Deseret News | Reader comments: Community garden vs. lacrosse field

Reader comments
Community garden vs. lacrosse field

Anonymous | 12:49 a.m. May 9, 2009

I hope the garden stays. Gardening is recreation for some people and it is outdoors. What's wrong with the football or soccer fields the school probably already has that the lacrosse team can't use them? Lacrosse is a great sport and no reason not to have a team, but there should be some way to make use of what the school already has.

CP | 4:23 a.m. May 9, 2009

I say keep the garden. The garden helps the community a whole lot more then turning it into a place for lacrosse. Garden should stay.

jpazz | 4:45 a.m. May 9, 2009

Can't they find more land for a garden?

Comments continue below

Anonymous | 6:10 a.m. May 9, 2009

If this is community property then the food that is grown is free for the taking from anyone. I garden, but I also pay taxes on that property. I dont pay those taxes for someone to grow a private garden.

Davedave | 6:52 a.m. May 9, 2009

I think there are 2 sides to this that can be resolved. Can't there be a little garden behind the Holladay /city Hall and a Lacrosse field too. I am familiar with the plot of land behind Holladay City Hall (the old Holladay Elementary). With the tearing down of the old firestation, there should be enough room for a small garden and 2 lacrosse fields. Shouldn't there?

Crocodile Tears | 7:21 a.m. May 9, 2009

This isn't the Soviet Union. Let these immigrants learn the American way and farm THEIR OWN ground. Or let them go home and farm on their collectives.

mom of five | 7:23 a.m. May 9, 2009

Keep the gardens and let the lacrosse payers practice somewhere else. I have nothing against lacrosse; many of my neighbors are avid players, but a community garden sounds a lot more beneficial to the community as a whole.

No to lacrosse | 7:42 a.m. May 9, 2009

Lacrosse is a sport for the upper crust. Gardening is something that better suits the working man. Keep the garden, say hell no to lacrosse. There are enough sports these kids can already participate in.

More Sports Please | 7:58 a.m. May 9, 2009

Please place a grass field over this once productive garden plot. Parents also think that sports will teach their children responsibility. It has done great things in the NBA/NFL/MLB. AI and others learned a ton from sports. Gardening and farming is soooo yesterday. It has no place in our community. Besides, sharing a field with soccer or football team would be out of the question. People that grow food etc. add nothing, but the great sport of Lacrosse, why, it is the best. What better way to honor our Native American heritage-running out a bunch of unimportant folks and planting grass.

public land for public uses | 8:07 a.m. May 9, 2009

Put me down for playing fields for the public. If you want vegies - go to Albertson's or grow it on your own property.

falcon's beak | 8:11 a.m. May 9, 2009

Some things are more important than others. The economy may be bottoming, but it may not be. In WWII I recall everyone tried to grow vegetables. If this recession goes into a depression, better get your garden going. It is more important than LaCrosse. California is getting a lot less water for crops in the San Joachim Valley. 80,000 farm workers laid off. Vegetables will go higher.

Education | 8:35 a.m. May 9, 2009

The greater good will come from the garden. Duh. It's time for locrosse boys to learn a lesson in selflessness and become real men.

There is no sanctioned LaCrosse | 8:38 a.m. May 9, 2009

Garden stays - club team finds another place to practice. End of debate.

I love and live for youth sports; however, boosters need to spend your time and efforts getting the UHSAA to sanction your sport, and make certain that your school district provides whatever is deemed necessary.

P.S. If Olympus Jr. isn't a "walk to" destination, so why don't you drive down to the football field at Granite High School. Maybe the District will let you convert it so a LaCrosse Based Stadium.

anonymous | 8:43 a.m. May 9, 2009

Just because the soil is "poor" doesn't mean that it is a bad place to garden. Soil can be amended and become good. It happens all the time in gardens all over the world. I agree that gardening fits the conditions of the donated land. I would rather see a garden there than a blank grassy field. The garden promotes community while the grassy field is just a grassy field.

old timer | 8:50 a.m. May 9, 2009

I hope the garden stays. I hope the lacrosse team finds a home. It's too bad we are pitted against each other for space. The issue is that in East Millcreek, Canyon Rim, Mt. Olympus, and Holladay there is very limited undeveloped space. The East Bench has a history of cooperation. Please get involved with your community council. S.L. County collected $64 million in ZAP funding last year. Other communities in S.L. County have built modern rec centers and enormous playing fields with this funding. On the East Bench we have used ZAP and other SL County money for the Holladay Lion's Club (no full size field), the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, and 3 very expensive bridges over 1-215. The most recent SL County vision is to move 2 fire stations, reduce the size of Evergeen Park, build another senior center, and increase the size of the County Library there. Granite School District already supports Boys and Girls Track and Field, Soccer, Baseball, Softball, and P.E. classes on the school fields. In addition to Lacrosse, community Rugby, Softball, Baseball, and Track and Field clubs need space in the Spring. Get involved for change.

sooo yesterday | 9:00 a.m. May 9, 2009

yeah farming is soo yesterday. Nobody gets anything out of farming. However, I do like food and that comes from farming. HMMM...... Dilemma?! I think not.

K | 9:04 a.m. May 9, 2009

The owner can do what it likes with their land.

They Put the LAX in Laxative | 9:07 a.m. May 9, 2009

"A few weeks ago, the entire lacrosse team of Olympus High School showed up in uniform to encourage the new fields."

The ENTIRE lacrosse team? Wow. So, what, five or six kids who got cut from football?

so stupid | 9:09 a.m. May 9, 2009

We are a country obsessed by sports. We live, eat, sleep, drink sports. FINALLY... someone has the ability to see beyond the sports. Your kids could learn responsibility by taking care of a garden or cows or perhaps... GET A JOB! These kids will play sports for how long? Five years? Six? But teaching them to grow their own food would serve them much longer. Get them a plot at the community garden and teach them something other than they have to be the best at some stupid game. It is time to grow up! Community gardens are all over this country.. time for Utah to catch up!

Christy | 9:23 a.m. May 9, 2009

With the way the ecconomy is, growing food isn't just recreational; it's survival. It is also a great way to bring the community together. It isn't "so yesterday." A teenager with too much time on his hands and a closet full of Nintendo games must have written that. His or her parents would know better. If these people had land, they would grow their own food on it and not have to resort to a community source. Some local grocery stores aren't an option for many of us who have good jobs because they are so overpriced. So "public lands for public uses", this may be an option for your parents but my guess is you haven't had the oportunity to provide food for yourself out of your own pocket let alone for a family. Your turn will come in a few years. I think a community garden is of more benefit to the community than a LaCrosse field. These LaCrosse players would learn more responsibility and life skills gardening with their neighbors than playing a game.

Himself | 9:25 a.m. May 9, 2009

A piece of land is abandoned. A group turns it intoproductive use as a garden. Then a group of strong young men in uniforms demand possession of the property. This is standard procedure in the year
1066. The school district has a tax base. Let them use it to buy land, not extort it.

Hal | 9:25 a.m. May 9, 2009

If the garden is city owned, people who can purchase the land should be able to do so. I see nothing wrong with it being a garden, or a sports field. If the people can vote on what to do with the city property, that might be a fair way to deal with it. However, unless a fund raiser is organized to keep the property a garden, I don't see why people think that it is their "right" to claim property that is not legally theirs. Also, who is paying for the water? Make it legal, and there will be no argument.

Steve | 9:28 a.m. May 9, 2009

It seems to me there are two sides to the story; one sentence covering the lacrosse point of view is certainly not good reporting and a terrible disservice to readers.
I'm sure there is a resolution that will benefit everyone involved but this article isn't going to help the community arrive at a fair and honest resolution.

to Christy | 9:37 a.m. May 9, 2009

Please turn your sarcasm meter back on. :-) I was chuckling all through the post that got your back up.

solution | 9:48 a.m. May 9, 2009

Let the Lacross players garden for 5 years, showing commitment to their sport, and then give them the land.

If the Lacrosse players cannot commit to working like that for the field, then let the common folk have it.

How sad; greed before need. Community garden in my community is wonderful in so many ways. If a lacross team tried to take it over, no matter what excuse, they city would be looking for a new city council.

Gardens yes, Lacrosse no. Unless they are willing to work for it?????

In my dreams, eh.

Christy | 9:56 a.m. May 9, 2009

For those who think "these people" (immigrants) should go back to their own country, I would love to see a pedigree chart showing your ancestry. Unless your great great grandfather's name was "Sitting Bull" or Squanto or another native American, I'm guessing some of them were immigrants too. Aren't you glad someone didn't send them packing?

Jared | 10:35 a.m. May 9, 2009

Why does the lacrosse team need two fields? What if they built one and moved the garden to the space where the second one would have been built? At my high school, for example, we only had one football field and no practice field, and it worked out fine. And a lacrosse team can't be as big as a football team, so why should they need so much space?

Just a thought | 10:53 a.m. May 9, 2009

I'm not familiar with the properties, but would tearing down the old Holladay Elementary, building the new fire station on that plot of land, and then letting the LaCross players use the plot of land on which the old fire station stood work?

Food > Sports | 11:08 a.m. May 9, 2009

Both sports and gardening are good. Given a choice though, especially in these economic times, I think providing food is more important than playing sports.

Anyway, can't the lacross team find another field nearby. Our community has parks and school yards all over the place.

Gardening Fan | 12:16 p.m. May 9, 2009

Consider how much labor has already gone into making that property into a good garden. And consider the cost put in. Consider also that they were there first.

I always have a problem with trying to garden in a rental. They can give you thirty days notice and then you must leave. I found a way to make my garden portable. I use the square foot gardening idea but put the soil into buckets which I cut in half, the upper half having the lid fixed on and holes cut for drainage. Now each bucket is two planters that I can pick up and carry and transport even in a car if I must.

Nobody wants to put all that work into developing or paying for good soil, and all the effort into nursing along the plants, only to lose it all.

In the name of "diversity" it seems that the gardeners also should win, since sports certainly have a fair share of support, and gardening is timely and also encourages perhaps a different population of the community to become involved in something that benefits in a different way.

We put plenty of money into kids. Let them garden.

No to xenophobia | 12:41 p.m. May 9, 2009

I am disgusted with many of the xenophobic comments from some in this forum. Race and ethnicity HAS NOTHING to do with this debate. Everyone benefits from the garden, regardless of skin color or origin. Maybe it is that the IMMIGRANTS are more industrious than the so called "natives" and the "natives" are a little restless? When I hear people telling those to return to their own nations, especially when they are trying to be productive with a project like this, speaks volumes of how racist some are in Utah.

I am a former Utah resident and now an immigrant in *another* nation. Perhaps I can understand the realities of the situation a little better.

Maybe the Utes should have told the Mormon pioneers to go back to Missouri in 1847? That's the mindset some here have.

Unity | 1:30 p.m. May 9, 2009

My grandson is a lacrosse player and it is a pleasure to watch him learn lessons that will serve him well in life far beyond just learning how to play the game. It saddens me to see some dismiss youth sports as not worthy of consideration.

It also saddens me to see people dismissive of these wonderful community gardens. I think there are tremendous benefits to people's psyches beyond just growing food for their immediate needs. I also believe this is a really good way for refugees to start to feel at home and become part of the larger community.

Lacrosse and community gardens are similar in that each involves individual "team players" working to achieve shared/common goals. Each is an activity that promotes unity and does good things for the players/gardeners and consequently the community at large.

Cmon Holladay. Get creative and come up with a win-win solution! Wouldn't it be fun to see the lacrosse players digging in the dirt of a garden and the gardeners cheering on their friends the lacrosse players?

ER | 1:36 p.m. May 9, 2009

I wish people would read. Yes DNews tries to paint it that it is gardening or Lacrosse on the SAME piece of property. It is garden or a Firehouse. The city will in fact win in this case because the current station is dilapidated. The firehouse will go where the current garden is. The question is whether there will be land behind City Hall that will go into a NEW garden spot or in to Lacrosse fields. Please read and understand before your start spouting about what Dnews misleads you to think with their style. I like Dnews, but they too often depict a story in a way that is misleading- mostly to people who skim and do not read in-depth. I liked one reader's idea that said one lacrosse field instead of two and one area for garden in the new place.

K | 1:42 p.m. May 9, 2009

Why are the scouts maintaining the garden?

Cindy | 4:37 p.m. May 9, 2009

Agreed, let's find a win-win. We want this garden. Personally I don't care about lacrosse, but someone does. Someone has a good point, that gardening of the type that is being done on that very valuable and large piece of land in Holladay can be done in smaller spaces. The down side is that you don't get people into one space to work together. I know there will be a solution for this, and it will be beautiful!

It seems | 5:59 p.m. May 9, 2009

like everywhere I drive, I see public parks hardly used at all so why couldn't the Lacrosse teams go to practice or play at public parks, better yet their own school open space field.

DR Don | 5:59 p.m. May 9, 2009

"Why are the scouts maintaining the garden?"
They aren't - they just have a plot there also.

Johan | 6:45 a.m. May 10, 2009

Gardening is a private effort that should be conducted on privately-owned land. Who pays for the water to irrigate these gardens? Holladay City should either dispose of the land and save the taxpayers' money or devote the land to a valid public purpose, not a charitable project that benefits .05% of the city's residents.

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