San Jose Vice Mayor Pat Dando was recently quoted as saying: "We haven't added any new sports fields in the last decade to accommodate the need."

Someone should ask Vice Mayor Dando why no money has been spent in her district in the last decade on new sports fields within the urban boundary of District 10—if, indeed, they were needed. After all, the last eight of those 10 years were on her watch.

The McKean Road Sports Complex project violates every single one of the cardinal core values—accessibility, inclusivity, affordability, equity and diversity—of San Jose's Greenprint for Parks and Community Facilities and Programs, the city's 20-year strategic plan for, among other things, youth sports facilities. The McKean Road Sports Complex project violates the General Plan. The McKean Sports Complex project violates county ordinances and state law. The McKean Road Sports Complex project violates fiscal responsibility. The McKean Road Sports Complex project violates reason, fairness and logical explanation.

Particularly now, at a time of great fiscal crisis in San Jose—and California generally—the McKean Road Sports Complex, with half a million dollars of the taxpayers' money already spent or committed on consultants' reports, is a white elephant. Less-expensive alternatives are available and should be explored, less-expensive alternatives which incorporate—NOT repudiate—Greenprint core values, like building youth sports facilities NOW, within the community (not miles down a dangerous rural road) and in close proximity to the users of those facilities.

Perhaps the McKean Road Sports Complex project is not about the children after all? Someone really should ask Vice Mayor Dando directly, don't you think?

George and Anna Stepanenko

McKean Road