Baltimore rec centers face budget cuts, closures

In a period of recession-linked budget constraints, the city of Baltimore has relied heavily on private organizations to subsidize the financing and legislation of the city's recreational centers; however, a statement from the city last week declared inadequate interest from the private sector, revealing grim prospects for the future of Baltimore's recreation facilities.

At present, the city maintains 55 such centers, offering "a wide array of programs for children and adults," according to the Baltimore City Recreation and Parks' website. The department aims to cede 31 facilities to the authority of private groups, but received only seven proposals, which, if passed, would encompass 16 centers—approximately half of what comprises Baltimore's ideal scenario.

The city is questioning the fiscal viability of several of the proposals, leaving the fate of 10 of the 16 protected centers up in the air.

Reevaluation of the department's strained budget began in July 2010, when Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake commissioned a council within the Recreation and Parks department to address and resolve funding and quality issues among the city's recreation facilities.

In her official statement at the time, Rawlings-Blake stressed the importance of "a network of high-quality facilities that offer diverse and accessible programs and services for personal growth, health, learning and fun that enhances the quality of life in our communities."

The Mayor's Recreation Center Task Force, the efforts of which partially spurred a one percent increase in municipal spending in March, concluded its research in August with the publication of the Recreation Center Task Force Implementation Plan. Downloadable via the Recreation and Parks website, the report delineates a plan for a "Charter Center Program," enabling private "interested groups" to operate existing recreation facilities in Baltimore.

The report also outlines more fiscally quixotic ambitions, such as its plans to construct or "substantially renovate" four community centers in the next one to four years, in spite of the city's various present budget constraints.

At this time, however, the report's more feasible strategies are the ones that struggle. The mayor's extension of the deadline for bids from private groups to subsidize the desired thirty-one recreational facilities until last Wednesday, October 12 failed to present sufficient or completely veritable interest.

City Deputy Comptroller B. Harriet Taylor has submitted the received bids to various city departments for financial and legal evaluation. The city has kept the proposals confidential, and it remains unknown which proposals will pass and, consequently, which facilities will escape the rapidly narrowing budget window.

Budget reports from the Recreation and Parks department reveal that the city will fund the thirty-one recreation centers in question until the end of the year. In an official statement from Rawlings-Blake's office, a city spokesperson said that if additional private entities fail to step up, centers not covered in approved proposals will be forced to close.

Recreation Director Bill Tyler could not be reached for comment.

Many Hopkins undergraduates have bemoaned the worst-case scenario here, citing the relationship between the university and community service programs at the recreation centers as inexorably valuable. The Johns Hopkins Center for Social Concern sponsors and houses the university's sixty service entities, many of which implement Baltimore's community centers as a forum for outreach.

Crossover Basketball is one such entity, providing inner-city, at-risk Baltimore youth with mentorship via – as the name suggests – an afternoon of basketball with Hopkins undergraduates at the city's Greenmount Recreation Center. In addition to basketball courts, the Greenmount facility offers a computer lab, an arts and crafts center, a weight room, and an activity space.

Greenmount is among the centers who face the risk of closure. Until the city announces the approved bids, the fate of the center remains unknown.

Freshman Julian Fox, who works with Crossover Basketball, lamented the possibility.

"It's great that Hopkins students can interact with the Baltimore community through sports – it's a good way to earn someone's respect and interact with someone through friendship," he said. "It should be more than an issue of dollars and sense."

He highlighted Baltimore's youth as the demographic most negatively impacted by the possibility of closure.

"I don't know what they'd do in their free time," he said. "But playing sports and doing arts and crafts is definitely better than it."