FULLERTON : Boxing Club Is Told It Must Share Space

Pressed to find more space for community groups, city officials have told the Fullerton Boxing Club that it can no longer keep exclusive use of a local recreation building.

The facility includes a boxing ring used by dozens of aspiring contenders five nights a week. But city officials want the boxers to share the center with other community organizations.

Club organizers warn, however, that the city’s proposal might deal their operation a serious blow.

“The issue is turning this facility into a multipurpose facility,” said Mario Sanchez, the director of the 26-member club, which has operated at San Carlos Drive and Santa Ysabel Avenue for 12 years. “We just don’t have the financial means for this. We wouldn’t be able to run the way we do now. The stakes are too high.”

Earlier this month, the city’s community services commission told the group either to share the Chapman Park building with other groups by April 1 or to find a new building. Opening up the 900-square-foot facility to other groups would mean converting all the boxing equipment, including the ring and punching bags, to portable use.

Club organizers say their program has helped keep at-risk youths off the streets and out of trouble. The club’s members are about 16 years old, and most come from low-income, Latino areas of the city, Sanchez said.

“They’re kind of like the outcasts of the Boys Club,” he said. “To them, they can relate to boxing. They can channel their tendency to fight to their gloves. It builds self-esteem.”

City officials don’t dispute the boxing club’s contributions. But they say that Fullerton is in great need of space to house its recreational programs, which range from classroom craft seminars to self-defense classes. For several years, the city has had to lease facilities from the Fullerton School District and Cal State Fullerton.

The pinch has come with the city’s growth and the loss of two often-used buildings. The historic Izaak Walton Cabin was destroyed in a fire in 1990 and has yet to be replaced, and the second floor of the recreation building at Hillcrest Park has been deemed unusable because of deterioration and a termite infestation, said Jan Hobson, community services superintendent.