Construction began last month on new softball and soccer facilities at the West Bronx Recreation Center on W. 172nd Street and Jesup Avenue.  City and elected officials joined staff from the Highbridge Community Life Center—which operates the center—as well as children from local schools during a groundbreaking ceremony November 15.

 According to literature provided at the ceremony by the city parks department, the $2.9 million ballfield facilities “will include a synthetic softball/soccer field, drinking fountain, misting station, new roadway turnaround, sidewalk, fencing, bleachers, trees, and plantings.” 

Loretta Moss-Arriola, a 4th-grade-teacher at Bronx-Manhattan Seventh Day Adventist School, attended the groundbreaking ceremony with some of her students and said she was excited about the new facilities. Arriola said she already brought her students to the West Bronx Recreation Center to use its indoor facilities for physical education and recess.  The new softball and soccer fields, she said, would provide a rare venue for outdoor exercise. “Hopefully,” Arriola said, “it will give the students an opportunity to do something positive instead of negative.”

José Lopez, manager of the West Bronx Recreation Center, said he receives roughly 15-20 phone calls per week from excited patrons wondering when they will be able to use the new field.

Brenda Nelson, a volunteer at the  center who lives on University Avenue and W. 175th Street, shared in the excitement about the outdoor field. “I can bring my child here,” Nelson said. “She always wanted to play soccer.”  Nelson said that after Christmas, she planned to leaflet near her home to let residents know about the new ballfields.

 Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, who noted that the November 15 ceremony was the first time he had been to the West Bronx Recreation Center, said construction of the ballfields would be finished by the end of the current school year.  The city parks department has billed the facilities as part of the Yankee Stadium Redevelopment Project, though Jesslyn Tiao, a spokesperson for the agency, said in an email to the Horizon that the new ballfields are not counted as “replacement” facilities for the parks that were converted to build the new stadium. 

That point is disputed by Geoff Croft, president of NYC Parks Advocates, a non-profit group that works to preserve and maintain city parkland. “They’re trying to backtrack and say that it’s not replacement,” said Croft, a vocal opponent of the new Yankee Stadium project.

As of December 15, the Web site of the city parks department offered this characterization of the ballfields at the West Bronx Recreation Center, as well as the interim field being constructed at P.S. 29 in Melrose: “They will serve as temporary replacements for those displaced because of Yankee Stadium construction, but will be permanent amenities for the local communities.”

Croft doesn’t buy the first part of that equation.  “One of the things that’s so frustrating about that site is that it’s a mile-and-a-half away [from the original parkland at Macombs Dam Park], it’s uphill, and it’s in a different neighborhood.”

Cassandra Moreno, also a volunteer at the -center, suggested that distance would not deter residents who live near Macombs Dam Park form traveling to the new facility. “We know people who come from the other side of the Bronx to play basketball,” Moreno said.

Croft has another major concern about the new ballfields; the fact that they will be built out of synthetic turf, rather than grass.  The turf can reach extremely high temperatures during summer months. In addition, there is an ongoing debate in several states—including New York—about the safety of synthetic turf: Recent studies have found that the crumb rubber infill used in synthetic turf contains cadmium, lead, arsenic, and other potentially hazardous materials, as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), which can cause cancer. New York Assemblyman Steven Englebright (D-Setauket) introduced a bill last month that would halt construction of synthetic turf facilities until state health and environmental agencies further investigate the health risks of using the material.

“The potential is so enormous.  I’m happy that the site is getting some attention,” Croft said.  “I’m not happy that the community is getting something that is not helping with the greening of the Bronx.”
In an email to the Horizon, Tiao replied that the chemicals found in the rubber infill are also found in many other materials that people use or encounter on a daily basis. For instance, Tiao said, volatile organic compounds are found in gasoline, paint, and trees;  while polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH’s) are found in cigarette smoke and car exhaust.  “Many of the chemicals found in the crumb rubber are very common in the urban environment,” Tiao wrote.

She also argued that studies performed in the United States and Europe suggested the health risk posed by exposure to these chemicals through use of synthetic turf fields was very minimal.  However, she acknowledged the issue needed further exploration. “There are limitations to these studies,” Tiao said, “and more research is needed.”  Tiao said the city health department was currently investigating the safety of synthetic turf fields. “Information will be released to the public  as it becomes available,” Tiao promised.