Take back the Park!

After being told to stop playing soccer and football yesterday on the Great Lawn, I composed this letter to the Central Park Conservancy. I encourage you all to contact them as well.

To whom it may concern:

Yesterday afternoon, I was playing a 3 on 3 soccer game in the middle of the Great Lawn when I was told to stop by an employee of the Central Park Conservancy. I was shocked, as we had been playing for about 20 minutes and there were countless other people (kids and adults) enjoying the day by playing soccer and other sports on what is probably the best and largest patch of grass in the entire Park. The Conservancy employee told us that there were no competitive games allowed on the Lawn (besides softball), but that we could just kick the ball around or throw a football around. We were outraged by this policy and stopped our game. A few minutes later, we started throwing football patterns. A second employee of the Conservancy came over and was even more forceful in telling us to stop playing. We did so. Then we started playing softball on one of the fields. Hits went to the outfield on a regular basis and were far more threatening to passersby (this is not an indictment of Great Lawn softball, merely a point to make about the relative dangers of softball and soccer on the Lawn...neither of which I think is very dangerous at all.).

I was extremely frustrated when I got home yesterday, so this morning I took a look at your website to see what your policies were about the Great Lawn. I found this on your description of the Lawn:

"During the daytime a livelier tempo dominates, as Park users enjoy eight softball fields or play soccer, basketball, and volleyball."

from http://www.centralparknyc.org/virtualpark/thegreatlawn/greatlawn

Since when did things change and why? Shouldn't people be able to enjoy the benefits of such a large and beautiful playing field? Worst of all, I saw these employees telling 10-year-old kids the very same things about not being able to play. It's no wonder that people move to the suburbs. Why is softball the only game that people can play?

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. I hope to hear back from you soon,

Richard Berger