Thursday, February 20, 2020

And about what Duffy Field?

Looks like the neighborhood is starting to wonder...
“This is a jewel,” said neighbor Philip Economou on Wednesday. Economou said the park, which includes Duffy Field, is the site of frequent pickup games, picnics on the grass, dog meetups and Little League baseball. “There’s no place left like this in Worcester.”
An idea to add a turf field, which could be used by Doherty Memorial High School and others, has got the group up in arms and worrying about future public access.
The quotes from the City Manager appear to me, in any case, to misrepresent the concern: most folks in Worcester don't pay much attention to something being "school" or "city" property, so reassuring that the schools are not going to "take" the field isn't reassuring.

The concern from the neighbors, of course, is if the neighborhood is going to have a fenced-in astroturf field with lights in what is now a low impact field tucked in among houses.

Oh, and yes, it's a wetland, too: Beaver Brook again.

I will note here that the scramble to give Doherty practice space nearby neatly elides what has happened with the other high school building projects; both North and South were built on field space, and, at least in South's case, teams that didn't have room to practice were bused elsewhere as needed.

It seems--and this is the first I've heard of this--that there's a meeting at and about the school on March 23. If I find out more about that, I'll share.

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