Spartanburg City Council approved an indoor pool facility in a 5-2 vote, with council members Laura Stille and Alan Jenkins voting against.
For as long as cities have invested community revitalization work, those efforts have largely focused on physical structures. Building new housing and new school buildings. New recreation centers and playgrounds. Sometimes even new strip shopping centers or office parks.
But if you talk to Mitch Kennedy, the City of Spartanburg’s Community Services Director, about the Northside Initiative, 30 minutes or more might go by before you ever hear a word about anything that will involve bricks and mortar. For good reason: the focus of the Northside Initiative is on people. Creating better opportunities for education and job training. Providing new amenities for physical activity and healthy living. Enhancing their access to health care. And on and on.
Which makes a conversation about the planned new community center especially interesting. The City Council has committed to building a new Dr. T.K. Gregg Center by 2017, somewhere in the Northside footprint, possibly next door to the Cleveland Academy of Leadership. Once constructed, it will no doubt be a beautiful facility, though as of now no architectural work has been done. It will include many of the bells and whistles a modern-day recreation/community center should have. Think C.C. Woodson Center as a starting point.
Watch the video or read the story recap below for additional information on the recent city council meeting.
(Prepared by the City of Spartanburg.)