As Montgomery Planning Board commissioners wrestle with whether to turn a Silver Spring meadow into a soccer field, residents opposed to the project say they’ve been subjected to allegations of “not in my backyard” behavior and veiled suggestions of racism during more than four years of tense discussions.
To some Silver Spring residents, North Four Corners Local Park, at University Boulevard and Southwood Avenue, has land that’s sorely needed for a soccer field, plain and simple.
To others, it’s a beloved green space that was marred when adult soccer players played games in the area previously, bringing in traffic and people who defecated in their park and left behind dirty diapers, chicken bones and rats who feasted on the waste left in the area.
Parks and Planning Board memos about the field reference the growing ethnic diversity in the area, specifically an increase in the Hispanic population, and say “facilities like North Four Corners Local Park could become places where people from diverse backgrounds come together as one community.”
Residents say it already is.
“They’ve told us soccer will bring in a diverse community, and I told them we’re already here. On my street alone there are four Latino families, two black families, we’re doing just fine, thank you,” Latina mother Roxanne Mirabal told The Examiner. “Having a green space where children are playing and you strike up a conversation with other parents creates much more interaction between cultures than having a soccer league access the field.”
Mirabal told Planning Board members Thursday that “justifying this plan by speaking of the growing Latino population is stereotyping, profiling and unacceptable.”
Parks and Planning officials disagree.
“Our intent is to provide a service because the demand for fields is growing, it doesn’t matter by who, and we don’t have many opportunities to do this,” parks department architect Heidi Sussman said.
Howard Kohn, a commissioner with the Takoma Park Neighborhood Youth Soccer League, confirmed the county’s interest in soccer is skyrocketing, with membership in his league growing from 250 children in 1995 to 2,500 in 2007, and said Montgomery is in dire need of more playing fields.
At last week’s hearing Kohn spoke in favor of the project, but told The Examiner later that he thought the residents had valid concerns.
“I understand that it’s difficult for neighborhoods to deal with the extra activity,” Kohn said. “It may be that there’s no perfect solution. We all want a certain quality of life.”
