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Thursday, May 24, 2012
Residents fight to keep community centers
by Kathleen Haley, published on May 13, 2011 at 8:29 AM
Storyline: City Budget
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Sacramento residents packed into a Sacramento City Hall meeting room Thursday night to protest proposed budget cuts to community centers and other local parks programs.
About 45 citizens addressed the City Council, according to Mayor Kevin Johnson’s count. Citizens waited in lines for a seat in the the meeting room and to speak to the council.
The hearing on the Parks and Recreation Department was part of a series of meetings on how the City Council can resolve a $39 million budget gap for the 2011/2012 fiscal year.
Proposed budget cuts would slash hours at the Hart Senior Center in Midtown by half.
Some of the speakers contrasted the proposed community center cuts with city leaders’ efforts to bring a new sports arena to the area.
“You just knocked out all the senior people, so you better get us some seats up at your new arena,” Helen Blatta, a supporter of the Hart Senior Center, told Johnson.
Recommendations from Interim City Manager Bill Edgar and Parks Department Director Jim Combs would shutter the following community centers and clubhouses: Oak Park, Sim, Hagginwood, Robertson, Clunie, East Portal, Belle Cooledge, Evelyn Moore, Southside, Woodlake and Slider Centers and Clubhouses.
Clunie’s library at McKinley Park would keep operating.
The South Natomas, Coloma and Pannell Meadowview centers would stay open, according to a report from the Parks Department.
Jamillah Kirk, an office manager at Bret Harte Elementary School, was one of many speakers who urged the City Council to save the Oak Park Community Center. The community center provides positive activities for young people, she said.
“If you think Sacramento Police Department is busy now, you wait,” said Kirk, 39. “We are asking for trouble.”
After hearing from the public about the community centers, the City Council asked staff to study ways to put $1 million back into the parks budget.
The Sacramento Press will continue to follow the debate over proposals to cut community centers.
Slashing community centers would help the city save a little more than $400,000, but it is only one piece of nearly $1.8 million in cuts proposed to the parks department.
Also on Thursday, about 80 local high school students who participate in a law-enforcement training program attended the City Council’s public comment period to oppose proposed cuts to the Criminal Justice Magnet Academy. Budget cuts would end the Sacramento Police Department’s role in the program, according to police spokesman Norm Leong.
“You have role models that you can look up to,” Timothy Chang, a 17-year-old Grant Union High School student, told the City Council. “This academy has changed my life. It’s another family away from home.”
Read information about upcoming budget hearings here.
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Encourage our mayor to co-sponsor the WAR DOLLARS HOME RESOLUTION. See the resolution at www.sacwilpf.org ..........L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is leading the way. If enough mayors across the country co-sponsor by TUESDAY, MAY 17th he'll take the resolution to the U.S. Conference of mayors in Baltimore, Maryland next month. This is real. This connects the dots from local to national and back to local. THE MONEY IS THERE!
Where it goes depends on OUR PRIORITIES. Over the last 3 years almost $100 MILLION has been cut from Sacramento's jobs and public services. During that same 3 years residents of Sacramento have spent over $500 MILLION on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For sources go to our website at www.sacwilpf.org and see info on the COst of War Art Project, and our inspiration, the Mayor of Binghamton, N.Y.
Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan said he couldn't do his job, since his job is to provide for public services. "But there's good news," he said, "I found a new funding source." It's the $ his constituents spend on the wars through a large part of their IRS tax dollars. He mounted a "Cost of War Sign" on the outside of City Hall to educate his constituents about this new funding source. He said that with this information his constituents could decide their priorities: war or jobs and public services. We hope to see you this Tuesday. Come by 5:30 if possible.