For my second freewrite, I am still interested in focusing on the East Brunswick Heavenly Farms Turf Fields a few miles from my house. In order to background the turf fields, there is some explanation necessary for their purpose. Growing up, the most popular sport for either gender child to play was definitely soccer. The East Brunswick Soccer Club (EBSC) is a very large organization, and accounts for a lot of the friends I made as a child, as well as an opportunity to play a great sport. The main hub for the EBSC to play is was the Middlesex County Fairgrounds, technically a county park in East Brunswick, where there are five soccer fields. Attached, and used by the club also, was Diderickson Park, housing another five soccer fields. However, a few years ago, the township lost their lease on Diderickson Park, and could no longer use the soccer fields as part of the EBSC. So the club resorted to using different school fields across town, but needed a more permanent solution. This solution came in the form of the Turf Fields, two astro-turf soccer/football/lacrosse fields that are located next to the Fairgrounds. They are part of the Heavenly Farms complex, a plan by the township to reinvigorate this part of town, which is home to mostly farmland and forests. The Heavenly Farms Complex includes a public amphitheater, a dog park, and the turf fields, which are the only fields in town that have stadium lighting at night. So after the fields were designated as the prime practice site for soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, and other teams, word spread that they were open for use to the public. There is no lock on the field, no policeman posted, no signs posted that say they are not allowed to be used. There is no dawn-to-dusk rule, since the fields are lit at night. This makes them an optimal location for what became the hobby of myself and many of my friends last summer.
We use the facility to play games of ultimate frisbee 2-4 times a week. We began in other parks, but found that the lighting and turf were ideal conditions, even in the rain. Last summer, we had to compete with many organized league teams, such as the EBSC, for space. There is a bulletin board posted with when teams have official practices and have primary use of the field. This sign doesn’t really allow for outsider sign-up, so we could never reserve the fields for our frisbee. Though we couldn’t do so, last summer, the lights stayed on until 10 on weekdays and 11 on weekends, and all practices and games ended at 9. However, we don’t have this extra hour this year, because the township decided that they are turning the lights off at 9:30. So, we have resorted this year to playing in the morning and weighing our options for new location as school lets out and we’ll have to again compete with practicing league teams.
The turf fields are governed only by the occasional Department of Recreation vehicle that changes out the garbage cans in the mornings, and the sign from the Township that designates when leagues have use of the field. Otherwise, it is a free access park, and open to the general public. However, the fields, even with their tall lights, are not visible from either of the two streets that they are adjacent to. The sign on the access road doesn’t indicate “turf fields”, only “Heavenly Farms”. To an outsider, this means nothing, and there is no indication that there is a public park visually in any way. One has to know, either from a league, or from a friend, that these two fields exist, and this is a good way of keeping exorbitant crowds out, but thereby reducing their credibility as a “public park”. I am interested in pursuing who really owns the turf fields, what their purpose for existing is, and whether my friends’ frisbee play is encouraged or discouraged by the township. I will take into account the fields’ signage, location, stated purposes, and current uses, and its hours of operation. I hope, also, that my research will produce an answer to the question: “Does East Brunswick really need its Turf Fields?”
I think this is a good example of how lands that are deemed public can actually act to exclude certain people. It seems that while the fields are meant for the public they actually have an opposing goal. The fields are clearly meant to be used more by the sports teams than by public users. I think it would be a good idea to find out who owns the fields, like you suggested, to determine how they wanted the fields to function. Are they trying to exclude a certain group or are they merely trying to look out for the team’s best interest.
I think that it is interesting that these fields are called public because they do not function like typical public sports fields. For example, public tennis courts are open to anyone at any time. They do not have signup sheets or hours of operation like the fields you described. I think it would be good in your essay to use similar examples of these more public fields in comparison to the more private East Brunswick fields.
You might look at Mitchell’s essay on public space to see how both the field owners and public users like your Frisbee team define this particular public space. It may also be helpful to examine how Flutsy’s arguments relate. Why were these spaces designed to be hidden and who were they trying to keep out? It may be useful to do a study of the immediate area and areas connected by the roads to see if one group is given a clearer path than another.
Hi Michael.
Glad to see you are sticking to this topic. I am curious to know how it is determined when the lights go off. Who makes this decision and what is their reasoning? Do other public parks in your town have hours of public access posted? If so, how do their hours of public use compare to the turf hours? Also, how are unorganized sports players represented in your community and in discussions over public space? Are the organized teams making all the decisions over public land use clearly designed for sports use? Certainly at issue here is the blurred line between private and public land.
What I see you inquiring into at this point is:
How are the Turf Fields a site of contested public space? What signs are in place and/or how does the park design exclude some and include others? What options are available to make the use of this space more equitable?
I look forward to seeing who you interview for your primary research and what tensions arise…Laurie
I like this idea of sticking with the fields because I think that you can get a lot of info on this pretty readily. I wonder who owns the fields/ who runs them because if they are run by the town like many of the ones in my area, they may have put the fields way back from the road so as to discourage pubic use to make more time for the town and school teams. Should the fields be considered a public space if the public is practically excluded from the schedule? This sounds like they are monopolized by the organized teams and that the town pretty much runs them. Is this because the town owns them and they really were not meant for public use because they were always meant for these teams that would pay to use the fields. I am sure that the lights are probably turned off to conserve energy and therefore money, but maybe it is for other reasons. It would definitely be worth checking into.