Build More Sports Fields for Kids
In Philadelphia, space is a precious commodity. Specifically, quality playing fields are in short supply in neighborhoods across the city.
We see it every day: Maura, as CEO of Fairmount Park Conservancy, and Dontae, as director of community engagement for Philadelphia Youth Sports Collaborative. Below South Street, where 21,000 kids ages 5 to 18 live, learn and play, there is just one regulation-size turf field in the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation system.
That shortage is a direct threat to a cleaner, greener, safer Philadelphia. Our kids need more fields — now.
Traditional neighborhood grass fields get easily worn out, quickly becoming unplayable dirt bowls that take copious amounts of water, herbicides and pesticides to maintain. Those fields suffer tremendous stress when they face the constant use that Philly’s youth teams demand.
