I received this email from a resident whose son plays soccer:

"Following our conversation,  I want to bring to your attention that only one park ( Flamingo Park) out of forty-one parks in the city has a designated and enabled area for the kids to play soccer.  At fairway park and Normandy isle park, there are goals, but they are chained and big, so they are not appropriate for small kids, not to mention the terrain.   

When we take our children to play soccer at parks like Fisher park at Alton Road, we deal with long grass, dog pop, and mosquitos. Soccer (a.k.a futbol) is a very popular sport in our community, but unfortunately, residents of north beach need to leave the island for our kids to practice the sport they love. 

Soccer pitches like volleyball don't require much. It just requires two goals on grass or sand and the space of a volleyball court. Around the city of Miami Beach, there are at least twenty places to play volleyball. Can we do the same for soccer for kids? ?? 

Please look at what Miami-Dade county has done in a small space (https://www.soccer5usa.com/) the size of a volleyball court.

Other soccer fields around our community.

1.  http://www.miamidade.gov/parks/kendall-soccer.asp  

2. https://www.stadiosoccer.com/ 

I understand that this small issue compares to others, but this initiative will improve the lives of many kids who leave the island to play or don't play because of a lack of facilities.

Sidenote: Unlike other cities in the county, Miami Beach has the most quality parks but the least number of parks with facilities to play team sports. Wonder why?"