Decisions made months ago about Ahern Field in East Cambridge are causing upset among residents realizing the intent of city staff: Part of the $7.5 million appropriated for redesign and construction of the field and surrounding amenities in this year’s budget, which was adopted June 2, is a conversion to synthetic turf.
Among the two dozen residents speaking about the field at a Monday meeting of the City Council was a widespread belief that the decision ignored public feedback about use of the green space and the preference for grass. Some said they used Ahern daily; one resident named the field as one of the main reasons she moved to the neighborhood.
“We heard multiple times that the installation of a turf field at Ahern is in part the result of community feedback and, quote, for the good of the East Cambridge community,” resident Jeremie Astori said. But at pop-up events over the summer and at a March 11 open house, “community input has been overwhelmingly in favor of natural grass.”
Resident Carolyn Hunt agreed. “Neighbors and users of the field were asked for input, but when we overwhelmingly expressed support for grass and against plastic turf, we were ignored,” she said.
Until staff can show how the decision to switch to turf from grass was made and how community input was weighed, Ahern should keep its grass, residents such as Ken Hotta said.
Previous public comment about Ahern – including at the June council meeting that adopted the budget – was almost solely from sports advocates such as Jason Targoff and Andrew Farrar of Cambridge Youth Soccer. They spoke again Monday, with Targoff noting the 2,400 kids in the program and the disparity CYS saw among parts of the city. “It’s a lot easier to get kids to play in North and West Cambridge, where there are good fields, than it is in East Cambridge,” Targoff said.
Not a call for reversal
Ahern Field takes up 2.6 acres at 259 Charles St., just behind the former Kennedy-Longfellow School at 158 Spring St., which was closed at the end of 2025 to resolve a systemic problem resulting in a disproportionate number of high-needs students and low test scores. The campus is expected to reopen this year with improvements and a new purpose, and the field is proposed to get improvements for use by people of all ages, including new lighting, renovated basketball and hockey/pickleball courts, seating and gathering spaces. The field previously offered outdoor recreational space including basketball courts, a softball field, street hockey and a playground with water play, the according to a city guide.
Work at Ahern was moved ahead in city planning, staff said in June, to take advantage of the Kennedy-Longfellow being closed and empty of students.
A call to understand the process of choosing turf was formalized in a policy order by city councillor Patty Nolan. It grew to having six co-sponsors during discussion from two, meaning the call for information had enthusiastic support from seven out of nine councillors. But despite the order clarity on “what process was taken to ensure community concerns and public health considerations were fully addressed, and to ensure that construction will not move forward until a report is delivered,” it was not the call for reversal some residents hoped for.
“A lot of people were sort of taken by surprise by this,” councillor Marc McGovern said. “We did get some emails from people saying that they were in support of this order because they thought it was saying not to do turf and to do grass – and this order does not take a position on that. It’s just asking for further discussion and to explain how the decision was made.”
Open space inventory
Staff could report back within the next month, deputy city manager Katherine Watkins told councilors, even with an amendment to the order by councillor Cathie Zusy asking for analysis of city demographics in relation to its fields and what balance of synthetic vs. natural turf was wanted – and where.
Residents’ comments reflected the same concern about balance. “This field is so much more than an athletic facility. I think of it as much like Cambridge Common, a vital community space in a dense neighborhood,” Sylvia Mangan said.
Councillors expressed interest in seeing spaces preserved for uses other than sports – because people have less interest in having a picnic on synthetic turf – but wanted an inventory that would answer a sense of direness about having no natural spaces to go to in East Cambridge. Donnelly Field, Toomey Park, Cambridge Crossing and the common at the Cambridge Crossing development in North Point were raised as options, and Gold Star Mothers Park when its remediation and construction is done.
The city “did a report a couple of years ago that showed 99 percent of the people who live in Cambridge live less than a quarter-mile from open space,” McGovern noted.
A draft Open Space and Recreation Plan from Cambridge Community Development for planning through 2032 does that say that:
Overall, residents enjoy a high level of access to open space, with nearly all residents in Cambridge living within half a mile (or approximately 10-minute walk), of a park or open space. However, largely due to historic development patterns, the distribution and amount of acreage people have access to varies significantly across the city.
“Ultimately… a tradeoff”
For every concern about drainage and heat factors and the incidents of injuries from synthetic fields, councillors or staff had counterexamples or assurances, leaving questions but not ones that suggested there might be a major impact on the decision made about Ahern Field. Several of the same concerns were brought up and answered at budget time.
“People often have frustration about us if we’re not clear about decisions,” Watkins said. “We definitely, as part of that [budget] conversation, went into this project with it being an artificial turf field.”
City manager Yi-An Huang said that Monday’s discussion suggested “there can be some clarifications.”
“There is going to ultimately be a tradeoff for a turf field that can withstand really significant use,” Huang said. “I don’t think we’re going to be able to come back and say that there is a way for grass fields to be as utilized, and there is increasing demand from youth sports that actually does justify the expansion of fields. We actually do need more spaces to book.”
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