The state-of-the-art $2.9 million San Jose Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services project funded by the 2000 Parks Bond only opened on Aug. 21, but its construction, begun 18 months earlier, revitalized the heart of the community, said Gardner Advisory Council and Greater Gardner Coalition member Norma Mendez.

"It's already opened eyes," she said. "People are fixing up their houses and becoming homeowners."

This older San Jose neighborhood, which has some of the worst paved streets in the city, is part of the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative and is targeted to receive city improvements, but it's taken decades for the community to learn to voice its needs, Norma Mendez said.

"In our neighborhood, people said, 'We're SNI so the city is not going to listen to us,'" she said. "Residents had doubts, but we were trying to tell them just to ask."

Seeing the 12,400-square-foot center—doubled in size—with a teen game room, fitness room, restaurant-style kitchen, computer lab, library/reading room, and craft and multipurpose room where Mexican folkloric dancers performed for the festivities, Ed Alfaro struggled to find words to express the occasion's significance.

"I look at it and say it's a blessing," Alfaro said. "I'm moved and touched that the city found money for us when there was no money."

The city provided $900,000 in grants for the artwork and furnishings, but the bulk of the $2.9 million expense was paid by voter-approved bond Measure P.

"If the bigger community can provide funds for us, we want to make this work for everyone," Alfaro said.

Originally housed in a residence at the 520 W. Virginia Street site, the previous 5,000-square-foot community center was "not safe, wasted space and had no separations between offices and kids," Norma Mendez said. Neighbors had been asking for years when an adequate community center would be built, she said.

The groundbreaking took place in March 2003, and 18 months later the results of that labor were unveiled.

"It's a project of 35 years, not just one year of construction," said Javier Salazar, who has lived in the community for more than three decades and is director of Aztlan Academy, where he teaches cultural dance and music. The academy will hold classes at the center. The late Dr. Ernest Galarza, a Chicano studies professor at San José State University, invited Salazar to bring folkloric dance to San Jose in 1972, Salazar said.

"Gardner was an area that Dr. Galarza was very interested in," he said.

Salazar added that generations of dedicated families who have been active in the area known as the "horseshoe barrio" have been working for a strong neighborhood for years.

"It's now their grandchildren who are here," he said. "I see it as the beginning of many improvements. With this community center, it's going to be a vibrant place to live and raise a family."

Liz Ortiz, who has lived in the Gardner neighborhood her whole life and is an SNI community activity worker for the city, said she was overwhelmed.

"I grew up here and played in the old center," she said. "It's great to give back where you grew up. The children will have something to be proud of."

Ortiz said she was giving a senior citizen a tour of the building before the ceremony when the woman turned to her and said, "It's like heaven."

North Willow Glen Neighborhood Association board member Dan Erceg said he was thrilled with the outcome.

"A lot of people take public facilities for granted," Erceg said. "This community has been so shortchanged they don't take anything for granted."

Other residents like Clark Williams, who lives on Spencer Avenue, will also benefit from the renovation. He brought his 1-year-old daughter to survey the surroundings.

"It will definitely be a good place for her to interact with neighborhood kids when she's older," he said. "We've all been watching it go up, and it's going to get a lot of use."

Norma Mendez agreed that the center will be popular with youth, since it lies across the street from Gardner Academy.

She said that the community center's greatest benefit would be for local teenagers.

"We need to keep these teens busy and get them while they're young," she said.

Lincoln High School student Jaclyn Torres said she was looking forward to using the weight room and having a place to hang out.

Gardner Community Center Director Tony Torres said that center will now be a true multipurpose facility. In addition to the existing after-school youth program, the center could finally provide services and activities for all ages.

One of those services is the city-funded senior nutrition program, which would provide transportation to the center for meals and recreational activities five days a week for seniors who don't leave the house, Torres said.

The community center will also offer classes in aerobics, ceramics, folkloric and hip-hop dance and martial arts. The parks and recreational staff also plan to organize a coed intramural sports league at the adjacent Biebrach Park, he said.

The community center has a plaza that opens into Biebrach Park and links the basketball courts, handball court, a swimming pool, picnic benches and walking trails into a seamless configuration. But none of it would be possible without the effort of those living in the area. "This place was community-driven," Torres said.

Residents were involved with everything from the center's architectural design to choosing programs to public artwork.

Torres said the artist, Stephen Farley, who created 18 photographic panels that celebrate Gardner neighborhood heroes—went door-to-door to look at photo albums before choosing the pictures, which he hand-glazed onto porcelain tile to create black-and-white murals.

In an area that has struggled with gangs, Alfaro said that he's overheard people say they are surprised that the building has not been vandalized by graffiti.

The people who live in Gardner neighborhood watched the building take shape, learning to value what they were given, and "in the process, grew up," he said.

Torres is also confident that the center would be respected.

"The community center has always been like a second home," he said. "There's a lot of buy-in."

Greater Gardner Coalition Chairman Kevin Christman called on neighbors to make the center and park a "safe place for all families." Gardner Advisory Council President Reymundo Mendez said that challenges still lie ahead.

When the city announced the plan to transform the "horseshoe" cul-de-sac on Willis Avenue that lies behind the center—a historic place of gang murders—into the "Circle of Dreams," some community members were unhappy that the memories of those lost would be forgotten. But Mendez said, "We can't stop what's happened in the past, but we can sure help the younger generation."

The new community center is the beginning of many positive changes, Christman added, including future street improvements and beautification with historic lampposts.

Norma Mendez credited San Jose District 3 Councilwoman Cindy Chavez and Assistant City Manager Mark Linder for listening to the community's need.

And Chavez praised the community volunteers like Reymundo and Norma Mendez and Christman who envisioned the project becoming a reality.

"We were dreaming this is what we wanted," Christman said. "Now everybody knows it can happen."