Brown's Chapel Rec Center: Reston No Longer Filled With 'Trepidation,' Just Merely 'Divided'

It's always great when the Washington Post dips its toes into the earth-toned pressure cooker, journalistically speaking, that is Reston, Virginia. The last time they did it, they concluded that Reston was fraught with "trepidation" about becoming "another Manhattan." Now that the giant, 99-story condos and colussus-sized statue of Bob Simon have failed to materialize, the Post is back, saying that Reston is "divided" about the awesome $65 million rec center/ competitive knitting arena proposed for Brown's Chapel Park. You know, kind of like the North and South during the Civil War, only this time between the swimmers and the little leaguers:

The proposal has pitted one brand of recreation against another. Swimmers, tennis players and others who believe the region is in sore need of high-quality outlets for their passions are on one side. On the other are those who prefer the green space just the way it is. They've been referring to the proposed facility as recreation's equivalent of Wal-Mart.

Of course, the Post being a Serious Newspaper, it sought the Deeper Meaning of this ongoing issue:

The debate underscores the larger difficulty of providing the range of recreational offerings that residents demand in Washington's densely packed suburbs, where development has nibbled away at the region's green space and neighbors fight to protect it.

"We live in a region that is urbanizing, and we can all see open space that we enjoy and appreciate getting transformed into housing and strip malls," said Paul Gilbert, executive director of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority. "You value what is a limited commodity."

This is what we in the journalism biz call the "nut graf," which in this case means "an attempt to keep this from sounding like a petty provincial conflict between NIMBY folks, swimmers and baseball players, but something worthy of the time of a Serious Journalist." Moving on!

Among the most vocal supporters of a new center funded by Reston residents are swimmers. The community of about 62,000 residents has one large public indoor pool where classes fill up so quickly that there is a waiting list to participate. On rainy days in the summer, the pool gets so crowded that people are routinely turned away. And competitive young swimmers often drive long distances to find a place to train.

For example, Lisa Groves leaves her Reston home at 4:20 a.m. three days a week to drive her 12-year-old daughter to Oakton so she can swim laps before school. The needs of swimmers, she said, ought to be considered along with those of the families who now enjoy the trails and fields of Brown's Chapel Park.

"All these families have their own affinities," she said. "Maybe the ones that are the loudest voices right now are the runners and the bikers and the soccer players."

Don't mess with the soccer players. At least RA President Robin Smyers gets credit for honesty:

Leaders in Reston say their priority is staying true to one of the community's founding principles: that residents ought to be able to work and play where they live, no matter what sport they prefer. Officials there have not decided whether to move forward with the project, and may scrap or scale it back, depending on public input.

If they move forward as planned, it would probably mean the removal of the baseball diamonds, some of the open space and some trees. As much as officials would like to build a recreation facility with no negative impact, "we're not in a utopia. We're in a built-out community called Reston," said Robin Smyers, president of the Reston Association. "We will try to balance the needs of as many people as we can."

We think "A Built-Out Community Called Reston" would be an ideal marketing slogan. They should put it on T-shirts!