Save Golden Gate Park.

The Beach Chalet Project will replace the Beach Chalet Soccer fields with artificial turf and will include 10 banks of 60 foot tall stadium lights. It will also include bleachers for spectators, a community room, improved restrooms and parking. The lights will be allowed to be turned on up until 10pm every day of the year. The area is near Ocean Beach, and is approximately 7 acres. Activists, community members and officials from various non-profits say this “synthetic soccer field” plan will permanently alter the western edge of Golden gate Park. According to the 1998 Golden Gate Master Plan the park is to be left in its natural state. But Recreation and Parks Department (RPD) General Manager Phil Ginsburg states the “synthetic turf soccer fields will provide children and soccer fans the complex they deserve.” He also says there is a shortage of playing fields in the city, and this plan will provide a field where the children do not have to worry about gopher holes and the annual and weekly shutdown of the fields. Also adding the soccer field will generate another revenue source for the RPD. Activists and community members say the lights will cause harm to the bird populations, and will force out wildlife. Additionally the artificial turf will dramatically alter the ground and still requires maintenance. Katherine Howard from the local group SF Ocean Edge says the lights will ruin the “natural darkness” and will cause the bird populations to go elsewhere. She says it’s a park and it should remain natural.
The money for the construction is coming from a bond that passed in 2008 that provides money for improving the parks and or playgrounds in the city.
More information can be found at the websites SF Ocean Edge
And
SF Parks and Recreation Department