Reply to Are most DCPS school fields closed to the public?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The city pays for maintenance of parks, rec centers and schools.  They just don't seem to do a good job at any of it so I was just making the point that there could be efficiencies.  But they obviously need to allocate more money across the board.  The city doesn't have enough fields for the growing public demand even when you include school fields thanks to the same baby boom/population growth that has caused overcrowding in many schools.  [/quote]

You are delusional. There are more than enough fields and playgrounds. The only ones that colonizers seem to be fretting over are the ones on newly renovated school grounds. [/quote]

My spouse coaches a youth rec league team and finding a field -- any field -- to practice on is a challenge.   DC's population had grown by 100,000 in the last decade.  I'm not sure if these people are colonizers (?), but they're certainly not proving to be couch potatoes.[/quote]

For the folks here that are just looking for a place for their kid to burn off some energy, there are plenty of fields and playgrounds. The zoo and RCP are also a short walk from Mt. Pleasant. [/quote]

In 2014 DC DPR did a master facilities plan, you can read it at: https://dpr.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dpr/publication/attachments/DCPRMP_VisionDocument_web_0.pdf

One of the things they did (on page 28) is compare the amount of land per person dedicated to parks and recreation with nine other large US cities -- Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Long Beach, San Francisco and New York City. If you look at total parkland, DC is second only to Minneapolis with 12.4 acres per person. But only 10% of the open space in DC is controlled by DPR -- 74% is controlled by NPS and the rest by other agencies. For example the National Arboretum is run by the Department of Agriculture.

If you only count DPR, DC has by far the lowest amount of space per person of any large city, 1.5 acres per person. NY City is next with 4.6 and the average is 8.1.  If you look at the NPS land, a lot of it is used for non-recreational purposes -- Rock Creek Parkway and the GW Parkway are NPS land. And for the most part, most NPS land devoted to recreation allows only one recreational activity, walking. They have lots of space, but not lots of recreational facilities.

If you want a playground for your kids, or a place to knock a ball around, your choices are DPR facilities or a DCPS school. And DC is severely underserved when it comes to those spaces. [/quote]

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