The children spoke first, an appropriate gesture considering they have the most to lose.
Dominique Ritch, 14, strode to the microphone at midcourt in the gym of the Rosemont Police Athletic League Center and faced the director of Baltimore's Department of Recreation and Parks.
His first words would be repeated in some form or another throughout the evening by children, teens and adults. "I want to know why you all are closing our rec center," the Calverton Middle School seventh-grader asked. "This is where we have our fun at."
His next words should serve as a warning as a city strapped for cash proposes closing two of these centers, including this one at Rosemont, and removing cops from others and turning the sites over to the recreation department, ending the long-successful and much-copied Police Athletic League program. "I do bad things on the outside, but when I come in here I do good," Dominique said.
The audience applauded, rec director Wanda S. Durden thanked him, and other speakers took their turn at Thursday's forum, one of 18 scheduled, one at each of the PAL centers, through next month.
I took Dominique aside. I wanted to know what he meant by good things and bad things from the perspective of a young teen growing up in one of the city's most depressed and dangerous neighborhoods.
By good, he meant that when involved with PAL his grades went up and he stayed off the streets. By bad, he told me, as casually as he would describe a pickup game of basketball, "I used to steal cars."
I wish our rec director had pressed this young man and heard the rest of his story, but the rules were designed to avoid give-and-take. Residents spoke, and Durden answered their questions at the end. Speeches followed by more speeches, but no real conversation.
City Councilwoman Agnes Welch promised to help the community keep the center open, even without police, and the head of the Leon Day Foundation said his group, which runs a park in West Baltimore and a basketball league with 400 players, would look into taking the center over when the police leave July 1.
That might save this rec center, but it won't stop others from losing their officers and the Police Department from giving the buildings and the programs to Recreation and Parks. It's the police part of the equation that residents like.
