Gothamist: Grass To Be Cut in City Parks

Grimbil

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 13:40:39 -0500

Hey people, this stuff is not "Astroturf". It's nothing like the first generation stuff you're used to. Almost all professional teams use this new artificial turf, and with good reason. Because it's the best playing surface possible. It doesn't grip like old astrotuf, so you don't have the serious knee injuries you used to see. Don't kid yourselves people, NYC isn't replacing grass fields with this, they're replacing giant mudpits full of broken glass, bottle caps, and used needles. I've found needles on fields before, and IT IS NOT FUN. I've been playing soccer in the city for over 6 years now, and have watched as these fields have been installed. It's absolutely the best improvement I've seen in the city. I've played on them in every season, and I can tell you I have a fraction of the number of injuries I used to have. Even in the middle of summer i've never experienced these heat problems mentioned. The fields are long blades of plastic "grass", with tiny black foam pellets that act like dirt. So you can do a full slide on the stuff and get up with no scrape. Just brush off the little pellets and go. I play goalie and before these fields were out there, I constantly had bleeding knees, elbows and hips from diving around on cracked dirt fields littered with glass and trash. Playing on these new fields is like heaven. Thank you NYC!

Toby

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 19:15:34 -0500

There is a very good reason most pro sports teams that played on fake grass went to the real stuff - less wear and tear on the players. If you have ever been on an Astrotruf field in the height of summer - say a hazy hot and humid August day, the turf makes it feel at least ten to twenty degrees hotter. Not fun!

james joseph

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 18:24:44 -0500

In additon to joeholmes' above link on Bill Crain's research, Metro has published a lot of different stories on artificial turf -- everything in this post plus. Today, Metro's Patrick Arden reports that Public Advocate Betsy Gottbaum is leaning on the Parks Dept. to participate in Crain's study. Why are you so far behind the curve, Gothamist?

DaveH

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 18:10:10 -0500

Thank you for showing the math Bob. I indeed meant $15K annual savings per field and will add that to the post.

joeholmes

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 18:04:11 -0500

CUNY professor Bill Crain has found that synthetic turf puts out nasty levels of carcinogens and toxic fumes. The city is refusing to allow him to test the installed turf for safety. http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/See_no_evil/7796.html

Bob

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:41:55 -0500

Math looks right to me: $150MM/100 fields = $1.5MM/field $15k/year in savings. 1,500,000/15,000 = 100 year payback

simon

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:41:52 -0500

Maybe they should cut down all the trees because artficial ones dont need maintenance. or replace them with tree-like cellphone towers, they can make money that way! this is pathetic. the city is operating at a surplus, politicians are always talking about creating new jobs, yet they want to replace real grass with turf because it doesnt need to be maintained by humans. absolutely positively insane, and just plain wrong.

Doug

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:37:51 -0500

I dunno...I kinda hope for this at Cooper Park in Wburg. God knows as soon as the weather shows any sign of warming, and the green grass shoots begin to spring up from the ground, the fields are taken over on the weekends and end up a dusty, muddy affair for the rest of the year. I can't say I've ever seen the "grass" field with any grass covering more than 50 percent of it.

marc

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:34:32 -0500

do yo mean an annual savings of 15,000 each? if not, do the math again on how long that investment is.

Rico Starr

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:30:29 -0500

Have you ever played on these fields? They smell obnoxious all year and tear apart your body. Try slide tackling someone in soccer on the field. You'll wish you hadn't.

madambomb

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:18:15 -0500

I agree. It's a horrible waste. In my neighborhood, a previous multi-use field, which was red clay based and open at all times to various groups that shared the space, is now closed to only ball games that have to pay a fee to access the space. I walk around this "public" space now and have never been inside, ever. It is never left open. I don't even have a chance to let my dog off-leash illegally, let alone to poop illegally. I don't know why we need grass in these fields really. Is dirt considered toxic now or something? When did that happen? What's closing pools because water gets you wet? Paving Central Park because the grass just doesn't grow straight? Insanity! New Yorkers should be very wary of this use.

SP

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:00:31 -0500

NO!!!!!!!! This is WRONG. The artificial turf stinks, kicks off nasty fumes in the summer when it's hot. This is offensive and morally wrong. If the city council had any intelligence, instead of banning the N word and aluminum bats, they would ban artificial turf.

Bofug

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:46:34 -0500

And how long before areas of it start disappearing in the middle of the night only to grace suburban backyards and Wburg roofdecks? Lotsa LI walkways made of 150 year old Belgian bluestone. More heat? wonderful... And unleashed poops must integrate wonderfully into that texture. Bofug