Pasco’s ‘half-hearted’ effort shortchanged the MLK center and community | Editorial

Thousands of young people have visited the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in east Pasco since it opened five decades ago.

They go there to play, to exercise, to learn and to hang out with their peers in a place where external challenges receded.

Now the center is showing its age, and the city should step up with funding for a full upgrade. The city’s current, opaque, half-hearted measure isn’t enough.

The MLK Center is where local residents gather for a host of personal and community activities. A gymnasium and a weight and fitness room provide opportunities to hone the body and participate in sports.

A game area offers less-physical diversions. And a YMCA homework and computer area helps young people sharpen their minds. Outside there is a picnic area, play field and playground. It’s mostly for kids and teens, but adults have access to spaces like the weight room and other programming.

The center opened in 1975 when the racial dividing lines in the city were more stark.

At the time, it was one of the first and the most symbolic signs that Pasco residents were embracing a shared reality in which they were a single city, not one divided by the color of people’s skin.

Did it end racism and bias in Pasco? Of course not.

Among some people those sinister sentiments survive to this day. What the MLK Center has done and continues to do is stand as an edifice with rich historic value for the community by serving residents who have been historically marginalized and discriminated against.

Given that importance to the community, it’s inexplicable that the Pasco City Council would risk reopening old divides by shortchanging the facility on an overdue renovation.

The city is discussing spending $6.5 million on upgrades and modernization. That’s a lot of money, but it’s only about half of what some of the plans have called for.

Some community members feel city officials have given little explanation for the change or why the money needs to go to other projects over the MLK Center.

We urge the council to reverse course and fully fund renovations at the center. This is an opportunity to turn it into a modern symbol of how the city can invest in real, sustainable solutions to address the socio-economic issues plaguing the entire community.

Local civic leaders should step up to encourage the council to change its mind.

All of Pasco has a stake in what happens at the MLK Center and what happens to the young people if the center cannot serve them as well as it has in the past. The city succeeds when its leaders work together.

This is about more than just a gym and a homework program. Places like the MLK Center instill values. They are key to building and maintaining healthy communities.

Those who enter learn that they are part of something bigger and that they have an obligation to treat others in the community with dignity and respect no matter the color of their skin, their country of origin or whether they have a home.

Pasco’s leaders of late have shown leadership and found funds to build a new physical link at the Lewis Street overpass that connects its communities.

If it can build such a bridge, fund a new aquatic center, and pay for city hall renovations and a police station, surely it has the experience and the ability to find the money for the renovation of a symbolic memory of the past — and foundation for the future.