THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 29, 1995 TAG: 9501270712
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Neighbors of Woodrow Wilson High School have gathered forces to oppose construction of a 3,500-seat football field City Council has considered including in this year's capital improvements budget.
A group from the neighborhood persevered for almost four hours at Tuesday's City Council meeting, waiting for a chance to speak. (Time for non-agenda speakers ran out and they had to wait until after a long agenda meeting to speak.)
Robert V. Nelson spoke for the neighborhood, where 200 residents have signed a petition opposing construction of the stadium.
``We don't need a football stadium in our back yard,'' Nelson said.
Nelson also noted that the building now housing Wilson was not designed with a football field.
Two weeks ago, the mayor erred and I repeated the error by saying that Wilson's athletic director said he had polled the neighborhood and found no opposition.
``I misspoke,'' Mayor Gloria Webb said Tuesday. ``He talked to the parents, not the neighbors.''
Naturally, parents of Wilson students who play football would approve of a field.
In fact, the athletic director painted a glowing picture of neighbors walking to games and of turning the area around the school into an old-fashioned neighborhood.
The neighbors see it differently from the athletic director and his team, Nelson said.
``We have incidents of vandalism, noise problems and parking problems,'' he said. ``We try to work together as a neighborhood to lessen these problems. We do not need to add to them by agreeing to a football stadium in our back yards that will neither increase our standard of living or our property values.''
In addition, Nelson said, he would rather see the $900,000 spent on fire equipment or neighborhood infrastructure improvements.
Nelson pushed the right buttons for a lot of people. Many taxpayers see construction of an unneeded football field as a waste of money.
If the city is going to spend money on football fields, it should put it all in one place to create a regional stadium large enough to host regional playoffs.
Most of all, the city has no business disrupting the neighborhoods around Wilson High. I hear from longtime residents that people who lived in the area when Manor High was built about 25 years ago were opposed to a football field. What I heard Tuesday was that people who live there now still don't want a field.
Furthermore, the city already owns land on London Boulevard with plenty of space for parking. Very few people live close enough to the site to be disturbed by football games. Certainly, a stadium on London Boulevard would not cause people to walk through residential lawns or toss trash in somebody's back yard.
Just because the city - perhaps mistakenly - built a new field at Churchland and just because the city - perhaps mistakenly - has indicated it will build a new one for I.C. Norcom, it should not mistakenly build another field at Wilson.
All along, the city should have planned to have a single regional stadium with auxiliary practice fields at the various schools. We barely need three high schools. We certainly don't need three lighted fields with all the amenities of a stadium.
The people who live around Wilson High spoke Tuesday and should be heard by council, which has not yet approved a capital budget.
Perhaps, at the same time, council members should consider laying down some ground rules, when and if a new stadium were built on London Boulevard.
For starters, it could decree that the field will be called Portsmouth Stadium and that no one school will have first dibs on use of the field for games or any other activity.
Even if a new regional stadium were located near a new Norcom, it should not be considered the sole property of that school. It should be a city stadium, available for use not only for local high schools but for others who might want to rent it.
Otherwise, City Council probably will be pressed every year to construct another stadium at Wilson. by CNB