Soccer moms at Powderhorn Park?
Powderhorn/Phillips soccer players showing Scott Vreeland the over 600 postcards they have collected from people wanting more soccer fields at Powderhorn Field at meeting between Vreeland and soccer players December 7. (Photo courtesy of Jay Clark)
Would more soccer fields make Powderhorn Park — and the Powderhorn and Phillips neighborhoods — more or less safe? Latino soccer players and their parents delivered more than 400 post cards to Minneapolis Parks Commissioner Scott Vreeland in early December, asking for more soccer fields in the north part of Powderhorn Park. They believe soccer keeps kids out of trouble. On the other side, some neighborhood residents fear that the soccer fields would create parking and other problems.
Steven Renderos, a local community organizer and supporter of the soccer program, said that when he grew up in Los Angeles, baseball was “the medium to keep kids out of trouble.” Today, for Latino youth in Minneapolis, soccer is key. Renderos cited a series of Sunday brainstorming sessions at the indoor soccer center at Green Central Elementary School. Parents said they like soccer because it provides a healthier alternative to keep kids away from video games, and it is important for public safety. “Providing opportunities for kids to be involved through soccer activities will keep kids out of other kinds of activities,” he explained.
Rosi Cruz founded East Midtown Phillips Youth (EMPY) a local youth soccer program that serves over 350 kids from the surrounding neighborhood. “Our program is not only to come here and play soccer. It’s about schools and it’s about leadership,” she said in a press release, after a December 7 meeting with Vreeland at the Green Central Park Elementary School. That’s where EMPY’s young players gather for indoor soccer during the winter, playing in the smaller “Soccer 6” format that has been proposed for the additional Powderhorn Park fields.
Terry Yzaguirre, a Powderhorn resident, does not want more soccer fields in Powderhorn Park. She wrote in an article in the Minneapolis Mirror:
It’s rumored that the fields are being considered because of the growing Latino population. I’m not trying to take away from something that is a healthy and constructive activity, but I have seen too many incidences involving Latino violence in the Park this past summer. I am afraid that this could create more of a problem. ... Let the soccer players go to the new De La Salle High School’s football field …
The EMPY press release quored Moises Aniceto, age 16, who participates in the EMPY program:
“There are people who say that we only get together to commit crimes or violence. We’re not there to rob houses or commit crimes; we’re there to play soccer. Besides there are a lot of adults, our parents come with us and take care of us.”
On the Minneapolis Issues Forum in November, other residents expressed concerns about lack of community involvement in the Park Board decision-making and parking.
Vreeland said in a telephone interview that there is no actual plan for more soccer fields because there is no money. He said that a neighborhood meeting is planned to discuss possibilities, but that all possibilities have to wait for funding.
More soccer fields are a good idea, said Vreeland.
“If you’re there on Sundays (at Green Central school indoor soccer) it’s so cool! There are all these kids, all these adults, playing as hard as they can. ... We want to provide opportunities for folks to do those kinds of things.”
Vreeland observed that the “passion for soccer in the new immigrant comunities for young adults is just incredible.” He said that communities want to build on this passion and to involve younger children, beginning as soon as kindergarten, so that these children growing up in Minneapolis will also have a passion for soccer. Vreeland noted that the interest in soccer is also shared by Somali immigrants.
No date for a community meeting about the possibilty of soccer fields has been set, though Vreeland expects that it will not take place until after December. In any case, he notes, finding money for any park improvements would be difficult.
workaround
Comments
YES to soccer fields in Powerderhorn Park
I would like to voice my support for the addition of soccer fields in Powderhorn Park. I am a near neighbor of Powderhorn, residing in the Phillips neighborhood. I think the presence of families and kids playing a sport that requires good physical fitness and builds leadership and community will reduce, not increase, violence in the area.
I also think most of the claims from a few of the Powderhorn residents that I’ve heard/ read as reasons not to build the soccer fields are ill-founded excuses based on poorly disguised anti-Latino sentiment and racism. The assumption that any Latinos gathering anywhere for any reason will result in increased crime is racist, fear-based, and inexcusable.
Yes to soccer fields
I would agree with the poster above that any notion that more Latinos gathering anywhere will result in increased crime is driven by fear, racism and is inexcusable. Keeping the kids involved in activities such as soccer and anything else for that matter that will keep them off the streets and give them something productive to do surely will benefit not only the kids, families but the community as well. I’m happy to see Minneapolis Parks Commissioner Vreeland lending his support for more soccer fields. The article states that there is no actual plan for more soccer fields, but should there be, the Latino community’s input must be included.
Yes to Soccer Fields in Powderhorn!
My family and I live two blocks from Powderhorn Park; we walk our dogs there almost daily, my daughter plays there in summer and sleds there in winter, and we’ve never noticed Latino violence (aside from the gang-related accidental baby-shooting last summer, but isn’t soccer a means of keeping kids from joining gangs?) .
It’s not just Latinos and Somalians who love soccer: so do White kids, Black kids Asian kids, Indian kids, kids of mixed race… Powderhorn Park is that rare place in Minneapolis where it seems everyone can feel welcome, aside from experiences with the foul-mouthed, unpleasant teenagers who are inevitable anywhere.
Giving the kids in the neighborhood more soccer fields is also giving them another place to interact and have fun with one another; another place to form community regardless of race.
I wonder if the woman who thinks soccer fields will create Latino violence in the park is one of the people who agitated to get rid of the volleyball nets on the north side of the park, too? That group used the same specious reasoning, and now the drug dealers who were displaced by the Latino families who came to play volleyball have returned…
Yes to soccer fields and community engagement!
As a Powderhorn Park neighborhood resident for 21 years, I strongly support the Park Board establishing new soccer fields in Powderhorn Park. As a public facility, the park should be there for the people of the community to use, and the soccer fields will mean the park will be more used, in a really constructive way, by people of the community. Everything I’ve ever witnessed or read says that when youth are engaged in school, community events, music, sports, theater — they value community more, do better in school, and move forward in the direction they want for their lives. This funding should be a top priority for the Park Board.
Include Latinos' input for soccer fields
Nice post! The article states that there is no actual plan for more soccer fields, but should there be, the Latino community’s input must be included. Please continue it.
Dave Mason
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