[Durham INC] Parkwood: South Durham Recreation Center

[Melissa Rooney]

Okay, I tried to keep this brief, but failed miserably. Check out the HS article regarding rec centers, attached at the end of this email. And also the list/schedule of days in April (2009) that the Parkwood Library was used for community activities (NOT sponsored library activities). It really is only fair (and financial and environmental sense) that the city make the Parkwood Shopping Center an official Rec Center for South Durham.

Melissa


With regard to the April 24 article regarding City Manager Tom Bonfield's desire to review rec centers (article attached below). I couldn't agree more. The first thing that should be reviewed is the proximity of rec centers to one another.

We in South Durham have NO rec center, and we are about to lose our community (Parkwood) library, which has served as our rec center for decades. The new library is sure to be a wonderful facility, but it is not located in the heart of our neighborhoods, nor will it be easily accessible by bike or foot, as the Parkwood Library is. And it does not hold the place in our hearts that the much loved Parkwood Library is.

The HS article says that councilwoman Cora Cole-McFadden, whom I greatly respect, noted that "people living
 [in 'neglected, inner-city, predominantly black neighborhoods'] have developed "a true attachment" to the facilities the city has provided, both large and small." 

Parkwood and South Durham are no different. The building that houses the Parkwood Library has long been in neglect -- mold problems, holes in the walls, perpetually returning leaks in the ceiling, and stains in the carpet. There was even a hole in the front window for half of last year or more. But Parkwood residents and other South Durhamites love and make full use of this facility. They aren't asking for a big, expensive swimming pool or anything of the sort. They just want the city to buy this building so that THEY, South Durham residents, can help to maintain and continue to use it. A group of citizens has even offered to help raise funds toward the building's purchase. Or to lease it from the city until the city has funds
 with which to renovate it.





This month's Parkwood Library Calendar (April, 2009) is a clear
indication of just how much of a South Durham community center it truly is:


 http://host4.evanced.info/durhamcounty/evanced/eventcalendar.asp?EventType=ALL&Lib=4 

  

On virtually every day, there is at least one event that is not sponsored by the library. Among these for April, 2009, are:






April 1: Alpha Ki Alpha Sorority Meeting

April 2: Advanced ESOL, Beginner ESOL and Community Knitting
Group

April 4: Tertulia (Spanish Conversation practice group)

April 5: Triangle Greens Planning Meeting

April 6: Wyndcross HOA meeting; Yoga Community Class

April 7: Grandale Place Homeowners Association Meeting

April 9: Advanced ESOL, Beginner ESOL and Thaxton
Place HOA meeting

April 13: Audubon Park HOA meeting, Yoga Community Class

April 14: Sensory Processing Disorder Support Group Meeting

April 15: Conversation ESOL, BounceBack Kids Volunteer
Training


April 16: Advanced ESOL, Beginner ESOL, Meeting b/w NECSW
and DPS, Community Knitting Group


April 18: Tertulia (Spanish Conversation Practice group),
Parkwood Multiple Sclerosis Support Group, Family meeting scheduled


April 19: Iota Phi Theta
Fraternity Inc. Alpha Epsilon Omega Alumni chapter (Meeting)


April 20: TWO story and craft times put on completely by
NECSW (Northeast Creek Stream Watch, in honor of Creek Week and Earth Day), the later one with volunteers from Alphia Phi Alpha (African American) Fraternity at Duke,
Yoga Community Class


April 21: Slideshow/Movie put on completely by NECSW (in
honor of Creek Week and Earth Day)


April 22: Literacy Council Meeting, Piedmont Wildlife Center
Meeting, 


April 23: Advanced ESOL, Beginner ESOL, Community Knitting
Group, and BounceBack Kids Training


April 25: Tertulia (Spanish Conversation Practice group)

April 26: Great Wall China Adoption Workshop

April 27: Yoga

April 28: Butterfly House, Inc (nonprofit) meeting


April 29: Durham Literacy Council meeting, ‘Goodbye Clutter,
Hello Sanity’ (Organizing Workshop)


April 30: Advanced ESOL, Beginner ESOL, Community
Knitting Group, Auburn HOA meeting
If this doesn't show the use and need for a Rec Center in the heart of South Durham (i.e. Southpoint Durham), I don't know what will.

It is important to remember that Parkwood isn't comprised of expensive McMansions. These homes have been here for decades, in what used to be an award-winning example of the way neighborhoods should be built. A quick drive through Parkwood will reveal small homes priced for first-time homeowners -- truly affordable housing (a rarity in this area nowadays). There is also GREAT diversity in Parkwood -- black, white, hispanic, Indian, Asian, you name it. Make a morning visit to the Parkwood Library or the Preschool classes at nearby Parkwood United Methodist to see for yourself. And many Parkwood residents don't just walk to the library b/c they like to, they walk to the library b/c they HAVE to.

I hope that the City Council members will drive
 around Parkwood and visit the Parkwood LIbrary before they rubber stamp out the possibility of renovating this important neighborhood center and establishing a rec center. The infrastructure is in place and waiting...

Melissa 

Melissa Rooney, Ph.D.
301 Spring Garden Drive
Durham, NC 27713



Bonfield seeks review of rec centersBy Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun 
Apr 24, 2009 

DURHAM -- Elected officials are going to make some big decisions in the next couple years about the future of Durham's city recreation centers, if City Manager Tom Bonfield gets his way. 

Bonfield wants the City Council to do a ground-up review of the policy that drives the administration's handling of both existing and future rec centers, and on Thursday had the Parks and Recreation Department brief members on some of the issues bearing down on them. 

Among other things, officials have to decide whether to add a swimming pool to the Walltown Recreation Center, whether to buy the old Duke Diet & Fitness Center
 and whether to buy an old shopping center in the Parkwood neighborhood as a rec center site. 

They also could face decisions about whether to close or replace a couple small neighborhood centers near the city's major rec centers, and aren't sure whether a private group that owns the Community Family Life & Recreation Center at Lyon Park will be ready to take over management of the facility from the city in 2011 as scheduled. 

All in all, it's fodder for a discussion that will likely take a while, Bonfield said. 

"It's important to look at the comprehensive picture," he added. "A lot of it is driven by money, and we need to start prioritizing." 

The money part counts not just the cost of building new rec centers, but the bill for running them, which over time is always far bigger than the construction cost. The city has five large rec centers, counting the Lyon Park center, and spends about $2.3 million a year to keep them
 going. 

Two more -- Walltown and the Holton Career and Resource Center -- are due to go on line this year or next and will add nearly another $1 million to the operations bill. 

The problem, however, is that city policy suggests the need for even more such facilities. 

The parks department's 2003 master plan called for building four large centers on the edges of the Durham, to fill the gaps created by the city's growth. Large swathes of suburban Durham -- most notably southern Durham, along the N.C. 54 corridor -- are more than a two-mile drive away from an existing rec center. 

The two-mile mark represents about the outer limit of most peoples' willingness to drive to get to such a facility, said Beth Timson, the parks department's planning director. 

That geography is already figuring in the Parkwood debate. 

"I'm starting to get some blowback from people in the suburbs, specifically Parkwood, from people
 saying, 'When are we going to get our share,'" Councilman Eugene Brown said. 

Councilwoman Cora Cole-McFadden noted that some of the city government's problems stem from its prior neglect of inner-city, predominantly black neighborhoods. People living there have developed "a true attachment" to the facilities the city has provided, both large and small, she said. 

But Brown, reacting to that comment, said rec-center policy can't be pigeonholed as a racial issue. 

"We sometimes forget the fact that Durham is an integrated community, folks," he said. "Parkwood was ... built primarily for first-time homebuyers and is at least 40 percent minority, if not higher. We're not just talking black versus white here." 

Council members like Diane Catotti said the city should try, as Bonfield recently suggested, to address some of the problem by working with the Durham Public Schools to use school buildings after hours. Parks and
 Recreation Director Rhonda Parker said DPS Superintendent Carl Harris has signaled he's willing to talk to city officials about that. 

Members also agreed they need data showing how heavily each of the city's rec centers are used, and that they need to get residents involved in the discussion. 

"If it's done properly and the community feels like it has input into the process we're going through, I think we can sell the community on a parks and recreation program for this city," Mayor Bill Bell said. "It's going to take time to do that." 



      


      
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