Baltimore City Recreation
and Parks In Jeopardy!
by Terry Harris
 aught in the middle of a budget battle between the Mayor and the
City Council, and without a permanent Director, Baltimore City's
Department of Recreation and Parks is a deeply troubled agency.
Environmental groups have joined with neighborhood parks and recreation
groups to denounce a first round of budget cuts announced by the
Mayor and a plan to transfer park functions to the City's Department
of Public Works.
 The Parks agency was already in serious trouble after a controversial
attempt to sell a portion of the popular Druid Hill Park last
spring and a scathing report issued by a special task force in
February. Chief among the task force's complaints was a lack of
leadership at the Department's highest levels. The criticism continued
until Recreation and Parks Director Marilyn Perritt resigned as
the Department's Budget was being considered by the City Council
in May.
While the Department limped along without a permanent director,
the Mayor and the City Council failed to come to an agreement
on the city budget. After much politicking back and forth, the
Mayor proceeded to make budget cuts with some of the most severe
cuts coming out of Parks and Recreation. The Department faced
a $5.4 million cut with an immediate layoff, announced by the
Mayor, of 10 administrators and planners.
The Mayor's layoff plan essentially dismantled the Department's
entire construction division and transferred the Park's director
of capital programs and several assistants to the city's Department
of Public Works (DPW).
Parks advocates say that this transfer of capital programs to
DPW threatens a number of ongoing upgrades and potential acquisitions,
tot lot and other playground construction and ongoing park improvement
initiatives developed by citizens after participation in lengthy
Master P lan processes. The fate of several major projects including some
with substantial outside funding from independent foundations
and the State's Program Open Space Fund, was suddenly in doubt.
Faced with the loss of the staff most familiar with Parks projects
and the preoccupation of DPW with other city matters, parks advocates
were afraid that the Parks Department was being destroyed.
In the Recreation Division, budget cuts threatened the closure
of up to 40 of 58 neighborhood recreation centers. The Schmoke
administration kept all recreation centers and swimming pools
open all summer but rec center advocates were troubled by what
was to come in the fall.
The centers were kept open in part through the transfer of functions
to the Police Department using federal crime fighting funds rather
than the city budget. Under this program, the Police Athletic
League [PAL] assigns officers to rec centers to replace trained
recreation professionals. Recreation advocates pointed out that
the PAL program was originally intended to supplement ongoing
recreation activities, not replace them and that the centers serve
all ages not just the target population of the PAL program.
In reaction to these changes, the Sierra Club joined parks advocates
and neighborhood leaders to form a coalition called Saving Parks
and Recs (SPAR). The coalition pressed the Mayor to reconsider
the cuts until a new Director could be hired and a comprehensive
management study could be performed.
SPAR's efforts appeared to work. In early July, the Mayor came
up with a $3 million "windfall" to add to the city budget including
an additional $1.9 million for the Department of Recreation and
Parks. The Mayor also agreed to do the management study sought
by SPAR and consult with advocates during a "nationwide search"
for a new department director.
But the institutional changes, the layoffs and transfer of functions
to DPW, proceeded at the same time raising questions about the
Schmoke administration's true intentions. The search for a new
Director has yet to begin.
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