The number of DC children engaging in organized sports has exploded over the past decade. Yet many youth and families are still underserved. This is especially true for youth in the neighborhoods adjacent to Kenilworth Park North, where the National Park Service has proposed a plan for remediating the old landfill and creating new uses for the site, before handing over ownership to the DC government.
Outdoor sports and recreation can plan a key role in healing our country, both socially and physically.
Our collective capacity to develop and operate sustainable facilities that are geographically and financially accessible to youth of all socio-economic backgrounds is critical to CRYSP DC’s mission of “making space to play” and bridging communities, especially for underserved youth. Addressing this issue is more important than ever given the crises of the past year. Outdoor sports and recreation can plan a key role in healing our country, both socially and physically.
Because of that commitment CRYSP DC provided comments on the proposed plan as part of the Park Service’s public engagement process. In our comments, we encouraged the Park Service to consider options that provide the best balance between environmental protection, public health, and cost. We would like to see the site ready for sports and recreational use within one to two years.
Specifically, we support any option that: excavates contaminants and restores wetlands in the western portion of KPN, west of the existing running track; caps lands in Kenilworth Park North east of the track, and leaves Kenilworth Park South as is. Most importantly, we strongly advocate for a plan that does not leave any additional remedial obligations for the District government to address after the transfer.
Simultaneously, we encourage the rapid pursuit of, the development of formal plans by the DC Department of Parks and Recreation for the future use of the Kenilworth Park North site. CRYSP DC, which spent a decade successfully advocating for high quality playing fields at the RFK campus, sees itself as an advocate for more sports and recreational spaces. We hope to be an engaged and supportive partner in this work, and we invite anyone to assist us and others in the community in pursuing this goal.
Photo: “Wetland Path” by Malcolm K. is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0, cropped horizontally