Federal rescue aid helping to fill Detroit’s ‘rec center gaps’

For Eddie Frazier, the athletic fieldhouse being constructed at Chandler Park is a long-lacking “safe haven” for young people in his community.

The $14 million overhaul is the largest so far among a wide range of Detroit Parks and Recreation Department construction and renovation projects across the city getting attention largely with the aid of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars.

Project planning for Chandler Park got underway in 2022 and broke ground in January. Frazier said he envisions the fieldhouse as a quiet space for youth, “where they have something that’s theirs.”

The retired member of the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, who works with the Chandler Park Conservancy to teach area children how to play golf, said the park has improved tremendously since he first started coming there in 2010.

“It was great years ago seeing the turf football field, and going from that to the work on the basketball courts and playscape for the under five kids,” he said. “A lot of good things are happening.”

Overall, the parks department will use roughly $58 million in ARPA dollars for initiatives aimed at filling in “rec center gaps,” spaces that lack recreation space or areas where the offerings fail to meet the demands of the surrounding community.

More than a dozen recreation upgrades are in store, including the total renovation of the Dexter-Elmhurst Community Center, which will be renamed after local education activist Helen Moore, as well as new gymnasiums, generators, EV charging stations, security cameras and plaza improvements for a range of other sites. 

Some projects have been bolstered by other funding, including $2.83 million from Unlimited Tax General Obligation (UTGO) bonds and a $20 million donation from the Detroit Pistons for the new Brennan Recreational Center.

Juliana Fulton, the city’s deputy chief parks planner, said many of the projects are in the beginning stages of construction but have fully completed their community engagement phases. 

“People have been enthusiastic and engaged in what they want to see in the centers,” due to the fact that many of these projects are intended to fill “rec center gaps” in the city, she said. 

As for the potential impacts, Roosevelt Park, located in Corktown in front of Michigan Central Station, provides a glimpse into the future. 

The city put $6 million of ARPA funding into renovating the 13-acre park, an effort which included the installation of swinging benches and rerouting a portion of Vernor Highway. Said Joe Serbernak, a park goer who said he’d lived in the city for decades, “It’s beautiful. The swings are a pleasant surprise.”

Megan Woods, a spokesperson for the city’s General Services Department, said there’s been similar success with Greenview-Wadsworth park. 

Initially just a green space, $553,000 of ARPA funding, coupled with $50,000 from a Wayne County millage, allowed the parks department to double the size of the space and install a basketball court, paved walking loop and playground, as well as benches and a picnic shelter.

Another notable project underway due to ARPA funding is the reconstruction of the State Fairground Bandshell at Palmer Park. 

Amazon purchased the former fairgrounds site in 2020 and the bandshell had initially been considered for demolition or removal. However, residents and preservation advocates successfully petitioned for the bandshell to be disassembled and spared. The city, backed by $3 million in ARPA funding, hosted a series of community engagement meetings with the aim of reconstructing the iconic bandshell at Palmer Park.

Spearheading those community engagement efforts was People for Palmer Park, a nonprofit organization which has acted as the stewards for the park since 2011. 

The group’s board president, Stacy Varner, said that the bandshell project “will continue our mission of providing a wonderful space for families to come together, which is in line with Sen. (Thomas) Palmer’s legacy. Palmer and his wife, Elizabeth, were into arts and culture, as well as the service of others, so this is a validation of that.”

Varner also pointed to the ARPA funding as a positive sign for the city, saying it’s wonderful that city leaders are focused on the importance of nature areas that the community can come together in, which are a key aspect of staying healthy.

“Whether it was COVID, or just the younger generation, people realized that we need balance in our lives, and that going outside was a key aspect of staying healthy,” Varner said. “When balance is lost, people become unable to function, and the parks create a great opportunity for people to become better balanced.”