Los Angeles Parks Are for the People

The city of Los Angeles’ Recreation and Parks Department is poised to do great things with the 15,000 acres of parkland it operates and the new areas it hopes to open, according to its general manager, Ellen Oppenheim. She speaks of infrastructure improvements, accountability of park recreation directors and the creation of park advisory boards. There’s even money for all this: Proposition 12, the parks bond issue, passed in March.

What’s missing? The human element: 1,600 part-time recreation assistants who help run L.A.’s public playgrounds, ball fields and recreation facilities. They are critical to keeping activities going but are limited by the city to part-time status without basic benefits, health coverage or job security.

From the Eastside to South Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley in the north, there are plenty of examples of how the city’s assistants help youths channel their energies into sports and other recreational activities, rather than getting into trouble. These workers are the on-site supervisors and, in many cases, mentors to inner-city teenagers seeking alternatives to gangs by participating in soccer matches, shooting hoops and cooling off at city pools. Some run day-care centers for children whose parent or parents might not be able to work without this critical city service.

One such mentor is Freddie Huguez, a recreation assistant who takes satisfaction in knowing the names of kids who stop by to say “hi,” even after they’ve grown up and left the neighborhood. Huguez tells the sad tale about two boys who volunteered at the Boyle Heights Sports Center as part of a basketball and community program for local teenagers. They helped Huguez coach baseball too. They were so energized by their experience that it led them to pursue basketball scholarships. One of the teens received a scholarship; the other was on the verge of acceptance. However, in 1996, the number of recreation assistants at the center was cut from four to one. Huguez was transferred. The boys still went to the park, but the playing fields were no longer staffed. With free time, but no supervision, the boys drifted back to the streets. These two college-bound boys, along with six other kids Huguez once coached, ended up in gangs, Huguez has learned.

Recreation assistants do yeoman’s work running facilities throughout the city for residents of all ages and socioeconomic levels. Their value, especially to the poorer, more urban areas, cannot be overemphasized. Yet because of their mandated part-time status, recreation assistants receive absolutely no benefits from the city. Many must hold two or three jobs just to make ends meet. We should no longer undervalue the worth of these workers to our neighborhoods nor should we ignore their financial needs.

It appears that voters are enamored with laws to prosecute juvenile offenders as adults. Would they support spending their tax dollars for preventive measures--staffing recreation facilities rather than building more jails? I believe they would if the arguments weren’t lost in the rhetoric about youth crime.

Many troubled juveniles might not have turned to gangs or guns if they had had greater opportunities in terms of organized sports programs, after-school activities and other alternatives offered through the Recreation and Parks Department.

Let’s put our money where it will give us the greatest return. It is important to have clean restrooms and enough sports equipment and to fix broken picnic tables. Just as important is the need to repair the city’s relationship with its recreation assistants by providing basic benefits and job security. It’s the kids who win in the end.