THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 12, 1996 TAG: 9604110150
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 158 lines
BOBO BENJAMIN saw it fall.
So did Jackie Hills.
The two teens were among many who sadly watched construction crews recently demolish the youths' longtime gathering place, the Seatack Community Center.
But a new and larger recreation center, one with an indoor pool and gymnasium, will rise in its place on Birdneck Road just south of Virginia Beach Boulevard, fulfilling a hope that Seatack leaders and residents long have held in their hearts.
They had a dream, and they refused to give up.
Over the 10-year struggle, the children of Seatack became the lightning rod for the contention that sometimes accompanies change. But in the end, it was concern for them that brought both sides to the bargaining table and led to compromise.
Officials will break ground April 20 for the $3.2 million facility, which is slated to open a year later. The 21,000-square-foot recreation center will be more than five times the size of its predecessor - a 3,800-square-foot community center. It will house a six-lane, 25-meter swimming pool, a gymnasium, lockers and showers for men and women, a meeting room with kitchen, and a lobby with space for vending machines.
Since the mid-1980s, residents and leaders of the largest historically black neighborhood in Virginia Beach have lobbied city hall for an upgraded center.
The old Seatack Community Center opened in April 1988, on the site of the first Seatack Elementary School. It included two meeting rooms, an office and a basketball hoop in the parking lot.
A year earlier, in 1987, voters had approved $32.85 million in bonds to finance new recreation centers in Bayside, Princess Anne and Great Neck and renovation and expansion of a center in Bow Creek. Seatack residents wondered aloud why they didn't rate a glitzy, state-of-the-art facility. They argued that their neighborhood should have been placed on the referendum with the others.
They said that the city's white power structure had broken its promise to build a full-scale rec center in Seatack.
But city officials countered that Seatack's community center was never intended to be a full-size recreational facility. They denied having promised to do more than they had done.
City leaders wanted to respond to Seatack citizens. They debated the issue, but couldn't reach agreement. Some of them worried that if they built a large rec center in Seatack, it would open a Pandora's box - that people in other neighborhoods would then clamor for similar treatment. The city wouldn't be able to meet the demand, so it wasn't fair to other neighborhoods that needed a center just as badly, officials reasoned.
And so went the wrangling for about six years.
Then, about three years ago, the rift suddenly widened into a gap, and the issue came to symbolize what low-income and black residents perceived as racism on the city's part.
On Memorial Day, 1993, the rec center issue culminated in protest marches at the Oceanfront.
And that same summer, city officials blamed Seatack activists for the loss of tax revenue and jobs after their opposition to the proposed Civil War-themed Dixie Stampede attraction helped persuade its managers to pull out.
That's when the tide turned.
Seatack leaders took a step back and reiterated their contention that the lack of recreational opportunities in the neighborhood played a major role in high crime rates, juvenile delinquency and drug trafficking.
City officials also paused and reconsidered their stance.
In the fall of 1993, the City Council voted unanimously to put a proposed $10 million expansion of the Seatack Community Center on a May referendum after Seatack residents turned thumbs down to the city's compromise proposal for $2 million in improvements to the old Seatack Community Center.
But dreams of a full-size, $10 million center suddenly evaporated in January 1994 when the city discovered that the Navy owned air rights or easements to any large chunks of land in Seatack. No referendum would be placed on the ballot after all. The disappointment among Seatack residents was exacerbated by the simultaneous opening of the Princess Anne facility.
Finally, in May 1994, the City Council approved spending $1.98 million to add a swimming pool, gym and locker room to the Birdneck Road facility, which wouldn't require additional land. A 7-2 vote earlier that month had nixed the measure. Approval required an eight-vote majority because the money would have to come from charter bonds.
Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf had swayed two council votes, arguing that the money would be well spent to save at-risk young people in low-income areas. Still, it was uncertain, then, whether the $1.98 million would be enough to provide an indoor pool. More money has been approved since, bringing the project's total cost to $3.2 million.
The long struggle shows in the faces of the kids who called the old center their home away from home, and it has left battle scars of cynicism.
When the machines had finished razing the building, and the dust had settled, Bobo Benjamin was struck by sudden doubt that his favorite haunt would be rebuilt.
``I thought I'd see a sign for `Seatack Woods' or `Seatack Estates' - houses, not a rec center,'' the 14-year-old said. He was shuffling a deck of cards last Friday at a table in the center's temporary quarters - the Community Action Resource Empowerment (CARE) building near Seatack Elementary School.
``I felt sad, like it might not be built,'' said 16-year-old Jackie Hills. ``I don't understand why they just couldn't build around it instead of. . . . We haven't got anything to do here. It's not like the other place. There was more room, cable TV, basketball, a bigger kitchen, dances. There's fewer coming here.''
Hills sighed, then leaned back in her chair to spread out her cards and see what she'd been dealt.
``I don't know,'' she continued with another deep sigh. ``I don't know. They said they were going to tear it down in October, and now it's April. Most people are going to be out on the streets getting in trouble.''
There was a sense of limbo in the center's temporary quarters last week as a dozen or so youngsters of all ages tried to settle in.
Tarthenia Earley, 22, a Parks and Recreation Department youth and adult specialist who works at the center, looked around the small and crowded room and wished ``it didn't take so long.''
Lolita Mitchell, 15, is looking forward to ``the big space'' of the new center. She had been a regular at the old center since she was 7. Her aunt, Bernadean Woodhouse, is center supervisor.
Like her niece, many Seatack teens ``have grown up'' with the center as a focal point of their lives, Woodhouse said. ``It was a haven, kept them off the streets - playing cards or arcade, jumping rope. . . something positive.''
Next April, Bobo Benjamin's skeptical look and Jackie Hills' worried frown will turn to smiles when the doors of the new Seatack Recreation Center open at last.
They'll reap the rewards of the long struggle.
They'll understand that people who cared about them, their neighborhood and their larger community worked together for a common goal.
They'll understand that a dream can become reality. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
[color cover photos: Bernadean Woodhouse...]
[...Shunna Hill, 12, left, and Beate Moye, 10]
Only a mound of rubble remains on the site of the old Seatack
Community Center, which opened in April 1988 on Birdneck Road. The
new facility will be built on the same site.
Drawing\The Virginian-Pilot
The new $3.2 million facility will be 21,000 square feet - more than
five times the size of its predecessor - a 3,800-square-foot
community center. It will house a six-lane, 25-meter swimming pool
and a gymnasium.
Bernadean Woodhouse, Seatack Center supervisor, says the old facilty
was a focal point for local teens.
Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Kids like Lolita Mitchell, 15, now pass their recreation time at the
rec center's temporary quarters - the Community Action Resource
Empowerment building near Seatack Elementary School. A regular at
the old center since she was 7, Mitchell is looking forward to the
``the big space'' of the new center.
by CNB