City reneges on promise to reopen softball field
After promising a beloved softball field at the north end of JeanneMance Park would be reopened by the end of May, the city administration now says the risk of passersby getting injured by a stray ball is too great, so the field will be grassed over.
“We have been advised that, for reasons of public safety, we have no choice but to close the northernmost of the two softball fields in Jeanne-Mance Park,” said Alex Norris, city councillor for JeanneMance district, in a written statement. Norris said a ballistic study carried out for the city shows that park users, as well as pedestrians and motorists on Mont-Royal Ave. are at “serious risk” of being hit and injured by errant balls if the softball field remains as is. Originally intended for children, the field was not built to regulation for adults, he said, although it has been used by adults for pick-up games for decades.
He said passersby have already been hit by softballs from that field, which is beside the tennis courts and just south of MontRoyal
Ave. The city was recently obliged to compensate one of the injured parties, he added. The city could be held liable, he said, if someone else suffers a similar injury.
That justification doesn’t wash with the diamond’s users, who have been waging a campaign to keep the “North Field” open since it was fenced off last summer. At the time, the players were told the diamond was being closed temporarily, so that equipment and materials could be stowed there during major renovations of the neighbouring tennis courts along de l’Esplanade Ave.
As recently as February, the city’s executive committee member responsible for parks, Luc Ferrandez, promised the field would be reopened by the end of May.
In a message he sent to a group working to save the baseball diamond, Ferrandez said the fences, benches and bleachers were going to be replaced, the field levelled, and the outfield grass replanted.
Marisa Berry Mendez, a spokesperson for Save the North Field Campaign, said her group was blindsided when they were given the bad news by a city official last Thursday. Workers removed the backstop and sand on Tuesday.
“It feels like they told us five days before destroying it so that there wouldn’t be time for us to mobilize,” she said.
Norris said the ballistic study has forced the administration to change direction, although he did not say when the study was completed.
“Unfortunately, we have been advised that there is simply not enough remaining space in the park to include a second softball field for adults that meets existing safety regulations,” he said.
He said the other field — a regulation diamond just south of the North Field used by softball leagues — will be made more accessible to local players for pick-up games.
“We take no pleasure in making this decision,” Norris said. “However, it is fundamentally one made for reasons of public safety. We would not be comfortable having another injury on our consciences, particularly after having been warned in no uncertain terms that the current set-up is unsafe.”
But Berry Mendez said some in her group feel there is something else at play, and that the safety argument is a red herring.
“We don’t buy it. If you have sports being played in any public space of course you have flying projectiles, whether it’s a puck or a Frisbee or a ball or whatever, and there is a small risk that somebody can get hit,” she said, adding Projet Montréal is known for innovative urban design and should be able to find a solution to make the diamond safer.
At a meeting on Tuesday, some in her group expressed concerns that this decision is actually about gentrification of the Plateau and property values, she said.
“We are a pretty ragtag bunch, a real mix of folks from different socio-economic classes and cultures and we’re not sure that we fit in with this administration’s vision of the Plateau,” she said.
“So we feel really betrayed. We feel concerned about transparency and the lack of consultation.”
Artist Nicole Legault, an avid user of both fields for the past five years, was fighting off tears as she described the diverse users of the pick-up field and its importance to the community.
“There were people playing on that field every day of the summer,” she said. “It’s not just a ballpark. It’s home to so many people.”
We don’t buy it. If you have sports being played in any public space, of course you have flying projectiles.