Residents Seek to Save Soccer Field

Monday's City Council meeting involved the usual discussion of roadwork and pedestrian crossings by the councillors, but public comment generated the most activity.

Residents were responding to both a new city ordinance designed to help handicapped residents and plans to turn a popular soccer field into a nature reserve.

Various members of the local newspaper community voiced concerns over a city ordinance that banned the presence of newspaper racks on certain Cambridge sidewalks. The ordinance was designed to prevent the racks from becoming a hazard to people in wheelchairs.

The complaint was first lodged by Dean Wilson, a historian and cartoonist working for the Cambridge Candle, a small city newspaper. Wilson was opposed to the law, saying that it would "adversely affect small businesses," such as newspapers.

However, a Boston Globe staff member also representing the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Boston Herald said a new agreement with City Solicitor Russell Highley and City Manager Robert C. Healy would be sufficient.

Chuck Silverson of Just Publications agreed, saying, "I think these changes [to the ordinance] will be better because it will allow us to help clean up the city. It will be workable for us and workable for you."

The legal department said the ordinance would be finished by today at noon.

Cantabs also commented on the closing of Lusitania Field, a soccer field in Cambridge. Players and coaches of the Eastern Massachusetts Women's Soccer League brought forth the issue.

According to the group, the field is slated to become an Audubon Society reserve.

While the members argued that "soccer players love nature as much as nature watchers," they said that there was a critical need for a soccer field for adults and kids alike.

They also said the soccer community had not been notified of the development and that they had been misled by the Healy.

"The City Manager promised us a new field, and now they're going to take away our old one," said one of the players.

The complainants, who said they were still "angered" and "hurt" by the decision, instead proposed that Neville Manor be chosen as a new site for a soccer field.