PHOENIX (By Jon Garrido, The Jon Garrido News Network) ― The City of Phoenix has community centers and other centers designated as senior centers.

Whatever designation is utilized, not all centers provide services to all groups of Phoenix residents.

Specifically, the Devonshire Senior Center, a multi-million dollar complex, north of Indian School Road on 28th Street, is known by the community as a "senior" center and all programs and services are for seniors.

Yet, in District 8, the closest community center is located 8 miles to the south in south Phoenix.

The are more than 100,000 youth in the northern area of District 8 without access to a City of Phoenix community center offering youth services and programs much less designated soccer fields or basketball courts.

Therefore, The New Phoenix Vision "Community Facilities Should Serve All Residents but They Do Not" will mandate all City of Phoenix community centers shall diversify and provide a balanced program to all age groups and users of the community thereby eliminating their exclusive use as senior centers.

Staff should also reflect diversity of the community and in particular the age of all users.

All City of Phoenix Senior Centers shall be re-named to be identified as community centers and if there was a former historical or cultural name that was once use, the present name shall revert back to the original name.

Specifically, the Devonshire Senior Center shall become the City of Phoenix Los Olivos Community Center.

City of Phoenix Community Centers and new mission

To maximize use of community centers and parks, all shall now be permitted to be reserved for functions by community groups allowing community planning to now take place.

In addition, city facilities used by community groups or individuals for meetings and all other functions shall be made available at no cost to user or group. This availability shall include political meetings by individuals or organized political groups.

All designated areas of a City of Phoenix public park shall be removed and the entire park shall be made available to all users without limitations. Specifically, disc golf (also called frisbee golf) areas now in placed shall be removed and these areas shall be restored to use by all park users.

Create or enhance a public plaza in every community

The City of Phoenix community centers working in conjunction with The New Phoenix Vision "Mixed Use Development Nodes" and neighborhood community groups: residents, small businesses, non-profits, churches and other interested parties will create or enhance at least one public plaza beginning with those in close proximity to Indian School Road.

A classic example of what can be done is the City of Phoenix Devonshire Senior Center combining with the the small neighborhood shopping center to create synergism. Presently both are oblivious to each other and this must change bringing together community center and neighborhood shopping center to sponsor the emergence of community on 28th Street and Indian School Road.

This is a wasted opportunity to build community.

The minimum critical mass required to maximize community is present in the area of the Devonshire Senior Center, Los Olivos Park and the adjacent neighborhood center on the NEC of 28th Street and Indian School Road; however, what is needed is a spark to generate activity in this neighborhood.

What is needed to bring about change is a chemical reaction from present forms (entities) into a new form thereby creating a new substance seen as a solid.

Precipitation is the formation of a solid in a solution during a chemical reaction. When the reaction occurs, the solid formed is called the precipitate giving birth to a substance that was always there but could not be seen.

Natural methods of precipitation include settling or sedimentation, where a solid forms over a period of time due to ambient forces like centrifugation.

An important stage of the precipitation process is the onset of nucleation. The creation of a hypothetical solid particle includes the formation of an interface, which requires some energy or action based on the relative surface energy of the solid and the solution.

The New Phoenix Vision "Community Facilities Should Serve All Residents but They Do Not" is the nucleation or energy coming from the Phoenix City Council to mandate synergism be created by directing City of Phoenix community centers and parks join with community and business groups to come together to spark new activity in building community.

 

To assure maximum participation by all City of Phoenix resources, each neighborhood area shall have a City of Phoenix city council office to coordinate the onset of nucleation.

Where strip retail development is found in close proximity to City of Phoenix facilities, Phoenix community centers will participate with neighborhood retail centers where people gather by sponsoring weekly (not just once a year) events undertaken by both entities and other interested parties to build community. The Community Center will benefit by marketing programs and services to the community rather than acting in complete isolation providing services in the same way since the days of the dinosaurs.

The axiom: "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts" is profoundly applicable in this situation and the most perfect example of this is the non participation of the City of Phoenix Devonshire Senior Center acting independent and oblivious to the surrounding neighborhood which is a significant disservice to the City of Phoenix and its residents.

The Devonshire Center staff must be mandated to leave their cocoon like attitude and join in a symbiotic relationship with surrounding neighborhood organizations to sponsor events that benefit both.

City of Phoenix community centers acting in concert with neighborhood groups, small businesses, churches and other interested parties shall come together to build a successful plaza and community center extension to facilitate the use of a underutilized street space and/or neighborhood shopping center thereby transforming a stretch of roadway primarily used for parking into an inviting and attractive open space adjacent to shops and cafes by providing a colorful collection of chairs, tables, umbrellas, planters, entertainment, sports, recreational and neighborhood events coordinating joint utilization attracting a higher number of visitors (shoppers, workers, residents) to stores throughout the day and evening.

The City of Phoenix parks belong to the residents and for too long the parks have been considered "sacred cows" obvious to the needs of surrounding neighborhoods.

This archaic philosophy borders on segregation and is responsible for negating the building of community to serve the needs of all residents of a neighborhood area rather than a exclusive group.

In addition, City of Phoenix land controlled by the Parks Department will be integral partners of all joint sponsored events. City Parks areas used for parking shall be space included to build synergism providing the use of City of Phoenix parking areas to vendors without cost to enhance the success of an event to build community.

Starting in 2010, The New Phoenix Vision "Community Facilities Should Serve All Residents but They Do Not" will add a new process to open up the City of Phoenix community centers to become equal partners in building community utilizing the centers and neighborhood retail centers.

The The New Phoenix Vision "Community Facilities Should Serve All Residents but They Do Not" will initiated a plaza working group with local non-profits and academic institutions to draft the Public Plaza Initiative, a competitive, community-based program that will identify sites for new or enhanced plazas to ensure that all Phoenicians live within a 10-minute walk of open space. The New Phoenix Vision "Community Facilities Should Serve All Residents but They Do Not" plans to launch the Public Plaza Initiative by the summer of 2010.

The City of Phoenix will work with other agencies to identify additional sites and opportunities, prioritizing neighborhoods with the lowest ratio of open space to population.

We will reach out to those communities to discuss potential sites and opportunities. The scale and design of these plazas will vary widely, just as the scale and design of the city's neighborhoods vary widely. Four new or enhanced plaza nodes will be completed per year until every neighborhood community area has at least one. In every case, the communities will be consulted on sites and how the space is designed, constructed, and programmed.