Keep parks green

This area was expressly purchased in 1910 to extend and protect the park’s green space. Now the City argues that the grass fields have become unsafe, too expensive to maintain, and that the growing demands of children’s soccer programs make this radical change necessary.

A group of concerned citizens have come together as Save the Park/Sauvons le parc to oppose the proposal on social, environmental and financial grounds. While we emphatically support the aim of allowing as many children as possible to play organized sports, we feel that the project is unsuitable, unnecessary and damaging to Westmount Park as a whole.

First, some facts about artificial turf (AT):

• Contrary to marketing myth, AT is not safer than real grass; the torque produced by stopping and turning on AT actually leads to more knee, ankle and muscle sprains.

• Third-generation AT is manufactured from polyethylene and ground-up rubber crumb from recycled tires and shoes containing toxins such as heavy metals (lead, arsenic and zinc) and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs). The rubber crumb is volatile, sticking to children’s clothing and shoes, and sometimes even enters their lungs. The level of toxins in AT is so high that its disposal in landfills is prohibited. It also requires chemical cleaners and pesticides to combat fungi and algae.

• AT absorbs solar heat, creating surface temperatures up to 30°C higher than those of grass – worse even than asphalt.

• Perhaps most worrying is the association of AT with the increasing incidence of an antibiotic-resistant staph infection, MRSA, directly attributable to the numerous serious skin abrasions, or turf burns, which occur on the synthetic surface. Concern over these sometimes life-threatening infections among young players has led the Centers for Disease Control in the United States to monitor the phenomenon.

The lower fields have suffered obvious neglect in recent years. A City-commissioned report refers to their poor design, drainage and maintenance. Yet Westmount, already burdened with considerable debt after the demerger, is prepared to spend far more money for synthetic turf — up to $2.4 million with up-grades — than it would cost to reconfigure the fields with grass. Other cities use natural surfaces successfully and efficiently; for example, Edmonton maintains its grass fields annually, for more children, at two-thirds of the current cost to Westmount.

In reality, the need for children’s soccer can be addressed otherwise, with the City using all existing facilities to find a creative solution. That means overall assessment of resources, improved scheduling, and rotating programmed sports on all fields: Westmount Park, King George Park, Prince Albert Park, and Westmount Athletic Grounds. The City should also ensure the proper design, construction, and maintenance of natural fields. If playing space is so scarce, why does the architect’s report call for the well-maintained, main field on upper Melville to be closed to sports?

There are very good reasons to reject the installation of synthetic turf. But the strongest argument against the proposal is social. The area under threat is public, multi-purpose parkland, a modern-day village green, and in its place the City proposes to build a single-use sports facility. What now serves the whole community will become specialized and restricted. To suggest that this would somehow benefit the children of Westmount Park School, as the City did recently, is disingenuous. Certainly, the school’s Council does not think so.

The rule for artificial turf (see Outremont, LaSalle, Jeanne-Mance Park) is fencing all around. The reason is simple: organic matter and debris, such as gum, food, or cigarettes, are harmful to it. Westmount’s proposal includes only partial fencing, something that experience elsewhere suggests could not last. Chances are that soon the City would point to litter, dogs or other irritants as justification for enclosing the fields entirely. On that day the loss of public green space would be complete.

All Westmounters should give this issue serious thought. Even in their present neglected state, the grass fields of Westmount Park should not be sacrificed lightly. Once lost, their true value will be impossible to recover.