The Playing Field Shortage

No one is more excited than Team Talk about the prospects for a new regional park over in our neck of the world, at the old Blandair farm in east Columbia. We are heavy users of athletic facilities of all shapes and sizes, and we have paid mightily for the privilege over the years in fees and sweat equity, raking infields, lining soccer fields and setting up nets etc.

But...

Some of the comments we read in this Examiner story got us thinking. Is there really a shortage? Define shortage.

On any given weekend we drive by schools and parks with unused fields. Maybe some are not as nice as others, but there's no reason they could not be made to be. The Oakland Mills High School baseball field is shaping up to be a pretty little field, thanks to boosters who built dugouts, school system investment, and lots of care and feeding. It's a scene repeated at several high schools around the county.

So here's our question. In a time of changing economic circumstances, when everyone is bracing for a prolonged housing slowdown, is it better to build new stuff or take super care of all we have, to protect the investment we have already made in our neighborhoods?