I just read an article in my local paper about the plan to put fake grass in the new park in Clayton.

Here's a link to the online version of the article:  http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/16826120.htm

You might guess how I feel about this.
I've played football on fake turf - didn't like it.
But I'm willing to believe this stuff is different from AstroTurf.
I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Besides the manufacturer even says it's different.

But this is a park.
That means maybe some field games, but also picnics, family gatherings, and dogs.

Do I want to go to some field of green and lay out my blanket on plastic?  Not me.
Do I want to play frisbee with my daughter on a perfectly flat piece of turf? - Yeah I could do that.

Being a dog owner I intimately know what dogs tend to do when they get to a park.
I also know what some (certainly not all) owners tend to do when their dog does what they tend to do in a park - they'll ignore it.
Plastic to me means trapping unwanted items and not absorbing them into the ground below.
They mentioned something of a drainage system, I'm not sold.

Going back to my frisbee game, do I really want to step in the bio hazards left by the previously mentioned animals?
How about that slice of tomato that Tommy hucked when he found it in his sandwich two weeks ago?  
Aunt Mary certainly knows Tommy doesn't like tomato, what was she thinking?
Is that something my foot is going slide on as I run to catch my Daughter's wild throw?

Then I question the heat factor.
There is a thermal layer of reflective heat that a synthetic material gives off that is drastically different from natural.
If I remember right, Old AstroTurf was somewhere around 5 or 6 feet.
Natural grass was somewhere close to 2 or 3 feet.
That meant that if you were on grass, your head was up above the layer breathing clooler air.
Is the new grass closer to the natural grass?  
Or are the soccer kids going to drop like flies on hot summer days?

Finally - with all the global warming discussion...
Do we really want to more pseudo synthetic square feet of non productive inert material to add to the planet? 

I've sent a letter voicing my concerns to the City Manager and that's all I care to do.  In the end, it's still a park, it's still a place for kids (and grownups like me) to play.  In the end it's better than having nothing at all.

What do you think?