After 27 Years, Gardena Launches $1.2-Million Rowley Park Project

When the first phase of the Rowley Park Community Center was built, the Gardena neighborhood around it, known as Hollypark, was a tract of new homes whose residents were prosperous transplants from other communities.

Gardena city officials envisioned then that Rowley Park’s second phase, a gymnasium, would soon follow, when the city came up with the money to build it.

That was in 1962.

This week, city officials finally broke ground on the project, a $1.2-million effort that will include a new gymnasium and classrooms and refurbished facilities. The 17-acre park includes the community center, four baseball diamonds and tennis and basketball courts.

The 27-year delay, a product of financing problems, was finally resolved after the city sold $2.25 million in bonds in 1986 to pay for improvements at the park, at the civic center and at the city’s public works building. Last year, the city also finished paying off bonds used to finance construction of City Hall and the civic center fire station in 1962 and 1964.

Feeling Like a Stepchild

“It’s something we’ve wanted for a really long time,” said Gilbert Stokes, president of the Hollypark Homeowners Assn. “A lot of people from Hollypark have had to go to the civic center, in the heart of the city, for some activities. There was a feeling that Hollypark was not really part of the Gardena community, that it was a stepchild.”

The only city-run gym, Rush Gymnasium on 162nd Street, is in downtown Gardena near City Hall, too far for Hollypark youngsters to go unchaperoned, residents say.

“The Rush gym is booked all the time,” said Les Phillips, the city’s director of recreation and human services. “The second (city) gym at Rowley will allow us to offer more programs, more classes and more facilities for community meetings and activities.”

At least 64,000 people attend the Rowley Park center each year for community group meetings, exercise classes and baseball and softball games, said Kathy Walker, a senior recreation supervisor.

Outdoor facilities at Rowley Park will remain open this summer, throughout the renovation, Walker said. During the long wait for its new gymnasium, Hollypark has remained much the same as it was 27 years ago. Although the ethnic makeup of the neighborhood has changed from mostly white to 85% black, it is still a prosperous, quiet, middle-class community of four- and five-bedroom homes with neatly manicured lawns.

Most residents are members of the Hollypark Homeowners Assn., a civic-minded community group whose members regularly address the City Council on various issues. The group holds annual block parties and other functions throughout the year so that longtime neighbors can keep in contact and new residents can get to know each other.

But time has brought changes, too, and Hollypark homeowners are concerned about the encroachment of gangs, crime and violence from surrounding areas.

Because of those fears, improvements at the park are especially welcome.

Kai Parker, a 20-year Hollypark resident and community activist, said the new gym will provide recreation for youngsters in north Gardena, keeping them off the street and keeping crime low in Hollypark.

Parker, who raised her two sons in the neighborhood, has joined other Hollypark residents in frequently addressing the City Council on their concerns about potential crime in their neighborhood.

“I don’t think we’re a crime-infested part of the city, but the concerns of the people are legitimate,” Parker said. “We are at the boundaries of several cities that have obvious crime problems. We buffer Hawthorne, Inglewood, Lennox, the (unincorporated) county area and the city strip.”

800 Signed Petition

At a recent City Council meeting, the homeowners group presented a petition with about 800 signatures in support of increasing the Police Department budget and adding 13 officers to the force.

In an interview, association president Stokes cited a gang-related shooting on May 19 near Rosecrans and Normandie avenues, about a mile east of Hollypark. A 16-year-old member of a Gardena gang was beaten and fatally shot in a confrontation between two rival gangs. The victim’s death on June 10 was Gardena’s first confirmed gang-related death, said Lt. Ross Weddle, a police spokesman.

Stokes said more youth activities in the area could help prevent such tragedies.

In general, however, crime in Hollypark is no worse than in other areas of Gardena and in fact has decreased since 1980, Police Chief Richard Propster said.

About 19.4% of Gardena’s population of 50,000 live in Hollypark, Propster said. In 1980, 23.4% of the city’s major crimes occurred in that area, but by 1988, that figure had decreased to 17.5%, he said. In 1988, the number of major crimes citywide, including homicide, burglary, rape and robbery, was 2,747, Propster said. Of those, 481 were committed in Hollypark.

Councilman Mas Fukai, who runs or jogs at Rowley Park almost every weekend, said it is safe and well-run. Fukai, who worked with the homeowners group and a city-appointed committee on plans for the park, said it has an unfounded reputation as a haven for crime.

“The people in Hollypark wouldn’t allow it,” Fukai said. “They would chase them out.”