Recreation Centers

Ten city recreation centers in areas with "high concentrations of at-risk youth" will remain open for extended hours throughout the summer to provide a haven for children. The governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention is funding the extended hours, said Shaun Adamec, a spokesman for Gov. Martin O'Malley. O'Malley and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake will announce the locations of the recreation centers at a news conference this afternoon. The city recently extended hours for swimming pools for Wednesday and today to help residents cope with the heat wave.

The ongoing debate over youth crime in downtown Baltimore has sparked a war of words over race — overshadowing a debate over the police response to disturbances and objections from city politicians who say the issue is vastly overblown. Since a state delegate introduced the term "black youth mobs" in reference to hundreds of teenagers mobbing downtown on St. Patrick's Day, discussions from living rooms to online forums have been dominated by race. That has left little room for discussion of the real issues, all sides agree.

A day after a hearing with Recreation and Parks officials, residents and City Council members were questioning the mayor's plans for consolidating and renovating or closing the city's 55 recreation centers. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has said that two dozen centers could be turned over to private operators or closed at the end of December. At the hearing, Bill Tyler, chief of recreation, said his agency's objective was to keep all the centers open with their full hours and staff.

Baltimore city CEO Andres Alonso told city council leaders Tuesday that the school system is not in the financial position to inherit recreation centers that are slated for closure in the city budget, after being peppered by council members about the system's ability to bail out endangered youth programs. Following a presentation on the school system's $1.31 billion budget-- presented last week and due to be approved by the school board on May 22-- Alonso was asked by City Council President Bernard"Jack" Young to clarify the system's stance on taking over rec centers, saying that he was dubious about the option given that the system doesn't even have enough money to maintain its own school facilities.

At a community forum led by City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young on Wednesday night, residents expressed concerns over a variety of issues, including the parks and recreation department. The group of about 60 residents gathered in the Baltimore City Community College's Liberty Campus auditorium to ask a panel of city officials about issues including blighted houses, dirt bike laws, attracting new retail businesses to their neighborhoods and the potential closure of city recreation centers.

The proposal was supposed to enrich the programming at the Roosevelt Recreation Center in Hampden, city officials and social service providers said. College students were to be brought in as tutors at the center's already popular after-school program. Another bonus: Instructors from Baltimore City Community College would be at the disposal of those studying to take the General Educational Development test. But some particularly vocal Hampden residents saw only drawbacks, decrying the plan as a takeover of the facility - an illustration of the challenge facing city recreation officials who want to supplement their tight budgets with nonprofit assistance.

Amid warnings that the city is operating nearly twice as many recreation centers as it can afford to properly staff, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke yesterday endorsed a consultant's report that recommends closing as many as eight city recreation centers and consolidating others.At the same time, however, Mr. Schmoke said he would like to keep more recreation centers open on Saturdays to give children who are not in school someplace to go."I can tell you I'm a big proponent of having centers open on Saturdays, but we can't do that and maintain" all the rec centers the city now operates, the mayor said.

Faced with competition from better-equipped Police Athletic Leagues and a shrinking city budget, Baltimore's recreation centers are on track to shut down completely or offer children deteriorating facilities and broken-down equipment.To fix the problem, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke is ordering the department to pay more of its own way.Schmoke has assembled a 12-member task force of city leaders, private citizens and business executives to figure out how the Department of Recreation and Parks can generate money.

/TC Saying increased recreational programs are more effective than curfews, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke yesterday announced that 33 city recreation centers and 23 swimming pools will have expanded hours immediately in hopes of keeping idle youths off the streets.Mr. Schmoke, who has opposed curfews in recent weeks, said the new hours should offer new activities for people 14 years old and older."Our studies show that more recreation programs are better than curfews," the mayor said yesterday as he stood on the athletic field at the Liberty Recreational Center on Maine Avenue in Northwest Baltimore.

Former Mayor Clarence H. "Du" Burns yesterday proposed charging fees at more city recreation centers as an alternative to closing them completely -- something he said incumbent Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke has been all too willing to do.Stepping up his campaign to oust Mr. Schmoke in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary, Mr. Burns said the city should convert some existing rec centers into specialized facilities that charge a fee for programs such as swimming clinics or basketball instruction. The income from the fees would allow the city to subsidize the other recreation centers.

Four Baltimore recreation centers will shut down for good at the end of the summer as part of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's strategy to target limited funds to improve some centers while closing others, officials said Tuesday. The four centers, all in West Baltimore, are slated to close at the conclusion of their summer programs in late August. They are Crispus Attucks in Madison Park, Parkview, which is south of Druid Hill Park, and Central Rosemont and Harlem Park, which are in the neighborhoods after which they are named.

No matter how many articles are printed about the problems faced by the youth of Baltimore, they always seem to get pushed to the back burner ("Occupy right to question youth jail plan," Jan. 23). Gov.Martin O'Malley's plans to build a juvenile jail need to be pushed out the window. Instead of using millions of dollars to design jails for youth, take a couple hundred thousand and open recreation centers. Why? Because they work! Growing up in West Baltimore, Liberty Recreation on Maine Avenue was a second home to me. I played on basketball teams, played ping pong, shot pool, and did arts and crafts.

Five groups submitted bids to manage Baltimore recreation centers Wednesday, including two groups that would charge significant monthly fees for after-school programs that have traditionally been free. The bids mark the beginning of the second phase of the cash-strapped city's attempts to find private parties to take over some centers so it can improve other centers with limited resources. After awarding four centers to third-party groups last month, the city sought bidders for 11 other centers.

Kudos to City Council President Jack Young for admitting that there are "so many other important programs and services which lack much needed support in the city" than the Baltimore Grand Prix ("Young urges mayor to end Grand Prix," Jan. 12). The city can start with the recreation centers that supply a safe haven for learning and recreational activities for our vulnerable youth. Youngsters need these outlets and exposure to better things than hanging out on the corners. The centers are supported by their communities, their schools, churches and local families.

City officials are preparing to award contracts to three private groups to run recreation centers this week, following a string of delays, and have vowed to keep all of the city's centers open through June. Under a deal before the city Board of Estimates, four centers — Brooklyn O'Malley in South Baltimore, Easterwood and Lillian Jones in West Baltimore, and Collington Square in East Baltimore — would be handed over to private groups. A spokeswoman for the recreation and parks department said Monday that all city rec centers would maintain their current activities through the end of the fiscal year, a reversal of previous statements by city officials.

The Sun's editorial last week called the Baltimore Grand Prix's finances "A grand mess" (Dec. 7). It certainly was that, but there is no reason Baltimore Racing Development should be able to leave the city holding the bag for expenses they had not considered or accounted for! The city has its own share of problems. Some of the recreation centers had to close, and there are not enough beds for the homeless. That is where the city money should be spent - not to bail out BRD. Anne Hackney

Baltimore mayoral candidate Carl Stokes is calling for a $1-per-ticket tax on Camden Yards sporting events to help pay for city recreation centers. Standing outside the Tuerk House rehabilitation center in West Baltimore, the former city councilman offered the idea as part of his crime-fighting plan. Stokes noted that during the past two years, the city has closed 18 recreation centers, choosing instead to turn over many of the duties to the Police Athletic League. Baltimore has slashed $15 million from the city parks and recreation budget in the past three years, services that can help prevent crime, Stokes said.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is getting a lesson in one of the major downsides of privatizing government services: When you ask outside groups to take over something the city has always done, their agendas won't always be the same as yours. That's what's happening with the mayor's plan to privatize some of Baltimore's recreation centers. One of the nonprofits that is bidding to take over two centers would provide programs not just for the kids that have traditionally been the rec centers' focus but also ex-criminal offenders and psychiatric patients.

Baltimore officials have missed a self-appointed deadline to issue a new request for groups to take over the city's recreation centers, the latest twist in the city's struggle to hand over the centers to private groups. Recreation and Parks director Gregory Bayor issued an open letter last week, saying that the city would release a second request Monday for proposals to take over the centers. Only seven bidders had responded to a previous request in August, fewer than officials had hoped.