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Eugene Weekly : 12.24.03 Page 2 of 7 <br /> (27 percent)and river access second(14 percent). Sports fields didn't make it into the top <br /> eight responses and presumably fell in the"other" (3 percent)category. <br /> The survey also asked what kinds of activities people engaged in. Walking for pleasure <br /> ranked first for highest participation,bicycling ninth,wildlife watching 11th, hiking 13th <br /> and bird watching 15th. Organized sports ranked far lower with soccer 29th,baseball 34th, <br /> and softball 35th. The survey then asked what kinds of activities people would like to do <br /> more often if the facilities were available. Bicycling ranked first followed by walking for <br /> pleasure. Basketball ranked 19th and other organized sports didn't make the top 20 <br /> responses. <br /> "That survey is quite telling," says Mary O'Brien of Citizens for Public Accountability. <br /> "There's this impression there is this huge need for ball parks but that's hardly what the <br /> community wants." <br /> But Randy Rogers, sports director for Emerald Kidsports, a local non-profit group that <br /> serves 20,000 local kids with a budget of$1.6 million, says ball fields are in great demand. <br /> He questions whether the city survey captured the opinions of the many kids that need <br /> fields to play on. <br /> The scientific survey,with a 5 percent margin of error,did include kids aged 10 to 18. The <br /> survey indicated that kids may want natural areas even more than adults. While 32 percent <br /> of the adults surveyed rated providing opportunities to enjoy nature or the outdoors as the <br /> most important benefit of parks,42 percent of the kids did. Walking and cycling made the <br /> 0 top 10 list for youth's favorite park activities, unlike organized sports. <br /> . A separate,non-scientific city survey involved 647 <br /> local high school and middle school kids who chose <br /> to fill out parks surveys. In that survey,organized <br /> �' sports were given higher rankings. Kids said <br /> basketball(ranked 5th), soccer(14th) and football <br /> --t,&,•-.7- (15th)were among the activities they most frequently <br /> engaged in. They said they wanted more basketball <br /> (1st), football(7th) and soccer(17th). But natural <br /> parks activities like biking(2nd) and hiking(16th) <br /> also ranked high. <br /> In another non-scientific survey,400 people who filled out questionnaires at the Eugene <br /> Celebration strongly favored natural parks over ball fields. Almost three-quarters of <br /> respondents said they wanted parks balanced more toward natural <br /> open space rather than active recreation/sports. Sixty percent said the current park system <br /> was weighted more towards developed active/sports parks than natural areas. <br /> SPORTS BOOSTERS <br />. 0Andrea Riner, the city's parks planning manager, agrees"there's absolutely a high priority <br /> that the citizens give to natural areas and passive recreation." But she argues the city <br /> "absolutely" already adequately meets that demand with the many acres of natural parks <br /> hup://www.eugeneweekly.com/archive/12_24_03/coverstory.html 1/6/04 <br />