Neighborhoods brace for loss of libraries, schools, rec centers

Thanks to budget shortfalls, Mecklenburg County facilities, such as recreation centers, libraries and schools, have found themselves on the chopping block.

In some neighborhoods, though, the impact is worse than in others. Some communities are losing multiple facilities, which could hurt real estate values and quality of life in those areas.

“It’s extremely unfortunate, and I don’t think it’s good for the neighborhood to lose all of those amenities after they’ve worked so hard to pull the neighborhood up,” Charlotte City Councilwoman Patsy Kinsey said.

One such neighborhood is Belmont. Classified as “threatened” by a 2004 University of North Carolina at Charlotte quality of life study, the neighborhood was listed as “stable” in this year’s report.

But Belmont has room to improve: the median household income is $28,865 compared with the citywide average of $52,148, the violent crime rate is nearly three times as high as the city’s average and only 54.2 percent of school-age children in the neighborhood are performing at or above grade level compared with the city’s average of 75.9 percent.

MORE COVERAGE: Closing, relocating schools could affect property values

In June, Belmont’s library closed because of budget cuts. Meanwhile, the Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department pulled out of its partnership with St. Paul Baptist Church to operate the St. Paul Ray of Hope recreation center.

Community members are worried that losing the library, plus Villa Heights Elementary School in the border neighborhood of Villa Heights, will cripple the neighborhood.

“It leaves a void,” said Reginald Jones, executive director of the Belmont Community Development Corp. “A community-based library has always been a good cornerstone in the community because it provides kids a resource for educational purposes.”

Not alone

Belmont is not the only neighborhood losing multiple facilities.

The Pawtuckett neighborhood in the northwest part of the city will be losing two schools, Pawtuckett Elementary and Wilson Middle. The Reid Park neighborhood will be losing the Amay James recreation center and Amay James Pre-Kindergarten Center. Meanwhile, other neighborhoods are seeing reduced hours at multiple facilities.

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library spokeswoman Angela Haigler said the decision to close the Belmont and Carmel branches and the Checkit Outlet in uptown Charlotte was based primarily on low attendance and the county not owning the buildings in which they were housed.

While CML considered neighborhoods that are deemed “fragile,” the decision to close libraries is mostly a tunnel-vision one, Haigler said.

“We’re just asked to look at the budget and make decisions for the library,” she said.

‘The big-picture organization’

On Nov. 3, the county’s Board of Commissioners was presented, for the first time, with a map showing the location of all closing facilities. The map was requested so commissioners could see which neighborhoods would be losing multiple facilities.

Of the facilities being closed or seeing reduced hours, more than half are in neighborhoods that the quality of life study labels as “transitioning” or “challenged.”

It’s in those neighborhoods that the closures might have the biggest impact, said Owen Furuseth, associate provost for metropolitan studies at UNCC and author of the quality of life report.

Even Belmont, which the study classifies as “stable” but is still a low-income neighborhood, could be affected by the closures. Furuseth said the loss of facilities might be enough to downgrade Belmont to “transitioning,” adding that the impact is not yet clear.

“I can’t say for certain that if a library closes, the adolescent pregnancy rate will go up or anything like that,” he said.

Feeling the impact

But Belmont resident Wanda McNeil, 53, is already feeling the impact of the closed library.

“With it being close by, I was able to go by and do job searches,” said McNeil, who has been unemployed since February.

McNeil said she tried going to the Plaza Midwood library, about a mile and a half away from the Belmont branch, but the wait for computers was too long for her. McNeil said she finally got Internet service for her own home, which stretched her budget.

The St. Paul Ray of Hope recreation center had been a joint partnership of St. Paul Baptist Church and the county, but with the budget cuts to the Park and Recreation Department, the county withdrew from the partnership.

The church, however, was able to preserve the recreation center.

“They kind of knew it was coming, so they were able to plan for it,” said Ebony Moore, outreach director for the church who was hired to manage the recreation center.

So far, the church has been able to fund the programs offered by the recreation center and pick up some of the slack from the Belmont library closing, Moore said: the facility includes a computer lab for the community to use, and Moore said there’s rarely a wait for computers.

Not all are lucky

But not all neighborhoods may be so lucky.

This year, 20 recreation centers have either closed or are slated to be. Four are in “transitioning” neighborhoods and nine are in “challenged” neighborhoods.

It is in neighborhoods where residents are usually low-income that the loss of facilities might be felt the most, said Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Jennifer Roberts.

“If people are in poverty, they don’t often have transportation alternatives,” she said. “They need to have access to someplace where they can do job searches, within walking distance. The same is true of rec centers. If people have access, they’re going to stay healthier, especially kids, which means they won’t miss school days or have their education impacted.”

Roberts and Commissioner Harold Cogdell said they hope the commissioners can work with the Park and Recreation Department, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board and Charlotte Mecklenburg Library to “spread the pain around” when it comes to making decisions about closing facilities in the future.

But Roberts said it won’t be easy.

“If you have try to have too much influence, they think you’re meddling,” Roberts said. “So we have to think systemically: How do we make sure we’re sharing information where it’s critical?”

Caitlin Coakley can be reached at [email protected].