CITY HALL — Despite pending final exams, students flooded the City Council chambers Tuesday night in support of increased funding for the Pico Youth and Family Center.
The council is currently considering funding priorities for the remainder of the fiscal year, and students who call the center a “safe haven from violence and drugs” want officials to think about them when balancing the city’s checkbook.
‘We have crowded the council chambers. Imagine what it’s like at (the center),” said 20-year-old Alejandro Dana. “We have outgrown our space. We need a larger facility, with an increased budget for programs for the youth. Right now we can’t even hold an event for 100 people.”
Students said the center has been a “bridge for community and youth” and represents family for many who spend their afternoons there. To not provide more money for programs and the use of Virginia Avenue Park facilities would be neglecting the future of the city, which is the children, said Dwayne Robertson, music director at the center, which has just finished recording a hip-hop album featuring the center’s youth.
“Right now, the center is nothing more than a long hall way,” Robertson said, as students raised their hands quietly in agreement with his statement.
Councilman Herb Katz responded, “Well, how much (money) do you need?”
Robertson replied, much to the delight of the students present, “You know … I would love to get a million or two.”
The center opened its doors on Jan. 19, 2002, following a series of shootings in the Pico neighborhood that left 22 youth dead between 1989 and 1998, according to the center’s Web site. Since then, the center has expanded its programs, offering music production classes, computer training, job development and placement, tutoring, leadership training and peer counseling.
The center is open Monday to Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
At the end of the students’ presentation to the council, Mayor Bob Holbrook thanked them for sacrificing study time to speak and encouraged students to come back with any more concerns.
The council is scheduled to discuss mid-year budget changes again on Feb. 14, at 7 p.m.
