August 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 48

MARYLAND LEGACY

Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks Director Ernest Burkeen Jr. and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake take time for fun at one of the city's many public pools.

Kevin O'Hara: How would you describe the personality of Baltimore?
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake:
Baltimore has the unique ability to feel
like a big city and a small town, all at
once. A perennially bustling port city,
Baltimore is proud of its rich history
and loves to celebrate it with events
like this year's Star-Spangled Summer, dedicated to remembering one
of the most dramatic and important
turning points in America's fight for
freedom: the Battle of Baltimore and
the writing of our national anthem.
Baltimore is also a city of small neighborhoods, each with its own charm.
We have a flourishing arts and culture
scene, elevated by large festivals like
Artscape and smaller exhibitions that
bring Baltimore residents and visitors
together to celebrate the city's unique
character and local talent. We have
numerous family-friendly opportunities, from the National Aquarium and
the Maryland Science Center located
at our renowned Inner Harbor waterfront to the Maryland Zoo located in
historic Druid Hill Park. In addition,

Parks & Recreation

Baltimore has a thriving night life
and, I think, an underrated " foodie "
culture. We are home to some of the
best sports teams - undoubtedly the
best fans - in the country. Baltimore
truly has something for everyone.
And to me, the most exciting part is
exploring what Baltimore has to offer
and discovering your own niche.
O'Hara: In 2012, you made a tough
decision to close several recreation
centers. How has this worked out
over the past two years?
Mayor Rawlings-Blake: Our children,
and our communities, deserved better.
When I was sworn in as mayor, I
inherited a major budget deficit and
a budget that called for closing nearly half of the city's recreation centers
- up to 25 centers. This was unacceptable to me. So in 2010, I formed
a recreation center task force to identify potential courses of action. It's
important to me and my administration that we do all we can to provide
quality recreation opportunities for
our city's youth - all of them.

| AU G U S T 2 0 1 4 | W W W. N R PA . O R G

The majority of Baltimore's recreation centers were constructed in the
late 1960s and the early 1970s, and
many haven't seen updates since. Over
the past 50 years, as Baltimore's neighborhoods have changed, the needs of
individual communities have, understandably, changed as well. I couldn't
allow our youth to continue to operate in dilapidated, unsafe buildings
that weren't even representative of the
neighborhoods they claimed to support.
The task force recommended, and I
supported, transitioning the city's aging
recreation centers into a new network
of high-quality community centers that
would better serve Baltimore's neighborhoods - especially our youth.
We could not keep pumping money
to keep all of these antiquated centers
open just for the sake of being able to
say that we've done so. We needed to
think more broadly about how to best
provide for our city. It wasn't an easy
decision, but one that was necessary.
Four years later, we are already seeing dividends. Many of our community
centers are already serving the broader
community while maximizing city resources. Last year, we opened a stateof-the-art community center in Northeast Baltimore, and I look forward to
another community center opening in
Morrell Park later this month. Based
on my task force's recommendations,
we will continue to make improvements to our recreation centers and
pools in the coming months and years,
because we understand that providing
our young people with constructive activities is not only good for them, but
good for growth of our city.
O'Hara: I recently read an interview
with the former mayor of Reykjavík,
Iceland, who said the next political
revolution will be on the municipality
level in countries. He said, " It seems to
me that everything that is happening
of any value, in terms of renewable en-

August 2014 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of August 2014 - Parks & Recreation