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My son is five years old. He loves baseball. Despite
living in Pinecrest, we played t-ball last year at Coral Gables YMCA.
As a father it was truly an enriching experience. Obviously, in many
ways it reminded me of my youth with my father. Then someone told me
that Pinecrest had a YMCA. The choice seemed so obvious. I said to my
wife why should we drive to Coral Gables when Pinecrest had its own
team. Boy did I make a mistake.
Initially, everything seemed to go well. As we had
hoped, the practices were no more than five minutes from our home. I
thought it a bit odd that initially some of our games were scheduled
to be played in Pinecrest, but we were later told that all of the
games were to be played at Coral Reef Park. We still practiced at
Palmetto Middle School on Wednesday from 5 to 6 p.m. Everything seemed
great. Then the Pinecrest Police showed up. Yes, this is right, our
Pinecrest Police, the men and women who are sworn to protect and
serve. They arrived to rather unceremoniously usher us off the field.
The orders had gone out. No Pinecrest YMCA teams were allowed to
practice in Pinecrest.
So, it was final, not only were we unable to play
within the confines of the Village, but we could not practice there
either. You cannot imagine the look of bewilderment a five-year-old
can give you when the police show up to cancel his practice. So here
we are, the Pinecrest Young Men's Christian Association, run out of
town for the crime of teaching five-year-olds the value of teamwork,
hard work and sportsmanship.
Well as you can imagine I made a couple of calls. I
will spare you the political details. Suffice it to say that the
Village, our community, does not seem to care about whether our
children have a place to play. That having been said, I learned that
before the creation of our little utopian community anyone was welcome
to play baseball, basketball or soccer at the Pinecrest Elementary
School facilities. Furthermore, before our creation these historical
pastimes did not seem to rise to a criminal offense that warranted
police action. Boy, did I have it wrong when I believed that one of
the reasons Pinecrest was created was to foster a greater sense of
community then was previously available under the auspices of Dade
County.
If I have to take my children out of the Village to
play t-ball, soccer and the like, I will. While I love living in
Pinecrest, I wonder if I truly want to live in a place that purports
to be a community, but cannot seem to find a way to make room for 10
five-year-olds who just want the opportunity to learn how to hit a
ball.
It seems pretty simple to them, but then the adults
showed up and ruined everything.
Robert W. Blanck
P.S. Do not even think for a minute that our new
Pinecrest Park is the answer. Everyone involved has conceded that even
with the new park there simply will not be enough fields, even when
combined with Suniland Park, to accommodate the needs of our Community
without the use of our school grounds.
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