In poor urban communities, day care centers present themselves as places where "miracles" occur, as places where minority children are given "tender loving care" and can experience "love in action" in an otherwise hard world.
I am constantly amazed by the contrast between the lofty ideals expressed on the facades of inner-city day care centers and the mean, barred, and windowless buildings they occupy. Often, they occupy former movie theaters, stores, or old industrial buildings in the midst of decaying neighborhoods. Others occupy fortified prefabricated buildings. Children spend their days in windowless rooms or on playgrounds surrounded by cyclone fences topped with razor ribbon wire. When they go out for a stroll, they walk, holding hands, along streets lined with empty buildings and vacant lots filled with trash and rubble.
Those who work in these day care centers tell me they have to "build them like that" to prevent their equipment, furniture, and even food from getting stolen. The fortress look, they say, is a consequence of the surroundings. Day care center workers say the gritty exteriors protect interiors that are clean, safe, and colorful places where children are given fresh fruits and healthy meals and are well cared for.
Some centers in these photos, such as the Box of Joy Developmental Center in Detroit, have gone out of business. Others have added new signs in an attempt to brighten up an otherwise prisonlike building.
I am surprised at how little America's inner-city day care centers have changed over the years. Although they may be a key to their little charges' success in life, their grim appearance suggests the permanence of the American ghetto.
A few years ago worked as the IT Manager for the Head Start Program in Las Vegas, NV. Part of my job entailed getting buildings wired and ready when the program took over a building or when it came time to do upgrades. Granted Head Start isn't private day care but we ran into the exact same issues as "ghetto daycare". The program provides pre-schools to those families in need and that means we are located in the poorest parts of town.
We had a mix of "good" buildings and "bad" buildings. Getting a center into an area isn't an easy thing. First, we need a building that can meet code for day care, has capacity for inside and outside facilities and is in the area we want to serve. We got lucky and a couple of our buildings were given to us by the county and one or two built by other programs. Our grant funds are federal but the feds work with state and county agencies when they can. It should be noted that the feds don't pay for new buildings, they pay for leases on existing buildings so the program has to lease a building from private or public sources (it doesn't own any of the buildings it is in).
Anyways, the main problem is that unless you have a state or county agencies clear out a spot and build you a nice building with your exact needs in mind, you make do with what you get. This includes 30-50 yr old renovated apartment club houses, old office buildings or anything we can get our hands on that is in the general area, can be renovated to meet code for daycare and has some spot we can turn into a playground (also to code, very stringent code according to my boss at the time). We ended up with a lot of cinder block buildings with bars on the windows (or usually no windows at all) and lots of chain link and heavier fencing. Part of our renovations includes upgrading security systems and putting on heavier doors with heavy duty bars to keep a door from being rammed open with brute force. We had a couple of sites that use to have windows but the windows were removed later because the amount of break-ins and vandalizing. We couldn't keep vans on site because people would steal the gas. If we put locking gas caps on, they would reach under and cut the hose costing more to repair than to fill back up.
You see, the reason so many of these "ghetto daycares" looks like bleak prisons is well because it is the ghetto. There isn't anything fancy there to begin with because anything nice is going to get stolen or vandalized. If you want nice, you go elsewhere. If you want to "fix" it, then you are going to have to improve the lot of the whole community and that mean jobs - jobs that have a decent wage that people aren't struggling to survive on. People that aren't desperate for cash or demoralized about their lot in life tend not to turn to that kind of crime. Unfortunately a viable solution for that fix has not been found.
-- sskelley333
(To reply, click here)
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A few years ago worked as the IT Manager for the Head Start Program in Las Vegas, NV. Part of my job entailed getting buildings wired and ready when the program took over a building or when it came time to do upgrades. Granted Head Start isn't private day care but we ran into the exact same issues as "ghetto daycare". The program provides pre-schools to those families in need and that means we are located in the poorest parts of town.
We had a mix of "good" buildings and "bad" buildings. Getting a center into an area isn't an easy thing. First, we need a building that can meet code for day care, has capacity for inside and outside facilities and is in the area we want to serve. We got lucky and a couple of our buildings were given to us by the county and one or two built by other programs. Our grant funds are federal but the feds work with state and county agencies when they can. It should be noted that the feds don't pay for new buildings, they pay for leases on existing buildings so the program has to lease a building from private or public sources (it doesn't own any of the buildings it is in).
Anyways, the main problem is that unless you have a state or county agencies clear out a spot and build you a nice building with your exact needs in mind, you make do with what you get. This includes 30-50 yr old renovated apartment club houses, old office buildings or anything we can get our hands on that is in the general area, can be renovated to meet code for daycare and has some spot we can turn into a playground (also to code, very stringent code according to my boss at the time). We ended up with a lot of cinder block buildings with bars on the windows (or usually no windows at all) and lots of chain link and heavier fencing. Part of our renovations includes upgrading security systems and putting on heavier doors with heavy duty bars to keep a door from being rammed open with brute force. We had a couple of sites that use to have windows but the windows were removed later because the amount of break-ins and vandalizing. We couldn't keep vans on site because people would steal the gas. If we put locking gas caps on, they would reach under and cut the hose costing more to repair than to fill back up.
You see, the reason so many of these "ghetto daycares" looks like bleak prisons is well because it is the ghetto. There isn't anything fancy there to begin with because anything nice is going to get stolen or vandalized. If you want nice, you go elsewhere. If you want to "fix" it, then you are going to have to improve the lot of the whole community and that mean jobs - jobs that have a decent wage that people aren't struggling to survive on. People that aren't desperate for cash or demoralized about their lot in life tend not to turn to that kind of crime. Unfortunately a viable solution for that fix has not been found.
-- sskelley333
(To reply, click here)