Recreation Centers Los Angeles

More than 100 recreation centers throughout Los Angeles are serving lunches to children and young people until school starts again. Sponsored by the Summer Food Service Program for Children and funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the program started Monday and continues through Aug. 20. Any child from 1 to 19 is eligible and no identification is required, a spokesman said.

More than 200 kids pelted each other with snowballs, built tiny snowmen and rode plastic toboggans down an icy bank Thursday at Camp Sharwood. From 9 a.m. until noon, it was Snow Play Day at the Woodland Hills Recreation Center. Union Ice dumped 11 tons of shredded ice, creating a rectangle about 30 by 60 feet. The play area was surrounded by bales of hay, some of them arranged in steps leading up to the summit of a 7-foot slide.

More than 100 recreation centers throughout Los Angeles--including at least 16 in the San Fernando Valley--will serve healthy, nutritious lunches to students until school starts again. Sponsored by the Summer Food Service Program for Children and funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the program started Monday and continues through Aug. 20. Any child or young adult from 1 to 19 is eligible; no identification is required, a spokesman said.

On Friday the city of Los Angeles will dedicate the Granada Hills Recreation Center, more than six years after the previous center was destroyed in the Northridge earthquake. The project is the largest to be completed in the San Fernando Valley with funds from Proposition K, by which voters in 1995 approved spending $750 million for park improvements over 25 years.

Three years ago, it was almost impossible to find children at the Central Recreational Center, about eight miles south of downtown. Instead, gang members rode the swings and hung around at the center. Residents were afraid to send their children and never talked to police about their fear. Then police took action in an operation known as the Hooper Block Project. They brought in extra personnel and kicked out most hard-core gang members from the South-Central neighborhood.

Lighting at 84 city parks and recreation centers--including 19 in the San Fernando Valley--will be increased, parks and Department of Water and Power officials announced Monday. At a news conference at Lanark Park in Canoga Park, city officials said the DWP will install large, cobra-head lights for free on existing wooden utility poles near or on park property.

With an assist from the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce, the Heart of Los Angeles youth program's basketball teams will finally have a home court advantage. The Junior Chamber's Champions Foundation, with a contribution from the Riviera Country Club, last week donated $35,000 to the gymnasium renovation at Immanuel Presbyterian Church, 3300 Wilshire Blvd.

For the first time, the El Sereno Recreation Center is undergoing major rehabilitation that will replace the baseball diamonds and add a heated indoor swimming pool. With over $2 million set aside by the city of Los Angeles for the project, a large portion of the park, at 4721 Klamath St., has been turned into a muddy field as workers turn over soil in preparation for the new grass, sprinkler system, lighting, bleachers and baseball and softball diamonds.

The city has approved a $3.3-million loan toward converting an Immigration and Naturalization Service detention center into a community center in Pico-Union. The center will cost $5.2 million, said Madeline Janis, executive director of the Central American Refugee Center. CARECEN and the Los Angeles Community Design Center, a nonprofit housing developer, hope to get the additional $2 million from a federal tax-credit program for nonprofit ventures, Janis said.

Basketball players are itching to use the gym at Victory-Vineland Recreation Center, but the day-care kids have first dibs. The restrooms are off limits too, for security reasons, because they also are used by the children. Students in karate, ballet and other classes are also clamoring for space. And then there are Wednesdays, when more than 200 senior citizens take over the North Hollywood gym for a full day of bingo, and the day-care program is shunted into a tiny side room.

Amid tree-lined streets in a Los Angeles Mid-City neighborhood lies a community united over a school's need for a new gymnasium, yet bitterly divided over plans to open the sports facility to the public during after-school hours and on weekends. The controversy pits area homeowners against a well-known magnet middle and high school they have traditionally supported.

Basketball players are itching to use the gym at Victory-Vineland Recreation Center, but the day-care kids have first dibs. The restrooms are off limits too, for security reasons, because they also are used by the children. Students in karate, ballet and other classes are also clamoring for space. And then there are Wednesdays, when more than 200 senior citizens take over the North Hollywood gym for a full day of bingo, and the day-care program is shunted into a tiny side room.

A year after taking aim at municipal sports programs in which boys outnumbered girls by more than four to one, the city of Los Angeles has significantly boosted female turnout for its basketball, volleyball, soccer and other youth teams. In 1999, 39% more girls joined city-run sports programs than the year before, according to Department of Recreation and Parks statistics.

A year after taking aim at municipal sports programs where boys outnumbered girls by more than 4 to 1, the city of Los Angeles has significantly boosted female turnout for its basketball, volleyball, soccer, and other youth teams. In 1999, 39% more girls joined city-run sports programs than the year before, according to Department of Recreation and Parks statistics.

The city's determined push to level the playing field may have spurred hundreds of girls citywide to slip on a softball mitt, but it hasn't done much for the ones who got the ball rolling with a lawsuit that attracted national attention. The West Valley Girls Softball League is still grappling with the same problem it started with: The season is approaching, and its 500 girls have nowhere permanent to play. It wasn't supposed to end this way.

Three years ago, it was almost impossible to find children at the Central Recreational Center, about eight miles south of downtown. Instead, gang members rode the swings and hung around at the center. Residents were afraid to send their children and never talked to police about their fear. Then police took action in an operation known as the Hooper Block Project. They brought in extra personnel and kicked out most hard-core gang members from the South-Central neighborhood.

The long-awaited expansion of the San Fernando Valley Japanese American Community Center neared completion Tuesday when half of a building was moved from Burbank to the center in Pacoima. "I'm really glad we're finally at this point," said Michael Motoyasu, a board member of the center and project chairman. "It's been a long, long road." It took nearly nearly three years of planning and cutting through bureaucratic red tape to prepare for this week's move, Motoyasu said.

The sports scene at Studio City Park leans toward that of Canada--minus the ice. Like their neighbors to the north, many children here eagerly learn to skate and play hockey--albeit on rollers, not blades--almost before they can walk. Leagues for players as young as 5 hold regular games, drawing hordes of goal-scorers from all over the San Fernando Valley.

Sergio Rivera, 16, and his 13-year-old brother, Ricardo, say they found self-discipline and safety in a kick-boxing class at a youth center affiliated with the Los Angeles Police Department's West Valley Division. But their class, and others serving 1,200 youths up to age 17, might come to an end as early as November as the center and its sponsor scramble to raise enough funds to remain open, officials said. "It's important to me that it stays open," Sergio said. "It keeps me out of trouble.

More than 100 recreation centers throughout Los Angeles--including at least 16 in the San Fernando Valley--will serve healthy, nutritious lunches to students until school starts again. Sponsored by the Summer Food Service Program for Children and funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the program started Monday and continues through Aug. 20. Any child or young adult from 1 to 19 is eligible; no identification is required, a spokesman said.