Historic Westside community centers have long served as safe havens

Friday mornings are busy at Doolittle Community Center. A steady stream of people walk through the door from 8 a.m., when women in exercise gear come for dance class, to 10 a.m., when the gym is a cacophony of banging metal.

At noon, dozens of children rush through the door and into the kids center, where snacks and video games lie waiting. Around 4 p.m., about 100 students crowd into the building. A computer lab and quiet classrooms that were turned into schools for distance learning make sure neighborhood students have steady Wi-Fi and homework help.

Nine schools sit within a mile of Doolittle, including the Democracy Preparatory Academy across the street. During the spring months, many of those students become part of Doolittle’s several basketball teams.

Even before Doolittle was built on J Street in 1965, community centers on the Historic Westside served as a safe gathering place for residents of all ages, offering athletics and education for children, resources for families in need and a central location for neighbors to get to know each other.

Former Doolittle Community Center Coordinator Phil Thompson remembers his childhood on the so-called Westside, an area north of downtown Las Vegas, when other nearby community centers offered children sports, board games and a snack after school.

Thompson, 58, grew up with three siblings in a residence at the Herbert Gerson Park housing project and said he started sports leagues at Doolittle in the 1980s to alleviate the gang violence created by neighborhood rivalries. The Gerson Park Kingsmen was once a widely known street gang in Southern Nevada.

“It was to bridge the gap and make the transition into gangs harder,” said Thompson, who retired from Doolittle about 15 years ago. “I see this same kid every day. I don’t want to be his enemy; I want to be his friend.”

Thompson recalled when Doolittle only had one gym despite being the largest youth basketball league in Nevada. The teams played games six days a week.

“The gang culture would have really been a lot worse than what it was at the time,” he said. “At that time, there was no middle school sports. They had done away with middle school sports programs. Kids had nowhere to go and expend their energy.”

‘Our kids are resilient’

Thompson’s childhood home at Lake Mead and Martin Luther King boulevards was torn down in 1999 because of contamination in the structure. Thompson said he was relieved because the neighborhood was associated with crime, and this paved the way for new business development in the area.

Now, Doolittle basketball encompasses 70 teams. And despite having two gyms on the property, Doolittle Recreation Coordinator Ed Dickens said, they often rent out a third space.

“Crime is down in the hours our community center is open,” Dickens said, quoting numbers he was given by the Metropolitan Police Department. “When we closed for COVID-19, the city reduced our hours because we were in a financial crisis, but they were champions for us opening back up full steam. If these kids in our community don’t have this opportunity, what else do they have?”

Dickens echoed the message that Thompson said Westside community centers have always had. Doolittle serves as a safe space with an open door for all, as long as the rivalries are dropped at the door.

Kids room assistant Jaalah Lewis, 25, said she hopes the elementary children she sees every day get the opportunities to follow their ambitious dreams.

“When you see our kids, they’re like any other kids. They have hopes and dreams,” she said. “Our kids are resilient.”

Lewis grew up at D Street and Lake Mead and now hopes to stay on the Westside, potentially buying land and opening a nonprofit foundation someday.

On the left side of the lobby this month, 30 flyers were posted as resources for residents. One advertised free mammograms, while another encouraged military service. Yet another gave details about a utility tax rebate.

Dickens said everyone is welcome to advertise at Doolittle, and local businesses often do.

Catering to diverse needs

Westside native Dawn Smith, recreation program supervisor at Pearson Community Center off Martin Luther King Boulevard, said Pearson is constantly working with new organizations to get the resources the community needs, usually right at Pearson.

“Whatever we can do to make it better for these families is what we do,” Smith said, citing the courses in personal finance, healthy relationships, Spanish and nutrition offered at Pearson.

Recently, Smith said she received a survey from the Regional Transportation Commission asking how the commission could improve service in the area, and she’s working with nearby groups to plan an Easter event for residents.

“In the ’80s, the drug problem rolled over this community,” she said. “But we improved. Then we had the depression in 2008, but we rebuilt again. It rebuilds itself. The people in the community have to be a support system for themselves.”

China Hudson, performing arts center coordinator of West Las Vegas Library Theater, said the most recent example of the community persevering together was during the pandemic. The library hosted workshops to teach parents how to become educators, the heath district set up a testing center in the parking lot, and the library continued to do what libraries do: offer free access to computers, books and other resources.

“I believe that’s when the Westside pulled together to make sure our children were OK,” Hudson said. “The libraries and community centers all said, ‘What can I do, and how can I help?’ I think we were able to make it through and make sure the children got what they needed.”

The library theater continues to offer free weekly events and workshops, like the 10th annual visit from the Contemporary Dance Company and the Joe Louis exhibit inside the library, featuring portraits and articles surrounding Lewis’ gloves and champion belt.

Lettered streets on the Westside have small plaques underneath them honoring actress Dorothy Dandridge, tennis player Althea Gibson and author Maulana Karenga.

The area around B Street is mostly dirt lots, one of which proclaims the future site of a College of Southern Nevada campus. Tucked beneath the U.S. Highway 95 and Interstate 15 interchange, commonly know as the Spaghetti Bowl, sits a neatly painted building with office spaces surrounding a grassy courtyard. The building on the far right has two murals and a plaque commemorating the oldest schoolhouse in Las Vegas.

Diane Siebrandt from the the Las Vegas Historic Preservation Commission said the Historic Westside School was originally used for local Paiute children. As the Westside became predominantly Black, the school served the children in the neighborhood, with a renovated wing, until 1967, when local schools desegregated. Now, the building houses several offices, including the KCEP-FM, 88.1, radio station.

Craig Knight, KCEP’s general manager, said the station is trusted in the neighborhood as an educational resource. Daily talk radio covers current events, mortgages, insurance plans, taxes and health care. KCEP moved into the school in 1971 and maintained the property until 2015, when the city took over.

Radio station employees also serve on Metro’s Multi-Cultural Advisory Council, where Knight said they work as liaisons between residents and the department.

“The community feels comfortable telling us what it is they want,” Knight said. “We’re able to listen to the community, bring it to the meetings and translate that to police so they can understand. We’re a happy medium.”

A hopeful future

Census data from 2021 shows that 37 percent of the Historic Westside, or 89106 ZIP code, is Black, while 42 percent of the residents are of Hispanic origin. In 2010, about 40 percent of the area was Black, while 32 percent was Hispanic.

As more Hispanic neighbors move in, Metro officer Luis Vidal is hoping soccer will help residents see the future adults of the neighborhood be more ambitious than their parents. Vidal serves as the head coach and founder of Bolden Lions, a free soccer team for high school kids that strives to get the students into college, ideally on an academic scholarship. The team requires players to maintain a minimum GPA of 2.5.

“We mandate community service or volunteerism amongst the kids in the community to teach them to value the community they live in,” Vidal said.

The team started in 2019 with 22 youngsters, including seven seniors. Vidal partnered each student with a Metro officer who served as a mentor. The officers helped with homework, college applications and scholarships, and even visited their school counselors to talk about the players’ futures. Out of their inaugural season, all seven seniors graduated, three are attending UNLV, and one has offers for summer internships with Google and Amazon.

“You may not see the results now, but generationally speaking you are making an impact to change and break cultural barriers, breaking those generational curses of repeating the same mistakes and issues,” he said.

Speaking of a hypothetical student, he added, “The dad was in prison, the brother was in prison, but not him. He has a whole different path because of mentors.”

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.