Mayor’s budget to propose more hours at Delridge Community Center

| Delridge | West Seattle news | West Seattle politics

In the days leading up to the announcement of his budget proposal for next year, Mayor McGinn has been parceling out parts of the plan. Today’s announcement: 10 extra hours a week for each of seven community centers in the city, after-school and late-night, to “provid(e) at-risk youth with additional safe outlets outside school hours.” Two are in this area: Delridge and South Park. The announcement also included $1.68 million for expansion of the Youth Violence Prevention Initiative.

Holli September 20, 2012 (12:24 pm)

Hurrah! Delridge CC needs the extra hours.

visitor September 20, 2012 (12:48 pm)

This is nice, but basically it’s just restoring a portion of what was cut last year. ALL the community centers should be fully funded ALL the time. It’s a shame the mayor and city council put the community centers, and parks, at the bottom of the priority list, even though Seattle citizens have consistently, and generously, approved parks levies time and time again.

AEL September 20, 2012 (1:12 pm)

Good start. Weekend hours would be another good time to serve the at-risk youth group.

natinstl September 20, 2012 (3:31 pm)

That’s great, although I think the other poster is right that more hours in general to serve the community would be great. I go to the CC on Tues and Thurs nights for Zumba and the people that work there are the best!

Visitor September 20, 2012 (4:29 pm)

Nice of him to release all the increases in funding first. The cuts will be announced on Monday.

Alki fan September 20, 2012 (5:03 pm)

What about Alki Community Center… One which has been basically reduced to near closure. How about giving us back our community center? Parks. dept and the Micky mayor seem to play favorites.

Francesca September 20, 2012 (8:39 pm)

Alki fan – I agree it’s unfortunate that all centers have suffered losses but, Alki is within very close proximity to Hiawatha which is part of the reason hours were reduced so severely. In regards to the hours awarded I disagree it has to do with playing favorites. Every year I see unaccompanied children under age 8 hanging around Delridge CC during the summer months. Sometimes they are there for several hours a day and aren’t participating in any of the summer programs available at the center. If they’re doing that during the summer, it’s probably happening during the school year too. The Delridge Teen Leader and Childcare Director are wonderful and now more children will benefit from their talents.

Holli September 20, 2012 (10:11 pm)

As someone who wrote many letters last year when cuts were purposed, and uses the DCC on an almost daily basis, I know this wasn’t by my own sweat, but probably some analytics. I was told time and again the cuts were made and might be adjusted based on data of usage.

I understand the need all over the city and know that there simply isn’t enough money to go around. As per the comment that they all should be open all the time: that is unsustainable and why such drastic cuts had to be made in the first place.

So, I thank Mayor McGinn and city staff who are doing what they can in a difficult and complex situation.

Visitor September 21, 2012 (3:32 am)

Community centers have been sustainable in Seattle former than 100 years. There’s a reason that suddenly in 2012, certainly a more prosperous time than 1912, we are being told what’s sustainable and what’s not. The situation with our public lands can’t be summed up in two breathless sentences. Time for independent thought and systemic analysis.

Visitor September 21, 2012 (4:14 am)

What happened to our public parks was an error of governance. The error contined over three levies, and that’s what made our community centers “unsustainable.”
Let’s not forget that the first of those levies was a community center levy.

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