People of Richmond: Do kids have enough sports outlets?

“People of Richmond” is a regular series in which reporters pose a question to people in the community. Answers are presented verbatim, though sometimes edited for brevity.

Q: Do West Contra Costa kids have enough sports and recreation opportunities?

“I feel like there’s a lot of sports opportunities. It’s just about looking for it. She’s into ballet. She’s a different kind of sport. So it’s harder to find that type. I haven’t found a dance team or anything for her.” (Jocelyn Ortega, after school instructor, pictured above with daughter Roselyn Rodrigo)

“The school offers a large amount of opportunities when the kids are older. I wish there were more sports for the younger kids. The fields are here. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be used.”

(Alyssa Donsbach, mother)

“I have two boys who did Little League and they enjoyed that, and they did that three years. So my experience has been really good. As far as if there’s enough, I just honestly don’t know.”

(Tim Carnes, musician and teacher)

“I think the resources lie more towards like Kensington, El Cerrito and Berkeley, where
there’s a lower minority population. There’s not that many minorities there; so I think Richmond
having more minorities doesn’t always necessarily see all those resources in all of the areas that we would like them to, right? They’re in certain locations, you have to find them, they are pocketed. I think it’s definitely a work in progress where, you know, the city could step up a little bit, or maybe divide the the resources in Contra Costa, so that Richmond does have more of that.” (Mehak Jain, marine and climate scientist)

“Sí tienen oportunidades, nada más que no hay el tiempo ahorita.”

(Evelio Calderon, construction worker)

“Maybe give more sport programs to the public schools, and for the local community to give enrichment like more swimming lessons. Because every time I try to enroll my child, like I don’t have enough money, and private activities are very expensive. And every time I try to enroll them for swimming classes, they’re full. They offer just so little quantity and not everybody gets benefited. I would say for more free opportunities — or not free, but like, with affordable prices — would be great.” (Emily Velez, mother)

“I think this is a Richmond specific problem. There are more student complaints than parent complaints because students are like, ‘Where’s the soccer team?’ or ‘Where’s the basketball team?’ So I think more complaints come from students that want to be more active.” (Danielle Deveaux, speech therapist)

“No. I know it’s a budget issue with the schools, but I don’t know why they don’t have it in the neighborhoods … They do regularly elementary school things, kickball, tag, things like that. But this is when the kids should start getting into other kinds of sports: tennis, baseball. ” (Jasmine Barnes, hotel worker)

“All the kids they come out and they need distraction and exercise. Otherwise what happens to the young guys? They should open more places. Otherwise there’s going to be more problems brought to the city.” (Alfredo Valencia, retired business owner)

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