The video of a group of techies scrapping with a group of young people over the use of soccer fields in San Francisco’s Mission has sent one undeniable message loud and clear: People in the city are passionate about their soccer fields.
Another example: The battle on whether to install artificial turf on Golden Gate Park’s Beach Chalet Soccer Fields has now lasted six years - the length of World War II.
"It is probably the most vetted soccer field in U.S. history," said San Francisco Parks and Recreation director Phil Ginsburg.
On a recent day, Ginsburg paced the green fields at the western edge of the park, jamming his hands and feet into gopher holes to illustrate the perils of playing soccer on the fields.
"This area here is just not safe for kids,” Ginsburg said. "Or safe for sports."
Ginsburg said the gophers and required maintenance keep the four popular soccer fields closed for half the year, greatly limiting its use. A plan to renovate the soccer fields with artificial turf and add lighting has slogged through numerous city hearings, court battles - and will now appear as competing ballot measures in November.
Prop H would ban the city from adding artificial turf to the Beach Chalet fields, while Prop I would allow the city to go ahead with the plan - as well as add artificial turf to other city parks.
"Golden Gate Park was created to be a refuge for city people, adults and children, from city life," said Katherine Howard, a Sunset neighbor who opposes the artificial turf. "If you start doing things like the project that’s planned out here, then you start to chip away at that refuge."
Howard and other opponents have come at the issue from varying fronts; some say the addition of artificial grass and new lighting will destroy wildlife habitat.
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"The artificial turf of course is dead," Howard said. "So it does not provide habitat for all the birds and animals that come through here."
Other opponents are worried about the environmental hazard of artificial grass which is installed in a layer of crushed tires-broken into bits resembling a coarse black sand.
"This particular turf that has ground toxic tire crumbs," said Kathleen McCowin, whose daughter grew-up playing soccer on the fields. "That blow all over that are ingested and the children breathe them."
The City Fields Foundation, a group supported by the Fisher family of Gap fame, has already revamped several fields around the city with artificial turf, including Minnie & Lovie Park in Oceanview. On a recent day, teams of young players, from elementary school to high school, coveted the fields - running through drills and scrimmages.
Soccer dad Mark Lorenzen said so far, the fields have been a good addition, adding a reliable place for kids to play. Lorenzen said he supports the city's plans to revamp the Beach Chalet fields.
"I’m a bird lover and a nature lover," Lorenzen said. "I’m also a soccer dad and I’ve been driving all over the place. I think the Beach Chalet’s a great area and I’d like to see it get not closed when it’s rainy and muddy."
Ginsburg reasons artificial turf would add 10-thousand hours of playing time to the Beach Chalet fields, and save the city five-million gallons of water a year.
Patrick Hannan who runs the City Fields Foundation and is actively campaigning for the new turf, understands why passions are so intense over this prime strip of green abutting the Great Highway.
"When it comes time to introduce something to change things and allow more people to play," Hannan said. "There’s inevitably a conversation that’s going to happen. This one has gone on for quite some time."
