Submitted by Claire Brown.
In 2018,Eastside Community Center opened in 2018 combined the senior center and boys and girls club into one location serving the entire community. They now want to assimilate Lighthouse. My experience dictates that it will cause hardships for your seniors.
When I joined, 20-25 seniors used the larger gym for SAIL class. Our area was later halved due to other events. Another gym is rented for Pickleball. When school is out, the boys and girls club takes over the downstairs area.
In summer, seniors still need a location for our scheduled class. As an afterthought, they have assigned untenable places. They told us to use the running track. We couldn’t hear the instructor. None of us felt safe with runners zipping past. There was no place for us to safely do our static exercises. We were told to use the cafeteria in the middle school. After the first meeting, we had to work around painting, maintenance, and locked doors.
We have lost many frustrated class attendees. It’s discouraging and demeaning to have a class scheduled and no place to hold it. We feel undervalued and minimized. We currently meet in the smallest activity room. If 10 people come, we are extremely overcrowded. I travel to other centers, far from my neighborhood, to get additional exercise. Other people, who cannot drive or don’t have access to a car, are not under-served: they are not served at all. People depend on Lighthouse to meet their social needs, spending hours of their day there playing cards, bingo, and sharing a nutritious meal. Their exercise classes are geared to diminished abilities.
From my experience with Eastside, Tacoma Parks does not support the needs of their most fragile citizens. It’s only a rec center, where people exercise, then go home. It’s certainly not a welcoming community center and it cannot replicate services that seniors desperately need.
Who cares about seniors, Tacoma leaders care only about social justice, criminals and the homeless!
Tacoma claims to be senior friendly…this is totally false. With the current budget proposal we are being shuffled off to Metro Parks for a hefty price. The list of proposed activities they are designing for us includes: Senior Kayaking, Senior Snowshoeing, Pickle Ball, a Hiking Club and more! They clearly do not understand the needs of the seniors being displaced…and the city doesn’t care. They want us out of our 2 senior centers so they can use them as they please.
I think the writer has some valid points. Many of the elder seniors do not need kayaking or rock climbing but gentle exercise, cards, conversation, And lunch.
Too bad no seniors were consulted in the long term (12 months) planning sessions. Metro Parks, although able in many regards, has totally ignored seniors and their needs. Kayaking? I did that in my 30-40s cannot imagine doing it now with my physical limitations. The commenters are right on, Metro Parks has ignored seniors in the planning process, and here is the result – send us to out of the way locations to pursure undoable activities. Does no one care? We are, after all, your grandparents, mothers, fathers.
Seniors need regular social interaction through group activities and dining. They need mental stimulation, hobbies, friendships, and exercises at levels they are capable of doing. Many seniors are not 65 and just retired but older with physical limitations and need appropriate stimulation to have a healthy life. I wonder if Pierce Aging & Disability Resources have been involved in evaluating the outcome of closing senior centers.