SAVE THE MEADOWS

How you can help Save the Meadows!

DONATE to the Legal Fund!

Our case is moving into appeal.
We have committed to providing financial support for the lawsuit and appeals. Time is short. Please be as generous as you can and share to you networks. This is one way to draw a direct line between where we are today and how we win! We are stronger together.

SIGN the petition!

Sign and share this petition
to demand that Mayor Parker and City Council STOP the destruction of the FDR Meadows, South Philadelphia's only public green space with urban meadow and woodlands.

CALL & EMAIL public servants

Contact your councilperson, the Mayor’s office, and your state representatives. Your voice matters! Tell them why you believe the FDR Masterplan must be revised! Phone numbers & emails are available here under action #3.

The development and privatization of our public lands is out of control. The administration's plan for FDR Park does not reflect the present-day needs and wants of the community. It is dangerous for the environment and public health, and it sets a precedent of privatization of our public lands that we, the public, do not accept.

  • Parks & Rec is clearcutting public parkland to build a $100 million sports complex with artificial turf fields for private rental, instead of improving the neglected playing fields in our neighborhoods.

  • Artificial turf causes sports injuries, contains toxins linked to cancer (especially in children), and poisons the environment. Other municipalities, like Boston, are banning it.

  • South Philadelphia would lose its largest tree canopy and wildlife habitat, a green space that protects us from stormwater flooding, increasingly hot summers, and pollutants.
    The wetlands project built in part of the Meadows is greenwashing — it enables the airport to pave over a large wetlands area in nearby Tinicum.

  • The plan was developed behind closed doors. There’s no evidence that Parks & Rec incorporated community input into the design in any significant way. The plan was created in 2018 and 2019, before the pandemic and before community members discovered the healing effect of the Meadows.

    Show your support by signing our petition!

What’s happening to the FDR Park Meadows?

As of August 2024, Philadelphia Parks & Rec and the Fairmount Park Conservancy have finished clearing another swath of the meadows: the whole area to the west and south of Bellaire Manor, including the picnic grove and nearly 50 irreplaceable heritage trees among hundreds of others. It’s the next phase of this $256 million plan, “Pattison Fields,” with five artificial turf athletic fields in the northern section of the Meadows, plus roads and parking lots.

Although at least 75 acres have been clearcut, there is still 100 acres of habitat and tree canopy left to save from toxic turf and development. The Meadows are magical; the development plan is controversial. Let Parks and Rec and your Council members know that access to wild green space is important to South Philadelphians!

Want to learn more? Visit our FAQ page or read about the greenwashing.

Images below show the Phase 1 for Pattison Fields Sports complex and the heritage trees cut down by the the Fairmount Park “Conservancy” on behalf of the Parks Department.