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Combining recreation centers with other services
In November 2020, in the midst of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, representatives of the Houston Parks and Recreation Department, the Houston Public Library and the Houston Health Department broke ground in an urban park on a facility that would transform and revitalize the city's southwest suburb of Alief, Texas.
"The question was: How could we work together better?" says Joe Turner, who was director of the Houston Parks and Recreation Department from 2004 to 2017 and was heavily involved in the initial planning and development stages of the award-winning Alief Neighborhood Center and Park. "The answer was: Let's build a joint facility together."
That joint facility, in the works for years and funded by municipal bonds, opened in 2023 - thanks to cooperation between Turner, Houston Public Library Director Rhea Lawson and Houston Health Department Director Stephen Williams. It replaced aging and outgrown buildings for the parks and recreation department and the library system, as well as brought a new public health clinic to the area. It was built to reflect the different sectors it houses and the residents it serves. And, it happened in the wake of significant funding shortfalls a decade earlier, which prompted the idea of sharing spaces in the first place.
Today, Houston's Alief Neighborhood Center and Park is thriving in a previously long-underresourced community, and it's a prime example of how municipal park and recreation departments can partner with other public entities to share spaces.
Benefits and Challenges
One of the most common partnerships of this type is with libraries. The 47,000-square-foot East Arlington Library and Recreation Center in Texas, for example, opened in late 2020 with a shared spaces concept that has been wildly successful. The city's park and recreation department occupies 73 percent of the facility and splits utility costs accordingly.
Each department retains its own staffing structures. Recreation, aquatics and library staff all are hired and managed by their re- spective departments. However, one major staffing change that took place after the center opened was an upgrade in recreation center front-desk pay levels to align with new responsibilities that involve assisting patrons with both their recreation and library needs.
While the desire to save money and aggregate construction and operational...