearly invested a lot of money in relaying the foundation with rock and other materials. I hope it works. No matter what, it beats the alternative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So they are putting a grass sod at Hearst, not astroturf. That's great news.

Until it is shredded by the dogs.

To be fair, it's not just dogs. I live close by and there is a long history of that field struggling with sitting water and over use including lots and lots of soccer on weekends. That said, the city clearly invested a lot of money in relaying the foundation with rock and other materials. I hope it works. No matter what, it beats the alternative.

DC Parks manages that field for the benefit of DC Stoddert Soccer. You cannot even take your kids to kick on ball on it without paying for a permit. It's fine, but lets not pretend it is a public park. They are probably refusing to lay turf in order to maintain this current arrangement. Otherwise they would have no excuse to prevent/stop the community from using it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So they are putting a grass sod at Hearst, not astroturf. That's great news.

Until it is shredded by the dogs.

To be fair, it's not just dogs. I live close by and there is a long history of that field struggling with sitting water and over use including lots and lots of soccer on weekends. That said, the city clearly invested a lot of money in relaying the foundation with rock and other materials. I hope it works. No matter what, it beats the alternative.

DC Parks manages that field for the benefit of DC Stoddert Soccer. You cannot even take your kids to kick on ball on it without paying for a permit. It's fine, but lets not pretend it is a public park. They are probably refusing to lay turf in order to maintain this current arrangement. Otherwise they would have no excuse to prevent/stop the community from using it.

I'm not sure you are right about that.

1. Mary Cheh is a former Stoddert Soccer official and will do anything they ask. For instance, she wanted to put the put the pool on the field until Stoddert told her not to.

2. I think Stoddert would want turf because - if history is precedent - that field will be a mess within a couple of months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So they are putting a grass sod at Hearst, not astroturf. That's great news.

Until it is shredded by the dogs.

To be fair, it's not just dogs. I live close by and there is a long history of that field struggling with sitting water and over use including lots and lots of soccer on weekends. That said, the city clearly invested a lot of money in relaying the foundation with rock and other materials. I hope it works. No matter what, it beats the alternative.

DC Parks manages that field for the benefit of DC Stoddert Soccer. You cannot even take your kids to kick on ball on it without paying for a permit. It's fine, but lets not pretend it is a public park. They are probably refusing to lay turf in order to maintain this current arrangement. Otherwise they would have no excuse to prevent/stop the community from using it.

I'm not sure you are right about that.

1. Mary Cheh is a former Stoddert Soccer official and will do anything they ask. For instance, she wanted to put the put the pool on the field until Stoddert told her not to.

2. I think Stoddert would want turf because - if history is precedent - that field will be a mess within a couple of months.

I think you missed my point. Stoddert wants exclusive access to the field and grass is the best way that can be accomplished. They don’t want kids playing there, like at Murch. Grass allows DC to provide Stoddert with exclusive access.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So they are putting a grass sod at Hearst, not astroturf. That's great news.

Until it is shredded by the dogs.

To be fair, it's not just dogs. I live close by and there is a long history of that field struggling with sitting water and over use including lots and lots of soccer on weekends. That said, the city clearly invested a lot of money in relaying the foundation with rock and other materials. I hope it works. No matter what, it beats the alternative.

DC Parks manages that field for the benefit of DC Stoddert Soccer. You cannot even take your kids to kick on ball on it without paying for a permit. It's fine, but lets not pretend it is a public park. They are probably refusing to lay turf in order to maintain this current arrangement. Otherwise they would have no excuse to prevent/stop the community from using it.

I'm not sure you are right about that.

1. Mary Cheh is a former Stoddert Soccer official and will do anything they ask. For instance, she wanted to put the put the pool on the field until Stoddert told her not to.

2. I think Stoddert would want turf because - if history is precedent - that field will be a mess within a couple of months.

I think you missed my point. Stoddert wants exclusive access to the field and grass is the best way that can be accomplished. They don’t want kids playing there, like at Murch. Grass allows DC to provide Stoddert with exclusive access.

What about grass gives Stoddert exclusive access? That field has been grass for decades and Stoddert never had exclusive access. Stoddert wanted that field to be astroturf. That way it could host higher level soccer games there. Historically, the poor condition of the grass field relegated it to six and seven year olds. I'm sorry. Your premise is just wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'm not sure you are right about that.

1. Mary Cheh is a former Stoddert Soccer official and will do anything they ask. For instance, she wanted to put the put the pool on the field until Stoddert told her not to.

2. I think Stoddert would want turf because - if history is precedent - that field will be a mess within a couple of months.

There was never a serious plan to have a pool supersede a regulation size field at Hearst. There were some early schematics that showed a smaller field, but the pool was always going to go where it is.

The field should have been turf, but the doggie lobby wanted grass. It's a shame for the amount of money being spent to have it be a mud bog again by September.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm not sure you are right about that.

1. Mary Cheh is a former Stoddert Soccer official and will do anything they ask. For instance, she wanted to put the put the pool on the field until Stoddert told her not to.

2. I think Stoddert would want turf because - if history is precedent - that field will be a mess within a couple of months.

There was never a serious plan to have a pool supersede a regulation size field at Hearst. There were some early schematics that showed a smaller field, but the pool was always going to go where it is.

The field should have been turf, but the doggie lobby wanted grass. It's a shame for the amount of money being spent to have it be a mud bog again by September.

You are absolutely 100 percent wrong. The initial plan was to put the pool on the field. The debate was where it would be placed on the field. I was at a meeting at the DC public library in Chevy Chase where Mary Cheh endorsed putting it on the field on the side closest to Phoebe Hearst School. She liked that idea because it was the furthest location from some houses on Quebec St. There is no dog lobby. Dogs are not allowed on the field. It was Stoddert lobbying Cheh - a former Stoddert official - that got the pool moved to the upper area. You know that. The pool is in the right place now. The field was saved at the expense of a couple of tennis courts.