The north baseball field at Jeanne-Mance Park might not be much to look at now. It’s been mostly a construction zone since it closed last year to allow for renovations at nearby tennis courts.
People have gone there to play softball for decades. But the Jeanne-Mance Park Softball League was told recently by the city that it’ll be closed permanently for safety reasons.
“We were told five days before they just demolished it,” league member Nicole Aline Legault said.
According to the city the field didn’t meet existing safety regulations for an adult ball park. It was designed with children in mind but now it is used almost exclusively by adults. In a statement, city officials say that a study shows that park users, and pedestrians and traffic on nearby Mont Royal Avenue and other streets are at risk of being hit by a ball. It says “passersby have been hit and the city was recently obliged to compensate one of the injured parties.”
But residents living nearby say they’ve never seen or heard of anyone getting hit.
“I’ve never seen any balls go on the street or anything like that,” says Will Richards, who was surprised to hear about the closure.
Ali Heidari, who lives across the street on Mont Royal, was surprised as well. “I’ve never seen it come on the street, unless the batter misses it and it rolls down.”
He also points out that the field was designed to minimize that risk.
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“The batter is at the corner of the park so the ball is always hit to the other direction.”
Members of the Jeanne-Mance Softball League are angry because they say the city went back on its word. As recently as this year they were given assurances that the field would be saved.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Legault says. “I voted for this government. I voted for these people who have now lied to us and it feels like a huge betrayal. “It’s a community they should be fostering and not displacing.”
The city says they’re committed to keeping the remaining south field, but the league says one isn’t enough and they still hope to bring the back the north field. They’ve started a petition demanding that the city change its mind.
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