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Public Meeting Monday Feb. 23 Expected To Draw Colliding Views On Installing Synthetic Turf Soccer Field Over Current Grass Field, Possibly Adding Nighttime Lights, In El Dorado Park West Area North of Willow/Studebaker, South of Parks/Rec Admin Bldg.

AYSO 177 Supports; El Dorado Park South Neighborhood Ass'n Exec. Bd Votes To Oppose


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(Feb. 21, 2015) -- A second public meeting is scheduled on Monday, Feb. 23 from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. at the El Dorado Park West Community Center, 2800 N. Studebaker Rd. at which City Parks & Rec staff tells LBREPORT.com that it genuinely seeks the public's views on how to implement a City Council budgeted item (FY14) to install a synthetic turf soccer field, add some type of barrier (not necessarily fencing, could be boulders or other means) to prevent unauthorized uses (food, drink spills, etc.) with the possibility of also installing nighttime lighting and in a highly visible, neighborhood adjacent part of El Dorado Park West.

The area is a bit north of Willow/Studebaker, south of the Parks & Rec administration building (west of the area used for summertime Municipal Band concerts.) It's currently the site of a natural-grass soccer field but is also used by the public for multiple open space activities including kite flying, ball/frisbee throws and the like.

[Scroll down for further.]


Current conditions below:



Photos courtesy LB Dept. of Parks, Rec & Marine

In Sept. 2013, the Council approved a Parks/Rec budget that included installing synthetic turf soccer fields at three LB locations: Admiral Kidd (7th dist. WLB), Seaside Park (1st dist., NW of 14th St. Park) and El Dorado Park (5th dist), a decision propelled in part by fiscal considerations (less water use and proponents say easier maintenance.) Admiral Kidd Park already has lights. Seaside Park won't have lights...and the compound prospect of replacing natural grass at El Dorado Park and adding nighttime lighting has become a hot button issue.

Local American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) members and advocates strongly support synthetic turf and nighttime lights. Among other things, they cite its better playing surface, year round use and increased available hours.

Nearby residents and park/open space advocates object both to installing synthetic turf and to nighttime lighting. Some opponents specifically object to using "crumb rubber" synthetic turf (recycled rubber from car and truck scrap tires) which they note has generated controversy (e.g. Feb. 11, 2015 CBS/Chicago report: WBBM-TV: "2 Investigators: Crumb Rubber Turf Could Pose Cancer Risk" at this link.)

Parks & Rec Director George Chapjian notes there are other types of synthetic turf besides crumb rubber, including cork, although other types may raise cost issues [and thus become a Council budget matter.] Nearby residents have consistently objected to installing nighttime lighting, an issue that first arose roughly four years ago.

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AYSO 188 has mobilized its well organized membership using social networks including Facebook. (dispatches excerpted below.) The El Dorado Park South Neighborhood Association's Executive Board has voted to oppose installation of artificial turf, lighting & fencing and its Feb. 2015 newsletter includes an opinion in opposition to artificial turf and lights (excerpted text also below.).

A proposal roughly four years ago to add lights (likewise supported by AYSO members, opposed by neighbors) was halted under now-former 5th dist. Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske. Under LB's new-5th dist. Councilwoman Stacy Mungo (who took office mid-July 2014), the possibility has been revived and a public meeting on Jan. 26, 2015 on lights/synthetic turf produced polarized responses similar to those of 2010.

Councilwoman Mungo responded by arranging a second meeting (Feb. 23) and put a survey online. Advocates pro and con are aware of the survey. AYSO 177 Facebook dispatches encourage members to complete the survey. The Feb. 2015 El Dorado Park South Neighborhood Ass'n's newsletter calls its members' attention to the survey and a member of its leadership has included his responses in opposition.] Councilwoman Mungo hasn't released the survey's [unscientific] results publicly at this point.

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Four years ago, AYSO's position was advocated by Mark Taylor, at the time an LBCC staffer, now Chief of Staff to Mayor Robert Garcia. Specifics on how to proceed are a matter for LB's non-elected (Mayor chosen, Council approved) Parks & Recreation Commission, subject to budgeting by LB's elected City Council majority.

At the conclusion of the Feb. 17 Council meeting, Councilwoman Mungo invited the public to attend the upcoming Feb. 23 meeting; a City of Long Beach flier has announced the meeting and Parks & Rec says residents in the area have been notified. However as of Feb. 20, Councilwoman Mungo's Council district website and her Facebook pages don't mention the Feb. 23 meeting and her office omitted mention of it in her most recent weekly "Neighborly News" email blast.

Regardless, thanks to the internet, the upcoming Feb. 23 meeting is now hardly a secret...and both sides are gearing up for it.

The Facebook page of "AYSO 177 Youth Soccer" includes the following dispatches:

Parents, it is time to mobilize our support of better fields for our children. Here is a link to a survey about putting in a SAFE field for our use. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/X73VMCB

Please fill out the survey and get the word out. We have 1600 families and we don't want any more of our players breaking a leg on the field. We need lights and fencing just like the baseball fields so that we can control who plays and when. Get the word out!! And be at the meeting!!!!!...


Please let our Councilwoman Stacy Mungo that you support safe fields for children to play soccer. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/X73VMCB
[Text appears to be from an AYSO 177 member] The new council woman said she wanted to hear from the community regarding this issue. She wants to hear from the majority rather than the cranky minority. Sadly, cranky people are more motivated than busy soccer parents. Please write your own letter...

Here is mine, feel free to steal from it but be sure to put your name and address on it so she can see that it is from a Long Beach resident. We all need these fields...and we CAN do it. The money has already been designated for the fields...if we don't use it for the fields...it goes back out of our community. Please take the time to send a quick email...mine wasn't quick, but that's me.

[excerpted text] ...As a soccer parent, I would tell the residents: The fields we have are embarrassing as well as dangerous. A young girl broke her leg stepping in a gopher hole last year. My boys have tripped and twisted ankles. All the parents hold their breath during the game, hoping their player isn't injured. We worry as we cheer. Watching our kids thunder across fields, that are uneven and have holes fills you with awe at their skill and fear for their coltish legs. Every week a group from AYSO comes and walks the fields filling holes at the crack of dawn, but there is no way to assure safety. That's a fear we have at every practice and game. I know that these issues would be solved by artificial turf fields.

As for the embarrassment -- Each week other families from other cities come to Eldorado Park to play soccer against our region. We have tried so hard as a city to shed the "LBC" reputation. We want to put our best face forward to our visitors to show them that Long Beach is more than what Snoop Dogg has sung about. Sadly we have "ghetto fields." Our fields are so poor that people do not want to play on them. It tells our visitors that our city doesn't support youth sports and isn't a positive representation of our city.

We have field envy when we play anyway else from Huntington Beach to Pico Rivera. It seems amazing that little Pico Rivera manages to have quality fields and Long Beach doesn't. I love Long Beach, but I am embarrassed by our lack of civic investment in our children. I believe that great sport fields would be a boon to our community and raise our property values. I believe that all the families that come to play on good turf fields may take away a positive impression of the city and may revise our community's reputation further.

Finally, there is a huge need for fields. I know that every season, there is always a difficulty scheduling practice fields. There is never enough daylight, space or field for the teams. After daylight savings in the Fall, they shifted all the practices as early as they could but still there was not enough daylight for all the fields. Some teams were lucky enough to practice on at Stearns in the light spill from the baseball field -- watching the kids run around in near darkness trying crowd near the light like moths. It always makes us feel like second class citizens. The city simply doesn't care about soccer kids as much as they care for baseball kids. The Spring season is the same, no light, and fields that somehow are dust bowls and mud swamps -- ironically at the same time. Even one lit turf field would be a godsend. These fields are too late for my kids, but there are thousands of others that will play on these fields, that need these fields now and in the future...[The full Facebook text is at this link.]

The El Dorado Park South Neighborhood Association Feb. 2015 newsletter includes an article by the group's newsletter/website expert, Richard Hawkins, which states in pertinent part:

...Now we are being asked (we hope it’s asking, and not just taking) to approve the construction of dedicated soccer fields. To this end, large areas of natural grass will be replaced with the most environmentally unfriendly of synthetic turf options. And with this turf comes fencing (and locks), to protect it from, effectively, human contamination. And to add insult to injury, lights will almost certainly be installed so as to extend the hours of play on this expensive, artificial, potentially unhealthful environment. This will rip out the very soul of our parks. And it’s hard to believe that they will be content to stop at just one dedicated soccer field per park. This will be just a starting point.

A perusal of the NextDoor El Dorado Park South comments suggests that most of our neighbors on this site have deep reservations about this idea. Following are some highlights:

  • Unfortunately, it does sound like more pollution for the neighbors. More light pollution, noise pollution, and trash.
  • They want to spend money on a field, how about money to the park rangers? Bathrooms? Oh, and maybe a few drinking fountains!
  • Wow, sounds like a win win for everyone. Residents get more light and noise and the players get cancer. I don’t want to sound like a downer but I get the feeling that this is a done deal.

I sincerely hope this isn’t a "done deal," but I too have my concerns. Our councilperson has been quoted as saying [by another outlet, not LBREPORT.com], "I will not let the loudest minority rule on an issue of quality of life." I interpret that as declaring her unwillingness to actually listen to those who attend her meetings. Those in attendance, after all, are only a small minority. At the last meeting there were 50+ people in attendance. That’s actually a pretty good number, but it is still a very small minority. We’re going to need more than that at her next meeting for us to have any chance at getting her attention. As if you couldn’t tell, this article is entirely a personal opinion piece. I am against the construction plans for a dedicated soccer field made of artificial turf...

ADDENDUM: Following are the three very lightweight check the-box survey questions asked of those who attended the Community meeting of January 26, 2015. This is how I would have answered, with my reasons/concerns reflected in italics after my answers.

SURVEY QUESTIONS

1. Do you support the proposed installation of a synthetic turf soccer field in El Dorado Park West?
Yes
No

2. If the synthetic turf soccer field was installed at a different location within Council District Five, other than that which is presently being considered, would this change your level of support?
Yes
No While a different location (especially if it wasn’t a park) might eliminate the concern over loss of park space, the health concerns regarding this type of artificial turf are too great to ignore.

3. What are your primary concerns relative to the installation of a synthetic turf soccer field?

  • Potential Increased Traffic and Noise Levels -- especially during evening hours.
  • Associated Nighttime Lights -- see above.
  • Environmental and Health Factors -- major concerns about the health risk to the players and the environmental degradation to the park.
  • Permitted Uses and General Access -- I am, as we all should be, in favor of sharing our park with the soccer players, but I do not believe we should give up portions of our park for the exclusive use of soccer players. The beautiful ambiance of our park will be irreparably destroyed.
  • Maintenance Requirements and Costs -- Maintenance costs are going to be high. Also, the environmental degradation resulting from both the turf and the disinfectant cleaners required to maintain the turf is unacceptable. Further, once the commitment is made to go with artificial turf, it becomes a permanent change as the cost to repair the resulting environmental damage will likely be too great to consider.
  • The meeting is open to the public...and LBREPORT.com plans to be there.

    Public meeting re installing synthetic turf and possibly nighttime lighting NE quadrant Willow/Studebaker (current grass soccer field area)
    Monday, Feb. 23 from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.
    El Dorado Park West Community Center, 2800 N. Studebaker Rd.


    An earlier version of this story erroneously said the WLB location was Silverado Park when it is Admiral Kidd Park.



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