Local News in Brief : Anaheim : Boxing Club’s Move to YMCA Gets Council OK

An inner-city boxing club forced from its rent-free home of nine years will move to the Anaheim Family YMCA, after a vote Tuesday by the City Council.

With no public discussion, the city council voted 5 to 0 in favor of the move, which is set for Thursday. The Anaheim Athletic Club--now to be called the Anaheim/YMCA Boxing Club--was operated jointly by the city and the First Presbyterian Church of Anaheim. It was established in 1979 in the basement of the church in an effort to reduce vandalism and gang activity in the neighborhood.

The church says it now needs the basement to house its growing Latino ministry.

Many of the club’s boxers and the three-member, part-time staff paid by the city to run the program, had objected to the move. They wanted it to remain in the neighborhood of the old Penguin City barrio.

Only about half a dozen young boxers attended Tuesday’s session and left immediately after the vote.

Mel Aguillar, the program director at the YMCA who will work with boxers, called the move “a real good thing,” for youths and the community.