The Fake Grass Is Always Greener...

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Apr 28, 2010 4:30PM

In spite of the current financial crisis that's threatening to swallow Chicago Public Schools, Burroughs Elementary is making a pitch for artificial turf for its playground to the tune of $500,000. Yep, while Governor Quinn is asking for an income tax hike to help soften the blow by a planned $1.3 billion in cuts, a school is asking for a cool half-a-million to get fake grass put in. Of course, there is a long-term money-saving benefit to the artificial turf as it would save money from re-sodding the 19,000 square foot field over and over as well as cost savings for general maintenance. But there's a question about the cost: why so much, especially when a similar project (15,000 square feet) at a Lincoln Park school cost less than a third of that? The project is among seven the Chicago School Board will hear about and vote on today, made possible, district officials tell the Sun-Times, by, "two federally funded programs that will allow the system to float construction bonds at a 'significantly reduced' rate."

To put the cost in perspective, a 2005 report prepared by San Francisco's Dept. of Parks and Recreations estimated that synthetic turf costs about $10 per square foot to properly install while another report by Irvine, California claimed a cost of $6 to $9 per square foot. By those reports, the turf for Burroughs shouldn't cost more than $200,000, more in line with the school in Lincoln Park. So here's hoping someone crunches the numbers appropriately because given the state of our city's schools, there are far better things to spend that much money on.