A Soccer Field of Dreams

On a concrete lot where a crack house once stood, a mural appeared a few years ago with what was more of a wish than a name: Peace and Hope Park. Soon came some jury-rigged soccer goals made of nylon nets and cheap plastic pipe. And finally, pouring from the crowded apartments in this Pico-Union neighborhood west of downtown, came the kids.

Every evening, at least a dozen of them would gather on the broken pavement to kick the ball around before dinner. Their parents, mostly from Central America, would stroll out in the waning light to teach the finer points of the sport that they had grown up playing in their hometowns.

The abandoned lot looked like a run-down piece of San Salvador, but the children didn’t seem to mind. They, like children in many other poor L.A. neighborhoods, were used to playing soccer on sidewalks and streets, in parking garages and tenement hallways. There was simply nowhere else to go.

So on the corner of James M. Wood Boulevard and Bonnie Brae Street, they staked their claim to Peace and Hope Park, using the colorful mural and the flimsy goal posts. Then they urged the politicians and bureaucrats to follow suit.

This fall, the city did just that.

The Department of Recreation and Parks purchased the site of El Parque de Esperanza y Paz, as it is known in Spanish, and is planning to build a real park there in the spring.

“This dream is soon going to become a reality,” said Bertha Wooldridge, the neighborhood watch captain who has spearheaded the effort. “These are poor families, but they are good families, with lots of little kids and babies. And they know this is their park.”

Residents are elated that the property that long blighted their community, as everything from a derelict halfway house to a stolen-car chop shop, will become something positive.

There is, of course, a hitch. The new park will be only a third of an acre, which some neighbors say is too small for a soccer field, especially when there are so many other needs. Seniors from nearby convalescent homes need a place to relax and parents need a spot to take their toddlers.

Tentative plans call for a fountain, some benches and a basketball hoop, but nothing to inspire neighborhood soccer players, whose makeshift field was temporarily closed by the city two months ago.

Robert Garcia, a public interest attorney who works with environmental justice groups, plans to help organize residents to advocate a soccer field for the new park. He says that such space is desperately needed in the area, but that neighbors often don’t want athletic fields because they draw crowds, noise and traffic.

“‘This is becoming a very controversial issue in L.A.,” said Garcia, who grew up in the area. “It’s a form of NIMBYism [for “not in my backyard”]. . . . Look, there’s nowhere else to play around there.”

Many of the neighborhood kids agree. Michael Vasquez, 15, doesn’t go to nearby MacArthur Park because all the lawns slope into the lake and drug dealers hang out there. And his parents don’t want him playing in the street in front of their building or venturing away from the neighborhood to find other fields.

This, the children say, was why they endured shattered glass and taunts from a camp of homeless people to play on the unforgiving surface of Peace and Hope Park.

“There wasn’t anywhere else close by,” Michael said. “And at the lot, my mom could just holler at us to come in.”

The lot became available after an abandoned halfway house, which was drawing every sort of marginal character, was razed. Neighbors petitioned Councilman Mike Hernandez to establish a park there and partially took the matter into their own hands by painting the mural. Some of the youngsters put up the goal posts and Vasquez and his buddies started playing.

Creating a real park was harder. The property had assessments, as well as numerous owners, and details had to be worked out in court before the city could buy it. It wasn’t until this year that the recreation department made the purchase with $500,000 in park bond money. Work crews subsequently fenced off the site for construction.

“Now that the city owns it, it’s a liability problem for kids to play there,” said David Marquez, chief legislative analyst for Hernandez.

Planners are soon going to begin designing the park with suggestions from the community, Marquez said. He said the councilman is working to acquire another property nearby, at 5th Street and Burlington Avenue, for an athletic field.

Until that happens, Michael Vasquez and his brother will stay bored, stuck in their stuffy apartment watching cartoons. Across the street, Christian Figueroa has been playing Nintendo through most of his Christmas break. The 14-year-old used to meet at the vacant lot with at least 20 others from nearby buildings, but now can only play in the sidewalk out front, irritating neighbors, pedestrians and motorists.

“When the ball rolls in the street, we just have to wait for all the cars to pass,” he said.

Devon Robinson, 13, said he doesn’t play sports at all anymore because it’s such a hassle to find a spot. “I go over to friends’ houses or they come to mine, and we play PlayStation,” he said.

The manager of his apartment building, Mona Stanley, said she has to stop children from trying to play soccer in the hallways or the back alley. Exhausted residents, who often work more than one job, don’t appreciate the thumps of soccer balls resonating through the halls in their time off. And there is still no appropriate place to play.

“These kids all play soccer in the streets,” she said. “Some day you’re going to get one of them hit by a car.”