2023 Cays Park Options Survey
The PURPOSE of the survey
is to gather in 10 questions the current opinions
of every Cays adult in every Cays Village
and provide them directly to the Cays HOA Board of Directors,
the City, the City Council, and the Schmidt Design Group (park designer).
This is important.
We are asking EVERY CORONADO CAYS ADULT to participate now.
Time is of the essence. This survey will close at 12 noon, Monday, October 16th.
Please help our community by sharing your views, and when you are finished,
please send the link below to your spouse (or significant other), and to
at least FIVE (5) of your Cays friends and neighbors!
We are counting on your help to get the word out.
cayspark.weebly.com
It's only 10 questions!!!
of every Cays adult in every Cays Village
and provide them directly to the Cays HOA Board of Directors,
the City, the City Council, and the Schmidt Design Group (park designer).
This is important.
We are asking EVERY CORONADO CAYS ADULT to participate now.
Time is of the essence. This survey will close at 12 noon, Monday, October 16th.
Please help our community by sharing your views, and when you are finished,
please send the link below to your spouse (or significant other), and to
at least FIVE (5) of your Cays friends and neighbors!
We are counting on your help to get the word out.
cayspark.weebly.com
It's only 10 questions!!!
WHY is the survey necessary?
The collective voices of Cays residents have not been heard and, without the survey, will not be heard.
Only 60 Cays residents were allowed to participate in the City's Cays Park Survey. The other 404 respondents were from the Village. If the park was in the VILLAGE, would it make sense to have 90% of the respondents from the CAYS?
It's not right.
And now with the plans in front of us, the current system of Post-it notes, "feedback cards" and email messages provides no method by which the opinions of Cays residents as a whole may ultimately be expressed to the City Council. That's like the neighborhood voting to put a trampoline in Mary's front yard without asking Mary what she thinks. The opinions of Cays residents matter.
The goal of the 2023 Cays Park Options Survey is to try to fairly and equally
give a voice to every adult Cays resident by name
who is part of our community and who cares about the park that was built primarily for us.
Only 60 Cays residents were allowed to participate in the City's Cays Park Survey. The other 404 respondents were from the Village. If the park was in the VILLAGE, would it make sense to have 90% of the respondents from the CAYS?
It's not right.
And now with the plans in front of us, the current system of Post-it notes, "feedback cards" and email messages provides no method by which the opinions of Cays residents as a whole may ultimately be expressed to the City Council. That's like the neighborhood voting to put a trampoline in Mary's front yard without asking Mary what she thinks. The opinions of Cays residents matter.
The goal of the 2023 Cays Park Options Survey is to try to fairly and equally
give a voice to every adult Cays resident by name
who is part of our community and who cares about the park that was built primarily for us.
LEARN about the project and the options...
Click on the link(s) of interest...
City Project Website
has all documents |
Plan Amenities
side by side comparison |
The BIG QUESTION is
to what extent PRIVATE "CLUB SOCCER" should be allowed to dominate a PUBLIC PARK.*
Below are some pictures to help you think about that question and about the park in general.
In the VILLAGE the residents would never allow any private organization to dominate any one of their many parks anywhere near the extent to which club soccer dominates Cays Park. Why is it OK here and not OK there? Why is it a different standard? Especially when there is plenty of additional room for soccer at Tidelands Park simply by updating its almost 40 year-old layout!
Don't be confused:
MOST OF US LOVE SOCCER!
But most of us also think there needs to be a better balance than exists today. But no matter what you think, if you are a Cays resident, we want to hear from you! (And no, no one has any plans to get rid of the dog park!!!)
Below are some pictures to help you think about that question and about the park in general.
In the VILLAGE the residents would never allow any private organization to dominate any one of their many parks anywhere near the extent to which club soccer dominates Cays Park. Why is it OK here and not OK there? Why is it a different standard? Especially when there is plenty of additional room for soccer at Tidelands Park simply by updating its almost 40 year-old layout!
Don't be confused:
MOST OF US LOVE SOCCER!
But most of us also think there needs to be a better balance than exists today. But no matter what you think, if you are a Cays resident, we want to hear from you! (And no, no one has any plans to get rid of the dog park!!!)
*
|
Does PRIVATE CLUB SOCCER really "dominate" Cays Park? |
The image below may help you decide. The black rectangles are the private club soccer fields--the same ones in the pictures above. As always they are there right now-not just when there is a tournament.
At present not only does private club soccer dominate Cays Park from a space point of view, private club soccer also dominates Cays Park from a time point of view: typically 3-7 weekdays and 8-5 Saturday and Sunday. As a well-known councilmember said, "that's basically all the time."
Private club soccer even dominates when the club is not there, because no one can put a bush, or a tree, or a bench, or a walking path, or anything else that might make people happy, in the middle of a soccer field.
And now private club soccer is dominating the design process for the Master Plan as well; obviously everything else the public might want in the park now depends on how much space is left over after the amount of space dedicated to private club soccer has been decided: 100%, 75%, 50% or 25%.
That's backwards. For a public park the public interest should come ahead of the private interest, not the other way around.
The question is not whether or not private club soccer dominates Cays Park now; the question before us is to what extent you think private club soccer should dominate Cays Park in the future.
At present not only does private club soccer dominate Cays Park from a space point of view, private club soccer also dominates Cays Park from a time point of view: typically 3-7 weekdays and 8-5 Saturday and Sunday. As a well-known councilmember said, "that's basically all the time."
Private club soccer even dominates when the club is not there, because no one can put a bush, or a tree, or a bench, or a walking path, or anything else that might make people happy, in the middle of a soccer field.
And now private club soccer is dominating the design process for the Master Plan as well; obviously everything else the public might want in the park now depends on how much space is left over after the amount of space dedicated to private club soccer has been decided: 100%, 75%, 50% or 25%.
That's backwards. For a public park the public interest should come ahead of the private interest, not the other way around.
The question is not whether or not private club soccer dominates Cays Park now; the question before us is to what extent you think private club soccer should dominate Cays Park in the future.
Three LARGE soccer fields
can easily be added at Tidelands Park as shown below. But the right answer for the long term would be to
develop a new, modern, efficient layout for Tidelands Park.
Tidelands was built specifically for Coronado youth field sports before soccer became popular.
Tidelands doesn't work well because not only is the layout almost 40 years old, it's inefficient because baseball is primarily seasonal and soccer is year-round. And with Tidelands the daily commute up and down the Strand twice a day for soccer moms and dads is gone. Parking at Tidelands? Not an issue. Most of the players are Village kids who ride their bikes (many now electric) everywhere in Coronado, just like always.
Read more in the Tidelands Point Paper if you are interested.
develop a new, modern, efficient layout for Tidelands Park.
Tidelands was built specifically for Coronado youth field sports before soccer became popular.
Tidelands doesn't work well because not only is the layout almost 40 years old, it's inefficient because baseball is primarily seasonal and soccer is year-round. And with Tidelands the daily commute up and down the Strand twice a day for soccer moms and dads is gone. Parking at Tidelands? Not an issue. Most of the players are Village kids who ride their bikes (many now electric) everywhere in Coronado, just like always.
Read more in the Tidelands Point Paper if you are interested.
Leave it Alone!
Cays Park is fine as it is. Why do anything at all? This question comes up. And of course it's valid. The answer is basically another question: Do you think Cays Park can be improved? And the answer to that question is usually "yes."
The problem is, no one agrees on the answer to the last question:
"What do you think needs to be improved?"
That's where the 2023 Cays Park Options Survey comes in. From dog park, children's play area, bathrooms, wall height, connection to the bike path, road width, parking, tennis, pickleball, park themes, soccer, specific plans, and everything else, it's all there, in just 10 questions. Answer what you like and skip the rest.
In the bigger picture the City embarked on a Master Plan because after so much hard soccer use the turf was so beaten up they felt it needed to be replaced completely--the entire park. Big job. (Might as well do the sprinklers at the same time.) According to the Mayor, the Council thought this was the obvious time to make any changes that Cays residents wanted. What should those changes be? That's what this Master Plan project is all about. It might be a lot, it might be only a little, but the goal for the first time in the history of the park is to take a thorough look and then decide what the park should be, for the next 75 years, or maybe forever.
This opportunity will--in all likelihood--never come again.
We owe it to future generations to be thoughtful about it now.
The problem is, no one agrees on the answer to the last question:
"What do you think needs to be improved?"
That's where the 2023 Cays Park Options Survey comes in. From dog park, children's play area, bathrooms, wall height, connection to the bike path, road width, parking, tennis, pickleball, park themes, soccer, specific plans, and everything else, it's all there, in just 10 questions. Answer what you like and skip the rest.
In the bigger picture the City embarked on a Master Plan because after so much hard soccer use the turf was so beaten up they felt it needed to be replaced completely--the entire park. Big job. (Might as well do the sprinklers at the same time.) According to the Mayor, the Council thought this was the obvious time to make any changes that Cays residents wanted. What should those changes be? That's what this Master Plan project is all about. It might be a lot, it might be only a little, but the goal for the first time in the history of the park is to take a thorough look and then decide what the park should be, for the next 75 years, or maybe forever.
This opportunity will--in all likelihood--never come again.
We owe it to future generations to be thoughtful about it now.
What about my OCEAN VIEWS?
Next to the park in Bahama and Trinidad this is a legitimate concern.
And the Schmidt Design Group is working hard on that issue.
And the Schmidt Design Group is working hard on that issue.
In the meantime, here are some questions:
- What would you rather look at in the evening, bright soccer lights (or solid black when they are not playing), or a beautifully landscaped park with soft night lighting that automatically goes off at 9pm?
- Which do you think will improve the quality of your life more (and the value your home), being next to a beautiful park or being next to a gold-plated soccer training facility (where 25% of the participants do not come from Coronado), the usage of which will only increase with time?
- What would you rather look at, a barren grass desert or a professionally landscaped park that included trees in just the right places--trees that "framed" views rather than blocking them?
- What would you rather listen to, soccer whistles and yelling coaches, or the sound of silence?
- Would you rather have views of nothing but the ocean, or the ocean and some beautiful trees?
- What do you think will happen to parking on tournament days when the fields are smaller and tournaments are half the size because more space has been devoted to landscaping?
- What do you think will happen to the number of tournaments when the entire park is devoted to soccer because you were adamant about "no trees"?
- What would you say to all of the people in the Cays who are begging for some shade trees in the park but can't have any on a hot summer day because your next-door neighbors were unwilling to compromise one bit on the tree issue?
Obviously this kind of situation is solved by the right compromise--for everyone. Is it possible that by being open minded about changes
you might just end up better off--maybe a lot better off--than you are now?
you might just end up better off--maybe a lot better off--than you are now?