We strongly support the City of Cambridge's plan to improve community access to Sacramento Field — the only large green space in the Agassiz neighborhood — by building a pedestrian path along the side of the public land used by the Sacramento Street Community Garden.

At present, access to Sacramento Field is possible only via an unprotected sidewalk next to a busy parking lot close to Massachusetts Avenue, and a right of way on private land along the side of a house at the end of Sacramento Place. The private path is not accessible to persons with disabilities, not maintained or lighted by the city — and occasionally locked. This severely limits the ability of children attending the Maria L. Baldwin School, a public Pre-K through 5 elementary school on Oxford Street, to access the field within the strict time constraints of the school schedule. The approximately 920' trip from the school to the field’s entrance via the parking lot near Massachusetts Avenue can take a group of 20 children 8-10 minutes, especially for younger children, which makes visits impractical given their 20-minute recess period. This forces children to play on the blacktop at the cramped Alden Playground on Oxford Street. Children need room to run and play, and crowded conditions on the asphalt playground produce frequent minor injuries and raise more serious safety concerns. The planned path will be accessible for persons with disabilities, reduce the distance to the field by approximately 40 percent to around 540 feet, avoid the dangerous proximity between small children and cars required by the sole current public access route, and allow children to play on the field during recess. It will be maintained and lighted by the city. Click here for an album of photos, including the existing route, the private right of way, the proposed route, and a map.

The Baldwin School is the second-largest lower school in the Cambridge Public School system. Many additional Cambridge children who participate in after-school and summer programs run by the school and the neighboring Agassiz Baldwin Community center would garner similar benefits from such a path.

More generally, city planners in 2003 and 2008 neighborhood studies cited improved public access to Sacramento Field as an open space recommendation for the welfare of the more than 5,000 people who live in the Agassiz neighborhood, including additional youth sports organizations such as Cambridge Youth Soccer. Residents of the Agassiz neighborhood have some of the least access to green space of any group in the city, as this map by the Community Development Department shows. As a matter of public safety, two or more publicly maintained access points accessible to people with disabilities are preferred for public areas, as is improved visibility into the park from the street.

Some of the 62 individuals who use plots of city land for seasonal gardens at the Sacramento Street Community Garden have objected to this plan. They complain that the proposed path will require relocation of eight plots to an adjacent location at the edge of Sacramento Field. However, the remaining 87 percent of the garden, 54 plots, will not need to be moved, there will be no reduction in the total number of plots, and no reduction in neighborhood open space.

Public land should be used for public purposes. The proposed path — across public land to a public field — will greatly improve the year-round welfare of approximately 380 Cambridge children who attend the Baldwin School every year and their families, the numerous children who attend afterschool and summer programs, and the more than 5,000 neighborhood residents who will have improved access to their field. The gardeners who seasonally tend the plots to be relocated will not have to abandon gardening, simply to do it in an adjacent location. The many virtues of the garden during clement months will remain — because most of the garden will not be impacted by the path. Indeed, the improved visibility of one side of the garden, opening it to the neighborhood, may enhance its public value.

A community can be defined by how well it cares for its most vulnerable members — small children undoubtedly among them. Cambridge has proposed a responsible plan consistent with years of neighborhood planning studies that will provide a significant year-round improvement to the lives of hundreds of public elementary schoolchildren. Many of these urban children at present have no opportunity at all most days to play on grass. It will also improve access to the park for persons with disabilities, including children with disabilities at the Baldwin School and Agassiz-Baldwin Community center, enhance public safety, and benefit the thousands of people who live in the Agassiz neighborhood. And it will impact only a small part of the community garden. Relocating a small number of seasonal garden plots should not be a barrier to such a significant and lasting year-round improvement for thousands of Cambridge residents, including many hundreds of children.