BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — MLK Park in Bakersfield will receive upgrades under the new parks and recreation improvement plan, including a new community center, improved sports fields, and new playgrounds.
- Video shows current conditions at MLK park and renderings of future improvements
- The recreation and parks department presents 10-year, multi-million dollar plan to renovate and develop parks across Bakersfield.
This is the site of the new community center at MLK Park, and this park and others will receive a much-needed facelift under the city of Bakersfield's new parks and recreation improvement plan.
Walking through MLK Park, it's easy to see the property needs some upgrades.
"I grew up playing basketball here, playing softball in the church leagues here, so when I returned after being gone for 30 years, it kinda hurt me a little bit to see the condition that it was in," Rick Anthony, the director of the recreation and parks department for the city of Bakersfield, said.
Anthony showed 23ABC some of the areas of concern, like the outdated community center and old spray park.
"We're are going to demolish all of this," he said. "The new plan has this being the parking and outdoor courts area."
With 30% of the design completed, Anthony says the project could break ground in 2026.
Renderings of the new MLK park show the upgraded community center building, improved soccer fields, basketball and pickleball courts along with new playgrounds in areas that right now are mostly barren fields.
"I believe it's a game-changer to be able to offer more for especially those youth that don't have the opportunities," he added.
MLK Park isn't the only one to see renovations, ten other city-owned parks expect new developments in the next ten years with most sitting in the south and east sides of town, areas where residents generally report lower incomes, according to Best Neighborhood.
"You're dealing with youth that already has half the chance that well-adjusted and well-established youth would have, this being no fault of their own, and having to come into a place where hope is lower," Jovon Dangerfield, the executive director of TYM4CHANGE, said.
His organization partnered with the city to adopt MLK Park with hopes of seeing the improvements bring new businesses and events to the area, which he says would change the perception of these communities.
"When you put those types of facilities in this time of environment, it can have a ripple effect throughout the entire community," Dangerfield said.
While all the funding hasn't been secured for MLK Park, Anthony says the improvements have already been approved by the city, and now he continues to search for funding and awaits approval on the overall master plan.
"I know the benefits first hand, and I know that the transformation that we're proposing what it can do for this community."
You can find the full plan in detail here.
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