Beginning Monday, (2/28) Seattle Parks and Recreation will ask customers at all city community centers, including Magnolia, to sign in indicating their age group and time of arrival.
The pilot project, which will last two weeks, will help Parks staff respond to a City Council directive to reconsider how community centers are operated. After two weeks they will evaluate the information and decide whether to extend it for 10 more weeks.
This is a result of the budget problems facing the community centers. The cost to run the centers far exceeds revenue brought in from center programs. The city is exploring a variety of alternatives and that?s why they want to learn the average age groups, frequency of visits, and numbers of people visiting community centers each day.
While I understand the likely point of the program (i.e., to see which centers are used least, and put them on the chopping block), I think this will be a PITA. MCC is SO well-used, including by almost 100 parents picking up kids from Tun O Fun every evening, that I pity the poor front desk staff during this pilot.