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A cool new fun magnet promises to pack them in
By LENNIE BENNETT
© St. Petersburg Times, ST. PETERSBURG -- The staccato of basketballs slammed and dunked, the glee of children loosed upon a playground, the turn of a pottery wheel and clay rising under thoughtful hands: They have all returned to Wildwood. A gleaming new $4.5-million recreation center in the small park at 28th Street and 10th Avenue S officially opens Saturday with a big party for the community.The 32,000-square-foot building replaces the old center, which was razed several years ago. The new Wildwood Recreation Center -- the largest in St. Petersburg -- has two collegiate basketball courts, a game room, computer lab, teen room, arts and crafts room and a large community room with a stage and commercial kitchen. Besides the city programs, the building also houses the Youth Arts Corps, which provides after-school classes in the arts and is independently funded. It has a photography lab, percussion and band room, and clay room with kilns. Unlike the old Wildwood, everything is air-conditioned. Outside are two refurbished baseball fields, two more basketball courts, a swimming pool and a new playground. And the community is coming back to it. "We'll have our Wildwood Neighborhood Association meetings here," said Dorothy C. Coleman, a nearby resident who showed up Monday to check out the building. "And we want to start bingo, too." "I ride my bike here every day," said Lewrence Dancia, 15, who attends St. Petersburg High School and was a regular at the old Wildwood. "I do my homework, play basketball and PlayStation 2. There are more activities. It's better and bigger. And the temperature's better." "We're excited to be back home," said Yolanda Anderson, Wildwood's administrator. She and her staff were dispersed to other centers during the construction. "All the staff is back now," she said. Anderson grew up in the Wildwood neighborhood, and her parents still live there. She used the old center as a child and said the children of her old friends are now using the center. The old Wildwood Recreation Center had 12,000 square feet. "It was basically just the basketball court and some small rooms," said Thomas "Jet" Jackson, who managed it for years and now is a recreation manager with the city. "The building was so small, you could only have one activity at a time. And if basketball was being played, it was too noisy to have a meeting in one of the small rooms. But it was something that the neighborhood, everybody, wanted to come to." The new Wildwood Recreation Center represents both the past and the future of a neighborhood that has held its own through difficult times. "Some folks say the south side of St. Petersburg is a low-income area," Jackson said. "Well, that's what it is. It's a working neighborhood and a loving neighborhood. And this place (the recreation center) was about family reunions, wedding receptions, neighborhood association meetings." And basketball. The city's league basketball programs at the center made it made it "the basketball capital of St. Petersburg," said Jackson. When the new center was being planned, public forums were held "to see what the neighborhood wanted it to be," said Raul Quintana, city manager of capital improvements. "The community really wanted a double gym. They wanted it collegiate size, to accommodate the level of competition." The gym, with its two NCAA-sanctioned basketball courts, is the centerpiece of the new center, occupying 16,000 square feet. "It's a beautiful facility," said Largo High School basketball coach Phil Price, who brings his team to play in the after-school league during the off-season. "I grew up playing at the old Wildwood. It was so hot, on a good night you could lose 10 to 15 pounds." Architecturally, the new Wildwood is a combination of acute angles and perpendicular lines connected by curves and defined by contrasting paint. It is closer to 28th Street, making it more accessible, Quintana said. "Like all our centers, it's built to handle the kind of use they get. But it's more than just a concrete box. It relates to the site, the community, the things around it." It sits on about 8.8 acres of park land, Quintana said, "one of the smallest, but most used parks, in the city." Ann Neal, who has worked at Wildwood for 12 years, estimates that hundreds of people came to the old center every month. "We've always been popular for basketball," she said. "We have a tremendous teen program, too." Besides the basketball program, Wildwood offers supervised after-school programs for children and teens. Yolanda Anderson said neighborhood groups plan to start a Bible study, exercise classes, bingo games and a literary club. The Wildwood rebirth is not over, Quintana said. "Ultimately, we want to expand to the east, build tennis courts that we had to take out to make room for the building, and add a football field." "This has been years in coming," Jackson said. "Now it's a reality. They have a beautiful facility." If you goYou are invited to the grand opening reception at the new Wildwood Recreation Center, 1000 28th St. S, from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Saturday. The Recreation Department will host hands-on demonstrations, carnival games, game room tournaments, story time and entertainment. Refreshments will be served. For more information, call 893-7750.
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