And none of the places you list have near the drawing power of our part of the world with historic homes and university, blue ridge parkways and AT, wineries, craft breweries, pedestrian malls, foliage changes, James River, etc. etc. etc.
Sage, you obviously don't have kids or kids who aspire to be athletes in sports that require controlled surfaces on which to play. The amount of usage days (really only certain hours on certain days) due to the possibility of extreme heat (usually in the heart of the summer when most sports leagues are not active), pales in comparison to the weeks lost each year due to unplayable conditions on the few (and crappy) natural surfaces we have in this town. I've seen artificial turf sports complexes all over the country either schedule around peak heat times, or take more frequent water breaks during competition to protect athletes. Also, your last sentence reeks of elitism. As if the children of our community are supposed to NOT aspire to be competitive athletes (and all the health and personal development benefits that come with it), since they are able to stroll the historic grounds of UVa and go to the tasting rooms of our local vineyards and shop at the farmer's market on Saturday.
Sage, in this community it is not a false dichotomy. Every public artificial surface is years past its useful life (and I would say approaching hazardous), and every natural grass surface is beyond shabby and not suitable for use outside of casual recreation and dog walking, and none of these are lit which makes use impractical during many winter season school days (dark at 5pm). Our parks & rec and public schools have shown no ability to be good stewards of our natural surfaces. BTW, the comparison of a sport like track & field and soccer are orders of magnitude apart when it comes to resources needed and participation rates. When it comes to analyzing risk to our kids, I take a very practical (and measurable) approach, versus fear-based and anecdotal. It is statistically more likely for my children to suffer a catastrophic injury in commuting to tournaments outside of our area (where they have athletic facilities capable of hosting such) or due to trauma suffered in the contract sport competition itself, than any heat-related harm that might come from the occasional high surface temps, yet I still let them commute and participate. I get it that you're likely anti-artificial turf, anti-development, and anti-growth (maybe even anti-business), but you don't have to cloak it in child welfare, since as good parents, we still let our children do many riskier things than playing on a hot athletic surface. Sorry you thought I was making an assumption about your ability to afford something, I was just stating the children in our community should not have to suffer because we have attractions beyond sports complexes. peace,
Dargan Coggeshall about 2 years ago on Converting Darden Towe Park Into an Economic Development Machine
And none of the places you list have near the drawing power of our part of the world with historic homes and university, blue ridge parkways and AT, wineries, craft breweries, pedestrian malls, foliage changes, James River, etc. etc. etc.
Dargan Coggeshall almost 2 years ago on Converting Darden Towe Park Into an Economic Development Machine
Sage, you obviously don't have kids or kids who aspire to be athletes in sports that require controlled surfaces on which to play. The amount of usage days (really only certain hours on certain days) due to the possibility of extreme heat (usually in the heart of the summer when most sports leagues are not active), pales in comparison to the weeks lost each year due to unplayable conditions on the few (and crappy) natural surfaces we have in this town. I've seen artificial turf sports complexes all over the country either schedule around peak heat times, or take more frequent water breaks during competition to protect athletes. Also, your last sentence reeks of elitism. As if the children of our community are supposed to NOT aspire to be competitive athletes (and all the health and personal development benefits that come with it), since they are able to stroll the historic grounds of UVa and go to the tasting rooms of our local vineyards and shop at the farmer's market on Saturday.
Dargan Coggeshall almost 2 years ago on Converting Darden Towe Park Into an Economic Development Machine
Sage, in this community it is not a false dichotomy. Every public artificial surface is years past its useful life (and I would say approaching hazardous), and every natural grass surface is beyond shabby and not suitable for use outside of casual recreation and dog walking, and none of these are lit which makes use impractical during many winter season school days (dark at 5pm). Our parks & rec and public schools have shown no ability to be good stewards of our natural surfaces. BTW, the comparison of a sport like track & field and soccer are orders of magnitude apart when it comes to resources needed and participation rates. When it comes to analyzing risk to our kids, I take a very practical (and measurable) approach, versus fear-based and anecdotal. It is statistically more likely for my children to suffer a catastrophic injury in commuting to tournaments outside of our area (where they have athletic facilities capable of hosting such) or due to trauma suffered in the contract sport competition itself, than any heat-related harm that might come from the occasional high surface temps, yet I still let them commute and participate. I get it that you're likely anti-artificial turf, anti-development, and anti-growth (maybe even anti-business), but you don't have to cloak it in child welfare, since as good parents, we still let our children do many riskier things than playing on a hot athletic surface. Sorry you thought I was making an assumption about your ability to afford something, I was just stating the children in our community should not have to suffer because we have attractions beyond sports complexes. peace,