Reply to Hearst Playground story in Current

Forum Index » Metropolitan DC Local Politics

Reply to "Hearst Playground story in Current"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]No, the "we don't want any nice things for our neighborhood" and "we don't want 'other' parking on our streets or using our parks" is Trumpian.

And the hydrology thing is totally bogus. If it were an issue, neither the Hearst school nor the Sidwell gym would have been feasible. And, if the issue is the field, then put the pool where the tennis courts are located, as proposed. See, no hyrdology issue there.

But keep hanging your chad on that issue, it is a nice deflection from the core 'stay our of our neighborhood" that is really the message.

[/quote]

If "stay out of our neighborhood" were really the issue, then nearby neighbors might find a small pool that is open at most 12 weeks a year during summer (when people may be vacationing away for some time) a more attractive proposition than keeping the full-sized soccer field that is constantly in use during the spring and fall playing seasons.  At other times, there are adults playing soccer, for whom the full sized field is a draw.  On weekends throughout much of the year, there is a constant ballet of numerous youth soccer teams and their parents in and out of the park (and their DC, MD and even VA vehicles parking on the streets).  If the true purpose were "stay out", then the logical move might be to put the pool on the field, knowing that a small field likely would substantially reduce the number of teams and players from outside the neighborhood wanting to use it.

But "keep out" is just a red herring.  Frequent Hearst users want don't want a pool that is used less than one-quarter of the year, to adversely change the field, the tennis courts, possibly the playground, the green space, the wonderful tree canopy.  They want to Hearst to remain a green park that serves many, many recreational users annually, from both the neigbhborhood and the broader area.  [/quote]

As someone who is involved with youth soccer I can vouch for the essential correctness of this. At many of the locations where soccer is played, the neighbors are constantly hatching schemes to find other uses for the park that basically keep it from being used, whether it's planting trees that encroach on the field area, limiting hours of play or creating phantom programs. At one park the "friends of" group even tried to get site control given to a private school to keep the public from using it.  What's ironic is that these efforts tend to be directed at "outsiders" but they mostly happen in the neighborhoods that are home to the most soccer players. (For political reasons soccer is rarely played in DC outside of the neighborhoods where soccer is popular).

Hearst, by contrast, seems to be largely free of these shenanigans.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics