In response to the call by the National Park Service for public comment as they begin to develop a vision and goals for the future of a portion of Anacostia Park on the east side of the Anacostia River, CRYSP DC Board President Michael Godec submitted the following written statement.

Reimagine Anacostia Park Planning Effort

Michael Godec, President, CRYSP DC
on behalf of the CRYSP DC Board of Directors

August 15, 2021

Thank you for the opportunity to submit this statement in response to the National Park Service (NPS) Reimagine Anacostia Park Planning Effort.

I am President of CRYSP DC, and a parent of two children who have extensively used Anacostia Park for over 20 years. I have been a resident of Ward 6 in the District of Columbia since 1985. Formerly Capitol Riverside Youth Sports Park, the mission of CRYSP DC is to advocate for sports and recreation space and opportunities to bridge communities, especially for underserved youth - “making space to play” is our tagline. We focus on encouraging connections between residents of Capitol Hill and Wards 5, 7 and 8, making the benefits available to as many residents as possible. Anacostia Park provides an excellent opportunity to encourage such connections.

CRYSP DC began as a neighborhood-inspired vision for playing fields, walking/biking trails, an outdoor farmer’s market pavilion, river access and other amenities in the north lots of the RFK Stadium campus. This vision addressed a key lack of field space for youth and adult sports programs in the nearby neighborhood. Based largely on our advocacy, The Fields at RFK Campus opened in May 2019. CRYSP DC made a bid to be the field operator and was awarded the contract. We have expanded our advocacy efforts, partnering with nearby youth organizations to increase accessibility to high quality organized sports for underserved youth, and providing input on the NPS Kenilworth Park North project and an open space component of the Hill East II revitalization project. We believe we can provide valuable experience and expertise to the “Reimagine Anacostia Park” effort.

I commend the NPS on the rigorous analyses and thoughtfulness that is evident in the “Reimagine Anacostia Park” initiative. There is arguably no other space like Anacostia Park in DC. We know that the NPS must address many challenging issues in trying to manage the future of Anacostia Park, and to balance the variety of visitor experiences to maximize the value of each and to minimize conflicts. One of the most important needs is to provide undisturbed green space in DC, something that is clearly lacking, and something that I appreciate as a resident hiker, biker, nature enthusiast and conservationist.

However, the focus of this initiative is on the stretch of the park from the 11th Street Bridge to the CSX railroad bridge just north of the Pennsylvania Avenue Bridge, and this stretch has traditionally been devoted primarily to sports, recreation, and community activities.

We believe that those activities should continue, and that NPS should maximize, to the extent possible, space for organized and unorganized sports and recreation activities at the site. These activities are vitally important to the health and well-being of residents and the community.

A 2014 DC Department of Parks and Recreation vision statement noted that the DC metropolitan area is one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the country. It stated that from 2010 and 2020, DC was expected to gain 114,390 people—not including the growth in the surrounding suburbs. Since 2000, the population of DC has grown steadily. And one of the fasting growing segments of the population in DC is young children, especially under five years old, with the number of children in DC was expected to grow by over 40,000 by 2020.

Citywide, participation in sports programs and leagues has steadily expanded over the last decade, and, as one of the successes of our city, can only be expected to grow more in the future. The number of DC children engaging in organized sports has exploded over the past decade, with the associated need for athletic fields that can accommodate the surging demand.

In the neighborhoods near Anacostia Park, growth in youth participation in sports activities has been even more significant. For example, the number of teams playing baseball with Capitol Hill Little League (has grown from 120 players in 2011 to more than 550 baseball and softball players in the spring of 2021, making up 54 teams. The number of travel soccer teams grew from three teams to 22 teams in just its first six years, reaching almost 400 kids; now over 30 teams are participating in travel soccer in the area. Even with long-established Sports on the Hill established in 1980, the number of kids participating in its programs has tripled since 2005.

The lack of sufficient sports facilities in DC, while becoming more acute, is not new. In 2010, the CapitalSpace initiative, a partnership of the National Capital Planning Commission, NPS, and DC government, identified a lack of fields, recreational facilities, and open space in the Northeast quadrant of the city, leading to its recommendation, among other things, that DC “…develop multi-use sports complexes that can accommodate a range of sports uses, but also include new athletic fields.”

However, the accessible facilities in Anacostia Park should serve more than just organized sports programs. In the two years that CRYSP DC has served as the daily operator of The Fields at RFK, we have observed that two populations are critically underserved in DC: seniors and kids not participating in organized activities. The “Reimagine Anacostia Park” initiative clearly needs to also focus on these underserved constituencies.

In 2020, CRYSP DC conducted a survey to solicit input on needed recreation spaces in DC – with the focus on eastern DC. When asked what additional youth outdoor recreation spaces are most needed in our area, the top responses were a spray ground/water feature (56%) and a parkour/ropes course/zipline (54%). Both would increase options for youth over 10-years old to play without needing to enroll in an organized sport.

Similarly, when asked what additional adult outdoor recreation spaces most are needed in our area, the top responses were disc golf (55%) and pickleball (over 30%). Both options would increase the accessibility of the park for seniors.

We support comments and suggestions submitted by Capitol Hill Village on ways to “Reimagine Anacostia Park” to support older adults, especially their recreation-related recommendations, such as:

An indoor walking track and exercise area that can provide options for exercise in extreme heat or cold.
An outdoor shelter and exercise equipment designed specifically for seniors and people with disabilities located near a parking area. This area could include a paved outdoor walking loop and exercise equipment appropriate for seniors.
Improved safety and enjoyment by providing a separate walking trail independent of the bicycle path, with benches as regular intervals.
Pickle Ball courts.
A disc golf course.
An indoor swimming pool that can support water aerobics classes.
A well-maintained the boat launching ramp for canoes and kayaks; with a vendor renting canoes and kayaks.
Maintain the Anacostia Pavilion roller rink; it is a special gathering spot for DC residents.

We also support Capitol Hill Village’s other recommendations to improve accessibility to the park’s amenities, including improving city transportation services to better provide park access by means other than automobile.

In addition, we would like to see existing structures rehabilitated and new structures added, to round out a robust experience worthy of the neighborhood’s and city’s residents. These should include:

Relocating the NACE headquarters to the north end of the park, close to the parking lots
Adding a facility to support boating near the boat launch on the north end of the park
Improving, expanding, and better maintaining the bike trails to and through the park.

We strongly urge the NPS to maximize, to the extent practical, the amount of space made available for sports and recreation and community activities, for stakeholders of all ages.

Today, there are simply not enough available and accessible outdoor athletic facilities in DC to accommodate growing demand for sports and recreational activities for stakeholders of all ages. At The Fields at RFK, within a year after opening, we received 2.5 times as many requests as we had field space to allocate during peak hours. Maximizing, to the extent practical, the amount of space made available for sports and recreation and community activities in Anacostia Park provides a great opportunity for helping meet this dire need DC for all ages and stakeholders.

Thank you again for the opportunity to provide this statement. And we sincerely hope that NPS will continue to include CRYSP DC in its deliberations and planning efforts in to “Reimagine Anacostia Park.”

Michael Godec
President
CRYSP DC