The Astro-Turf Discussion

I was probably around thirty years old, when I first observed astro-turf....being able to stand on it and rub the stuff.  My general perception was....it's basically concrete with some weird carpeting over it, and if you fall....it's a bit different than regular grass or sod.  Personally, the last thing on earth I'd want to do....if playing baseball or football....is play on astro-turf.  This was some park that we had in Tucson....which had a big issue with limited rainfall, and they'd designed this for some local soccer league.

I noticed this week a big fiasco going on in San Francisco.  There are a number of fields around the city which are used for soccer and football.  The city admits that while people like the sod fields....maintenance on the fields to keep them in operating condition is a major problem with the budget.  So, they want to astro-turf up the whole operation.

Naturally, folks are ballistic about this.....angry...and frustrated with the way head.

What this leads to is the method of construction of the astro-turf.....being from old tires.  Yeah, there's this big worry over cancer-causing agents.

Accusations are going back and forth.....locals saying the political folks are taking pay-offs from the tire companies.  Tire companies wanting no part of this discussion because they make tires....not astro-turf.

Conspiracy talk?  Oh yeah.  Various people talking bribes, and various people defending themselves because they haven't seen a single dime of a bribe (probably wishing they were bribed in the first place).

The comical side of this?  Out of a thousand folks in San Francisco....I'd take a humble bet that less than fifteen might utilize one of these grassy fields for some sport.

Yep, this topic eats up journalism talents, political bickering, parks and recreation discussions, and expenditures of city funding (which is kinda heated these days).  All of this....to make a marginal group of people in the town happy.

Democracy is an odd thing...sometimes, it even creeps into astro-turf discussions.