By Megan Burks
The city of San Diego’s infrastructure committee has signed off on money for a recreation building at Park de la Cruz in City Heights, where city and county senior programs could find a home if the City Council approves.
City Heights seniors began building their own network of older neighbors to socialize and look after one another in the fall. The effort came after years of struggling to find money and space for a senior center.
Evie Kosower, 81, lives nearby and said the proposed new center would be a welcome addition to the neighborhood.
“There are two very active centers not close to us that are doing very well, and some of those who can get around really well are trying to attend,” she said. “But that leaves out the people that don’t get around that easily.”
Kosower was behind an effort several years ago to establish a senior center. In lieu of one, she and some of her neighbors in the Azalea Park and Fairmount Park sections of City Heights began recruiting neighbors for a “village” – a type of club in which seniors socialize, take classes together and check in on each other. The concept is spreading as seniors stay in their homes longer.
The city-led programs would come to the old YMCA building at Park de la Cruz, about two miles from Kosower and her neighbors, by way of a federal community development grant. The city’s infrastructure committee approved $5 million for the project Wednesday.
It also approved funding for improvements to the City Heights Recreation Center, Mid-City and Southeastern police stations, the Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center in Encanto, the Malcolm X Library in Valencia Park and the Neil Good Day Center downtown.
Services at the new center in City Heights would include social activities, pharmacist consultations, and exercise programs. It will have adaptive gym equipment for the disabled.
Kristi Fenick heads senior citizen services for San Diego Parks and Recreation and said her staff plans to reach out to the community for input on programming and volunteers.
The center wouldn’t fully open until 2017, but the gymnasium is expected to open next month and the senior programs could start later this spring.
The full council is expected to approve the funding this month.