Local Latinos will never like the Aguirre center

Don't let today's KC Star article about the newly remodeled Aguirre Center mislead you. They can hand out free money in front of the place and it still won't meet the community's approval.

Two reasons that the Aguirre Center has been a failure:

1. There was little community input. They hired a Latina developer that has since disappeared from public view. City officials didn't talk to the people that lived here for generations about the design or construction. This basic lack of respect will always be an insult to longtime residents and if my family is any indication, Mexicans can hold a grudge forever. It's nearly impossible to build anything in the suburbs without consulting dozens of white people, local Chicanos (mistakenly) feel they should be given the same respect. Incidentally, this is why condo developers in this part of town face so many hurdles.

b. And this is tricky and I'm trying to be a better person about it everyday but generally speaking Mexicans don't like Blacks. My sweet, lovable and wonderful Grandma who has never hurt a person (that wasn't related) in her life once bragged that a Black person had never stepped foot in her home. The Aguirre Center is frequented by Black kids from a surrounding housing project and little Chicano kids embarrassingly losing at basketball gets old after a while.

You'll see more neighborhood participation at the nearby dilapidated Sacred Heart gym than you will find at the posh Aguirre place. It's further away from the two Black enclaves on the Westside and you have to be a "parishioner" to use the facilities . . . do the math yourself. Anyway, the story of the Aguirre Center is that it's pretty much a waste for the reasons that I've offered. Essentially, it's a community center without a community. And while the reasons for its lack of utilization are unkind and ugly, they are probably more honest than the PR that emanates from Country Club Kay and The Star.