The Conversation Continues of Balanced Public Use of School Athletic Fields
Yesterday, the Kojo Nnamdi Show had a segment that focused on access to recreation spaces as a follow up to the recent dust up at the Harriet Tubman athletic field. Guests included Rachel Sadon (Editor-in-Chief, DCist @rachel_sadon), Omar Gonzalez (Member, local pickup soccer group), and Alex Bearman (Executive Director, District Sports @DistrictSports).
The issue of community use of the Tubman field was settled when ZogSports decided to relinquish use of the field after the public outcry. However, similar issues can still happen in the future based on the current permitting process from the Department of General Services. I called in to the show and shared that a number of things could be changed to the permitting process, including requiring permits to have a letter of support from the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission and working with the community to determine a balanced plan for which days should be reserved for open community and school use and how much time should be identified for permitted organized sports clubs.
You can listen to the Kojo Nnamdi show segment here.
(Commission Boese addressing the community on July 19th at Tubman Elementary School with DGS’s Jackie Stanley (left) and OLA’s Eduardo Perdomo (right).)
Tags: athletic field, public space, school fields
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Park View, D.C. 
July 26, 2017 at 10:30 am
Do we really need to add more bureaucracy? Stop pandering and lets look at common sense solutions. It doesn’t need to be complicated. Each group has a right to use the field. Zog sports has just as much right as an informal pick-up game.