UPDATED July 29th, 8:00 am – see below for details.
Mr. Mike Thome, Executive Director, Edmonton District Soccer Association
Dear Mr. Thome,
On Wednesday evening, July 27, I set out for one of my favorite activities in the City of Edmonton – a run in our River Valley. My preferred route takes me past the City fields on 84st between the Archdiocese and McNally High School. As I set out on my run, a senior men’s soccer game was just wrapping up on the southern-most field – a field known as Forest Heights #1. It was a lovely night, and it was wonderful to see people out enjoying the parkland and to see many family members watching the end of the game and enjoying the wonderful view of the City skyline. I doubt there is a better view from any soccer field in the City.
By the time I returned from my run, everyone had packed up and gone their separate ways, but unfortunately had not taken with them some of what they brought to the game. I stopped to pick up:
- over 40 individual pieces and balls of tape;
- three empty water bottles;
- multiple plastic wrappers from the tops of Gatorade/Powerade bottles;
- cardboard packaging from Umbro soccer socks;
- A can of Deep Woods Off (recommended by Bob Izumi, who I am sure would prefer it be disposed of appropriately).
All of this was in the bench areas, each of which is conveniently equipped with a garbage can.
I am sure you will agree that this is not an acceptable condition in which to leave a City field. Unfortunately, this is not the first time I have had a similar experience with members of your organization. On several occasions last year, I had similar experiences and exchanged correspondence with your Association. While I was assured that the issue would be taken care of, clearly the message has not been received by your members. Wednesday night’s game, it appears, was played between two of your teams, Rampage and Alliance FC. I wonder who they expect will clean up after them?
I have posted this letter on my blog (http://www.andrewleach.ca), which I usually devote to energy and environmental issues. The purpose of making this letter public is, in part, to encourage other residents who enjoy the River Valley as I do to demand that users including but not limited to your Association respect our public lands. It would be my pleasure to post any reply to this letter detailing your policy for leaving City fields as you have found them, and the penalties to teams who do not follow these guidelines. I am sure there is significant demand for field time in the heart of our City – if your players won’t respect them, I would strongly encourage the City to make these fields available to someone who will.
Best regards,
Andrew Leach
UPDATE – July 28th: Please see initial response from EDSA Executive Director Mike Thome here.
UPDATE#2 – July 29th : A misunderstanding as to which field was involved led me to assume that Wednesday night’s game had been a scehduled event of the Edmonton Gentlemen’s Soccer League. You can see the response from their director, Douglas Williams, here.
UPDATE #3 – July 29th: I have sent a follow-up message to Mike Thome, who I expect will respond shortly.
I love it that you took the time to write a well-written & gracious letter. Perhaps you should send it to the newspaper. Three cheers for you that you actually picked up the stuff.
You’ve inspired me to contact the manager of a Second Cup I visited this morning.
When I was getting coffee this morning, the server used a disposable cup to fill my reusable cup. I asked her about it and she assured me that the disposable cup was clean and that she will throw it out after! I replied that I wish she didn’t and she said, “well I had to measure what size of coffee I was going to charge you for.” This of course makes perfect sense.
I just walked away. Tomorrow I will call.
Thanks, Emily
Thanks Emily. For some reason, there are few things in the world that get on my nerves more than littering, in particular in our parks.
Cheers,
Andrew
Andrew, I have lots of great witty comments but those can wait. First, well written and well done. Not everyone would stop to pick up all the garbage, I may have but only because I detest running and would have been cooked and looking for an excuse to bring my hurt-level down. The key question you ask is “whom do they expect will clean up after them?” That’s a great question. When we would like to promote behaviour change we must help them break the cycle. You answer that question yourself by letting me know that in fact, you, Andrew Leach, is the person they expect to clean up after them. You’ve done it before, you did again. Here’s a ballsy suggestion. Next week, collect garbage in a bag from all the games. Then arrive at the field just before the game is about to begin, your shoes tightly laced, your legs already warmed up. Just before the whistle blows and the ball drops, calmly walk out to the center of the field with two letters that explain that we’re all sick of these “adults” acting like pigs. Letters delivered, dump said garbage in the middle of the field where they can’t ignore it. Continue run. I would suggest an interval-type workout where the first 400 m is full sprint.
Sarcasm and humour aside, keep up the great writing and I’m glad to hear the human and social side of Edmonton is alive and well, even if not with all citizens.
Sandy
Nice suggestion Sandy. I once did that with a motorist who dumped his fast food packaging out the window…I returned it to him at the next traffic light. He was not pleased. I’ve seen bike races lose permits over this type of disrespect for public space, and I’d love to see the treatment extended to others who do the same.
Andrew,
To link this back to environmental econ, I hope that your new information disclosure policy will work! There’s nothing wrong with a little public shaming.
Another solution may lie in the rental agreement for the field. If this little experiment in information disclosure does not work, maybe a call to the City Parts Dept will. If the stick doesn’t work, better get a bigger stick.
cheers,
Joel
Response from EDSA to my post:
Andrew;
Thank you for your letter. I am appalled by the lack of regard that some people display toward our park space and consider this a very serious breach of our ethical duty to preserve the integrity of our sport facilities. We encourage our teams to respect the fields and take care of them as if they were their own. Unfortunately, our members do not always meet our expectations.
In this instance, however, I can confirm that the game played at McNally last night was not an EDSA game. I have checked with our program staff and they have confirmed that we did not have the permit for the McNally field last night and. As such, did not have a game there.
There are a number of other unsanctioned leagues in Edmonton that rent fields from the City and I suspect that last night’s incident was the result of another league’s actions. I will be checking with the City to confirm which group, if any, had the permit for McNally last night. I will follow-up with you once I get a response.
Thank you again for informing me of this situation. I will be in touch with you soon.
Mike Thome
Executive Director
Edmonton and District Soccer Association
(780) 413-0140
(780) 481-4619 (fax)
I admit that I am left both happy and a little red-faced after receiving the reply above from Mike Thome. I should not have jumped to the conclusion that the game was a sanctioned event of their organization. It is unfortunate that, as the primary soccer organization in the city, they take the heat for actions of people outside of their membership. For that, I apologize. I am very pleased that Mr. Thome will follow up with the City to find out who was responsible for leaving the field in the condition I found it last night. I am also pleased and somewhat overwhelmed at the response to my original post. I hope it leads to a better City and more responsible use of our park land.
Both as an economist and a soccer referee I would suggest your blog use for this particular topic is a good example of polluter pays principle.
On the economist side: we expect the polluter (in this case a particular league) pays in loss of respect from others knowing of their pollution. Note I have not put a value on what has been payed.
On the referee’s side: this is called “showing a yellow card”. Haven’t been ordered off the field but two cautions = red.
Richard
An informative reply from Douglas Williams, Edmonton Gentlemen’s Soccer League
Hello Andrew,
Thank you for your query. I appreciate the opportunity to respond to your email. After further investigation, the information provided to you is inaccurate. Last night, the Gentlemens Soccer League was not present at the field you indicated on your website. Please note the following links identifying the organization whom you should be directing your query to.
The southernmost field (according to your statement) within the area is Forest Heights #1 (FH1) and its location can be found here:
http://www.edmonton.ca/attractions_recreation/documents/CommPeople/SportsFieldsSouthEastZone.pdf
then click on Forest Heights Parks Sports Fields and a map will be displayed of that location.
The organization whom had a scheduled game here is identified within this link:
http://www.edsa.org/site/schedules/804/
Scroll down to the appropriate date and you will see that they had the field as a paid rental from the City of Edmonton for that evening. There is an executable link beside the match and its location directly within the site. I understand that you already have their direct contact information and thus, not necessary for me to publish within the context of this letter.
On or about that particular date, the Gentlemens Soccer League was booked at another venue. That link can be found here:
http://www.ballcharts.com/teams/schedule.php?team=gsl
Its location can be found here: http://www.edmonton.ca/attractions_recreation/documents/CommPeople/SportsFieldsSouthEastZone.pdf
(The field that is located between Forest Heights #1 and McNally School, is McNally #4 (directly north of your incident location) and is contained within a track. I believe that you are referring to the Forest Heights field and not to McNally #4 as incorrectly identified within previous correspondence between yourself and another organization.)
The league, its members and all interested parties on behalf of the Gentlemens Soccer League take letters of interest (such as yours) into serious consideration for discussion and representation of the brand as a league. As such, kindly remove the letter and any reference(s) to the league and any of its members from your website. Upon observation of that being enacted upon, I will appropriately inform our membership of this being completed. Further, please indicate whom provided you with the erroneous information and contact direction, so that the necessary instruction can be provided to resolve and minimize any future misunderstandings.
Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention.
All the best, DW
My follow-up email to the EDSA
Dear Mike,
Based on a reply from the Edmonton Gentlemen’s Soccer League, it seems that we are back to square 1.
The southernmost field to which I was referring is Forest Heights #1 (FH1), which I verified on this map to be the field next the ball diamonds:
http://www.edmonton.ca/attractions_recreation/documents/CommPeople/SportsFieldsSouthEastZone.pdf
It seems that, in fact, EDSA teams Alliance FC and Rampage had a scheduled game on that field Wednesday night:
http://www.edsa.org/site/schedules/804/
I’ve updated my open letter yet again. I apologize for some of this being cause by my lack of information with respect to both field rentals and soccer organizations within the City, and also to my frustration leading me to jump to quickly to conclusions.
Andrew
My reply to Douglas Williams, Edmonton Gentlemen’s Soccer League
Dear Douglas,
Thank you for taking the time to respond and for providing this valuable information. I apologize for acting on mis-information and for identifying your league. I was informed by the City’s field rental office, via the EDSA who forwarded on my request, that the field was rented by your league, but in the process someone seems to have mixed up North and South, or seems to have confounded the southernmost McNally field with the FH1 field that you identify. I should have spent more time looking into this myself.
I have updated my public posting on this (which has generated an astounding response) here http://andrewleach.ca/?p=695. I have also followed up with the EDSA and I expect, based on my correspondence with them yesterday, that they will take action on this.
Again, my apologies and thank you for your thoughtful response.
Andrew
So easy to be smug, and so difficult to know when to use ‘who’ and when ‘whom.’
There is a bench in a nearby park which I prefer – it has a good view of the band-stand and a bit of a vista. Other people prefer it as well – sometimes I have to pass by on my way to and from the library instead of resting for a few minutes because it is already occupied.
And some of these ‘others’ regularly leave a mess, which I often pick up and put into the garbage bin & recycling container just a few yards away.
One day as I was cleaning up I was also internally cursing the idiots who left the mess; at which point a half-empty tin of some sugar drink tipped and ran up my sleeve. Ah! I thought – instant Karma!
Be well, David Wilson.
David,
There’s a difference between being smug and demanding that the people who use our public infrastructure for organized activities respect the privilege but, more importantly, respect the agreement they have signed with the City. Unfortunately, many do not.
Best,
Andrew
this is helpful:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/mind-your-language/2011/aug/15/mind-your-language-who-whom
So is this: http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/correcting-other-peoples-grammar.aspx