About 30 people gathered outside Brush Creek Community Center to protest reduced hours of operations and other cutbacks. Protestors say the cuts are hurting the community!
Brush Creek Community Center is closed on Mondays during the fall and winter. Even on the days when it’s open, it’s now closing at 6 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. Neighbors say that’s helping fuel violent crime.
People who live in the area protested on Monday because they care about their neighborhoods and their children. Protestors blame the recent rash of six homicide in ten hours in part, on the operations of community center in the urban core.
Large gatherings of unruly teens on the Country Club Plaza earlier this summer prompted the city to extend the hours of community centers. Now, the parks department says there’s no money to continue to do that and blames staff shortages for the more recent cutbacks in community center hours.
“We have had some vacancies, unexpected vacancies in our employment ranks,” said Mark Bowland. “As a result, we’ve had to reduce the hours of operations at those centers hit most by those vacancies.”
That explanation doesn’t sit well with the families who use the the community centers in the urban core. They say the city must start putting its kids first.
“The plaza incident in this community is every day. is every day. again, people don’t have a place to go,” said Clarke.
There are also complaints that even when the centers are open, there are not enough quality programs to provide structure and guidance for urban kids. Bowland says he wants to work with these neighbors to help change that.
