On “Real News” this morning, Mayor D.C. Reeves said the CRA would need to spend nearly $120,000 on the Malcolm Yonge Gym to make it safe enough to do an in-depth structural assessment.
“I think it was 119,000 just to shore up the building for safety reasons,” Reeves said. “So no one can give a real assessment on that building on what it would cost to save it until we spend $120,000.”
The structural assessment would cost another $125,000-$175,000.
Last month on Andrew McKay’s radio show Mayor Reeves said this about the Malcolm Yonge Community Center, “We have a pretty good state of the building.” The city should. There is a 62-year track record of maintenance, improvements and also planned improvements “not” done. I learned reading old PNJ archives that the roof was replaced in 1983. In 2002, there was money in the budget for the roof but you can’t tell what was done. In 2004, the budget showed $400,000 for projects at the center. Up through September 30, 2021, the budget showed $715,000 for several major projects not done to date. In 2021, the council discussed having the CRA pay to repair the center as I believe it can do as soon as October 1, 2024. In September, Mayor Reeves withheld from the council “lots” of critical information about the center. Recently, the Malcolm Yonge Community Center was removed from the city’s list of Parks & Recreation facilities perhaps to help add some momentum to its demolition and conversion to 30 “tiny homes” for the city’s police officers and firefighters. When the building opened in 1961 its official name was and presumably remains the “Malcolm D. Yonge Community Center.” The name on the building itself is “Malcolm Yonge Center.” The Pensacola Journal’s July 28, 1961 edition had a story titled “Mrs. Yonge, City Officials Dedicate New Civic Center” and this sentence, “This is one of the most worthwhile projects the City Council has ever undertaken.” In a column under the heading “The Civic Center,” the Pensacola News wrote this on August 11, 1961: “The center, a much-needed facility located at 10th Avenue and Jackson Street, is something of a masterpiece in design and planning. By that I mean, in a nutshell, there’s no wasted space. Even launderette facilities are included, which means every player (man, woman or child) is issued a clean uniform for each game. First class in every respect. A tip-top recreational opportunity. Money well spent… Those were my impressions Thursday morning.” Reviewing old newspaper stories, I was very surprised to learn of the diversity of recreational programs hosted in the Malcolm Yonge Center. One very interesting item I found in the FY 2006 annual budget document suggests that high usage was still evident not all that long ago, “One new position has been proposed in the General Fund. The position is a Recreation Supervisor to be assigned to the Malcolm Yonge Center. In the past this function has been provided through extra personnel service employees. However, this center has experienced a tremendous amount of usage and a full-time professional staff person is needed to supervise this center.” It’s likely far cheaper to repair the facility than replace it. Councilmembers should pulse their constituents to see if they agree with Mayor Reeves vision for converting a community centers and parks to housing. Mayor Hayward said he wanted to do so when he was a candidate in 2010. In 2017, his Parks Director Cooper said that Mayor Hayward had him ignore maintenance issues to try to identify parks that could be sold off to real estate developers. You’d think that citizen groups like CNAPP and the Pensacola Sports Association would be up in arms over this issue. If the Malcolm Yonge Community Center goes away then what is next. There’s no such thing as affordable housing in Cordova Park. Is Mayor Reeves going to pressure the council to convert Dunwoody Park to housing? How about converting Cordova Square in East Hill?