Last year, the Park District of Oak Park (PDOP) had the official ribbon-cutting ceremony for its spectacular (for now) new Community Recreation Center, already known locally as the CRC. After a tour of this facility — solar-powered and environmentally-friendly, with a terrific workout floor, multi-sport athletic courts, great walking/running track — I gladly shed my longtime FFC membership for the Oak Park resident rate of $25 a month at the CRC.
Far closer to my home on the southern edge of Oak Park, it not only saved me over $100 a month, but more than halved my commute to working out. Another benefit personally is numerous spaces to write and do other work on my laptop. I’m both impressed and super-happy with the CRC and its friendly staff.
Except from 3:30 to 6 weekdays. Then it turns into somewhat of a chaotic hellscape.
OK, perhaps hellscape is a tad dramatic, but also maybe not, depending on who you ask. You see, around 3:30 each weekday afternoon the peaceful, warm ambiance of the CRC is changed by the invasion of screaming, cursing kids, seemingly intent on being as disruptive as possible for the full extent of their inhabitance of the building (some may say takeover).
PDOP has established an after-school program for kids, a laudable effort. But the issue is, nobody seems to be overseeing the program, or at least not very well.
First: it’s not the kids fault. Lest anyone who’s reading this and knew me and my friends when I was 14 accuse me of being a raging hypocrite, let me declare: When I was these kids’ age, myself and my fellow delinquents were intent on thumbing our collective noses at adult authority at any possible opportunity, especially after school, with pent-up aggression unleashed in places like shopping malls, video arcades, and convenience stores.
I get it — these kids at the CRC are doing exactly what their changing bodies and minds demand, figuring out their place in the world and testing the limits of what they can get away with. It’s easy to forget how things were when we were in junior high and annoyed now by adolescent behavior. We’ve all been there to some extent. These kids are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing, creating havoc.
But I and my fellow obnoxious friends knew where we could or could not get away with such behavior, or what consequences we would face if we went too far. At the CRC, it seems, our juvenile fellow citizens have nothing to fear as far as being reigned in, and act accordingly.
But as mentioned earlier, a big asset of joining the CRC is the brand-spanking-new exercise equipment and building. A lovely place, but currently being attacked by pubescent hordes with very little to no discernible supervision. A very Oak Park code of conduct is posted in several areas, but the expectations spelled out in it are almost uniformly so blatantly ignored, it seems like the signs are hung as some sort of parody.
It has been explained to this writer by numerous members of the CRC staff that the PDOP has an organizational structure that places the management of the CRC and its staff separate from the management and staff of the after-school program. And the facility-specific staff has been told that they are to say nothing to the kids as they seemingly break every rule possible, congregating in places where they aren’t supposed to, eating snacks and drinks where they aren’t supposed to be consumed (like the exercise floor or in the gym) and yelling, screaming, and cursing freely. Several staff members, with growing frustration every day, have expressly said they were told they don’t have the necessary training to deal with the little miscreants, I mean students, so they can’t tell them to stop doing the things they’re not supposed to be doing.
Hey, I don’t know how much training it takes to tell kids to stop drinking Cokes on the exercise floor, turning up the treadmill all the way and running on it in Crocs, or throwing gummy worms on the gym floor, but I guess I wouldn’t be qualified either.
Lest you think I’m overreacting, the elevator was out of commission for a few weeks after the kids repeatedly jumped up and down while riding it, causing it to break down and the fire department to be called to rescue them. On another occasion I was present when the police department was there to break up a scuffle.
If the kids are just being kids, then what is the solution? Well, from my observations and discussions, it seems the after-school program is staffed, in part at least, by kids themselves, not much older than the children they are ostensibly supervising. This, unsurprisingly, doesn’t seem to lead to orderly activities. The entire structure of the program seems to be no structure at all, but rather letting the kids do whatever they want wherever in the building they want.
The CRC is a wonderful place, a great addition to Oak Park, and I encourage everyone to use it. If you can only go there from 3:30 to 6:00 p.m. make sure you bring your headphones, blinders, and a generous helping of patience.
Paul Turner, former hellion, is an Oak Park resident and member at the Community Recreation Center.
