Transforming our public realm through soccer

By Bette Maloy, Urban Designer, Office of Design

Soccer in the Streets (SITS) is a grassroots organization based in Atlanta that bridges communities, athletics, and public transit. The organization targets underutilized lands located at MARTA train stations and transforms them into outdoor soccer pitches. The Department of City Planning (DCP) and SITS began their partnership in 2018 when Commissioner Tim Keane and SITS Director Sanjay Patel began collaborating on permitting processes and city-guided funding through the Federal Transit Administration. Since that time, the collaboration has grown into partnering on site designs, joint community engagement events, and the creation of DCP’s very own soccer team.

The soccer pitches are intended to serve both MARTA transit users and the communities that surround the installations. SITS has lasting positive effects on Atlanta communities by making active outdoor experiences accessible to all and by more generally providing programming that prioritizes youth education and involvement. DCP and SITS are committed to the improvement of public spaces and to betterment of the quality of public life in Atlanta. We share the goal to provide exceptional outdoor spaces in which all can partake and benefit.

SITS reach goes well beyond repurposing unused land and transforming it into beautiful and functional space. Over time, the fields will create a network of connected communities throughout the city. The program is slated to include a total of 18 soccer pitches and youth development programs – all connected via transit.

In early 2020, the Atlanta City Studio (ACS) supported SITS by assisting in the development of a site concept plan that proposed locations of site elements at the West End MARTA Station. Site elements included a viewing platform and event space, a repurposed train car to use as a learning center, community gardens, an on-site restroom, and artistic murals on the columns that support the MARTA tracks. ACS also worked to create a circulation pattern to facilitate connections between the proposed elements. ACS hosted an engagement session around the repurposed train car and asked kids in the SITS program what they would like to see on the outside of the train car. The activity encouraged the kids to express their creativity and take an active role in contributing to the station.

All SITS fields were closed for a year (from March 2020 - March 2021) due to the pandemic but SITS continued to support residents in this time through virtual programming and socially distant outdoor events. During the pandemic, SITS also worked to establish novel programs to support emerging community needs. For example, after becoming aware of food insecurity and lack of access to soccer balls in the community, SITS worked to create a program named “Slices and Stripes.” In Slices and Stripes, SITS partners with Oz Pizza to provide free pizza and soccer balls to community members at the East Point MARTA station. Slices and Stripes has now been a recurring event for eight months. To further support community food needs, SITS worked with Westside Future Fund and a local food bank to establish food drives.

As part of pandemic-era programing, SITS also engaged children in virtual sessions with coaches. The online coaching sessions focused on racial equity and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. The sessions were open-forum style and allowed kids who participated to express their thoughts, experiences, and questions on racial inequity and the BLM movement.

The pandemic highlighted community needs that SITS worked and will continue to work to meet. For example, beyond the continuation of Slices and Stripes, SITS aims to address local food insecurity through community gardening programming and on-site food education for families. Such efforts show that SITS’ reach extends far beyond soccer itself. SITS and the programs it spearheads promote health, wellness, and overall relief in times when communities are most in need. On a more practical level, now that the fields are once again open, SITS provides a much-needed physical and social outlet for kids who experience so much of their day-to-day online.

My role at ACS has allowed me to be involved with this work since the beginning of the DCP and SITS partnership. The initial projects at West End Station allowed me a unique opportunity for hands-on experience with the community where the project will have an impact. At a broader level, the project highlights for me the importance of building accessible outdoor spaces that encourage physical and mental well-being -- spaces that I hope to continue to contribute to in the future. Being able to witness and have a role in changing the lived experiences of kids who play in these areas has been a remarkable experience. I have loved being a part of a project that will impact development of the larger public realm in the areas of West End and future SITS sites.

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