27 recreation centers to open across Detroit for kids this summer

It happens each year - schools let out for the summer and teachers, superintendents even parents exhale, but only for a moment.

"There's nothing that worries me more than ... to think about what our children will be doing over the summer," said Dr.Nikolai Vitti, Detroit Public Schools superintendent.

Over the past decade, the problem of idle time has become increasingly worse in Detroit.

Recreation centers in the city went from 27 in 2006 to just 11 last year.

"It seems like that's the way it went in this city," said Mayor Mike Duggan. "When we hit on hard times, the children took the brunt of the cuts."

But come Monday all that will change for the better as the city and DPS prepare to re-open those closed-down centers.

"This is a great opportunity for our children to move off of our streets, come inside, build new friendships," said Detroit City Councilmember Andre Spivey

The city will staff these centers with 190 park and recreation employees with a cost of $625,000 for the five weeks the 27 centers will be open.

"I think this recreation is going to be a good thing because a lot of people live over here, a lot of kids ... so it's in the neighborhood," said Jamirah Edison, a student at East English High School.

Kids ages 6 to 17 will be able to come in from the summer to play in a safe and structured setting as long as they live in the city and register online or in person.

"Too many times, kids -- if you don't give them something positive to do they will find something negative to do," said Keith Flournoy, director of Detroit Parks and Recreation.

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