On Wednesday at 5:30pm, neighbors can give a 2 minute speech at the City Budget Public Hearing to give comments on thee fate of the Laurelhurst Community Center.
The public can sign up two hours in advance using this link. After registering, a confirmation email with instructions, the approximate number speakers and the order. Each speaker must dial into the assigned phone number within about 30 minutes of the assigned time slot and wait to speak, which is done by pressing *6. After a 10-second warning, the call will drop.
The Laurelhurst Community Club (LCC) sent out this information to the community:
Take this opportunity to speak or write an email to each City Councilmember (email addresses listed below) at the City's Budget Public Hearing requesting Seattle Parks and Recreation retain programming and keep the doors open at Laurelhurst Community Center in 2022.
The community can also request that City Councilmembers support Councilmember Pedersen's amendment to retain $190,000 for programming which invests in the public health of people of all ages and needs throughout the City.
Seattle Parks and Recreation has proposed a 24.8 percent total increase in funding, while proposing to completely close the Laurelhurst Community Center to “balance” its $287 million budget. This community center costs a mere $190,000 to operate. Pre-Covid, it offered more than 39 classes of programming from tots to seniors, after-school classes, provided open play for young children, and fee-based meeting spaces for organizations and nonprofits such as emergency preparedness. It also hosts the Spring Egg Hunt and Salmon Bake. This community center is used by many nearby Northeast neighborhood residents including Hawthorne Hills, Bryant, View Ridge, and Windermere, as well as families who have siblings at Seattle Children’s Hospital, and UW student families. The center’s operation budget is .0067 of the total SPR budget. Its expenses could be supplemented by weekend rental fees.
The community center is walkable for recreation, centrally located, and serves at least 2,800 existing residents with 1,303 new rental units within a mile, including many affordable housing units, to be occupied next year. This center is also adjacent to the public elementary school whose students are 45 percent of color and 31 percent are low-income families. SPR runs its after-hours gym programs for the elementary age youth. The new 31/32 Metro bus is stop is only two blocks away for City-wide access.
Magnuson Park and Green Lake community centers, north of the Ship Canal, will be under construction over the next two years, drastically reducing public affordable programs and meeting space.
Seattle Parks and Recreation should not cut programming and close ANY of its community centers for budget reasons.
The Laurelhurst Community Club learned that "buried in the 2022 Mayor's budget is the closure of one of the City's 26 community centers. Ours." as they wrote in a recent newsletter.
The LCC newsletter also included this information:
In the budget, Parks and Recreation unilaterally changed the center's purpose from a facility that serves the community to that of a "premium rental facility” to generate revenue in support of pop-up activities around the City. This is a complete shut down of community programming at the center.
The process of the proposed closure was not transparent. There was no outreach from Parks and Recreation to LCC or to its Laurelhurst Advisory Committee, no public meetings, no disclosure to our District 4 City Councilmember. It is just buried on page 103 in the City's Budget book.
All City community centers should remain public facilities, not exclusive private rentals for the Department of Parks and Recreation. Closing ANY of the City's community centers to convert them to exclusive private rental facilities sets the wrong precedent that Parks and Recreation can make unilateral decisions about the use and future of the City's public facilities. Closing a center in the community it was established to serve is not just.
Surrounding neighbors donated the original land and community center building to the City by in 1927 as a "recreational" facility for the entire public. For 94 consecutive years, Parks and Recreation has operated center programming.
Councilmember Pedersen told the Laurelhurst Blog:
Hi, Laurelhurst Blog,
Thanks for alerting neighbors about Mayor Durkan’s unfortunate decision to try to close the Laurelhurst Community Center!
I wanted to make sure you saw the amendment I introduced and pitched at our Council’s Budget Committee meeting this week in hopes of restoring the funds to keep the center open.
It might be helpful to ask readers to ask Councilmembers to support my amendment specifically. Also, they can reach all 9 Councilmembers using the following email address: Council@seattle.gov. Here is the Mayor's email address: Jenny.Durkan@seattle.gov .
The amendment states:
This Council Budget Amendment would add $190,000 GF ongoing to Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) to sustain the current use of the Laurelhurst Community Center.
The 2022 Proposed Budget ends this facility’s use by the public and its programming and regular staffing by SPR employees and converts it instead to availability for rental.
The Laurelhurst Community Center is connected by a bridge to the adjacent elementary school, where 45 percent of students are Black, indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC) and 31 percent of students’ families are low income. These demographics are consistent with those of typical users of the community center.
Neighbors were sent this information from Laurie Dunlap Superintendent’s Office, Seattle Parks and Recreation, when sending in comments:
Dear community member,
Thank you for writing about changes for Laurelhurst Community Center in the proposed budget for 2022. We appreciate what an asset Laurelhurst Community Center has long been for the Laurelhurst neighborhood, with its programs for seniors, youth, and others, and with its signature events like the Salmon Bake.
For 2022, we made the difficult decision to transition Laurelhurst from a full-service community center to a rental and event space. Some of its historic programming will take place at nearby centers, but it will no longer function as a Seattle Parks and Recreation community center.
We do anticipate programs and events continuing to be offered at Laurelhurst through the outside organizations that rent the facility. We made this decision in order to prioritize our limited resources toward the goal of EQUITABLE SERVICE DELIVER.
The funds that had paid for recreation staffing at Laurelhurst are proposed to create a pilot program that provides free, pop-up recreation programming in streets, parking lots, and parks in low-income neighborhoods as an ongoing Seattle Parks and Recreation program.
For more information go here.
Here is more information about the City Council budget process currently considering this change, including information on how to participate in the upcoming public hearings on November 10 and November 18.
Councilmembers email addresses:
council@seattle.gov
Teresa.Mosqueda@seattle.gov
Dan.Strauss@seattle.gov
Andrew.Lewis@seattle.gov
Alex.Pedersen@seattle.gov
Tammy.Morales@seattle.gov
Lorena.Gonzalez@seattle.gov
Lisa.Herbold@seattle.gov
Kshama.Sawant@seattle.gov
Debora.Juarez@seattle.gov
Jesus.Aguirre@seattle.gov
Jenny.Durkan@seattle.gov
No comments:
Post a Comment