ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE

Salgado Center Is a Big Plus It took nearly two decades to get the community center built in Rosita Park in Santa Ana. Officials could be forgiven for wondering if they would have been better off to build a smaller, cheaper building so they’d have something to show for all that planning. But the city was correct to wait and do things the right way. Open a year now, the $3.3-million, 18,000-square-foot Albert D. Salgado Community Center is a big hit, attracting about 200 children, teenagers, senior citizens and other adults each day.

Most community centers in Santa Ana are smaller than 1,000 square feet. That’s enough space to contain one or two meeting rooms, but it’s not big enough to provide much incentive for a wide variety of groups. Salgado has an outdoor lap pool, game room, multipurpose room and gymnasium with basketball court. Those kinds of facilities lure teenagers, who often complain there isn’t much for them to do in Santa Ana after school.

Rosita Park, not far from Santa Ana’s western border with Garden Grove, didn’t get too much use from neighborhood residents before the center was built. In part that was due to a perception that the park had become a magnet for gang members in recent years.

A top parks official in the city said Santa Ana needs more community centers, especially to provide after-school activities. The suggestion that schools be kept open after hours, to let students use computers or play sports, is worth considering. So is the current use of surveys and community meetings, coordinated by a part-time worker, to determine the types of activities parents would like their children involved in.

Santa Ana also is trying to find funds for a community center even larger than the Salgado facility on a 10-acre site at Delhi Park on the city’s east side. Even if that center does get built someday, Santa Ana unfortunately still will have far fewer community centers than other cities of comparable size.

The Salgado center has been used for first communion parties, baptisms in the pool, school district meetings and cultural events. It’s the sort of building that can be a centerpiece and help foster a sense of community. Santa Ana is right to keep searching for funds to build more such centers.