The City of Columbia recently had the grand opening of the Busby Street Community Resource and Training Complex near Farrow Road.
Change doesn’t always happen overnight. That was certainly the case with the City of Columbia’s long-planned community center on Busby Street, in the Burton Heights/Standish Acres neighborhood near Farrow Road.
But now, after more than a decade of planning, change has come to Busby Street, which is on the north side of the Clyburn Pedestrian Bridge that spans SC-277. On Nov. 20, the city hosted a grand opening for the Busby Street Community Resource and Training Complex.
The complex has two buildings: A nearly 7,000-square-foot community center to be run by the city’s parks and recreation department, and a 1,400 square-foot-facility that will serve as the Columbia Police Department’s Office of Community Resources.
The community center building has a large multi-purpose room that can be divided into three smaller rooms; three offices; a kitchen; and a conference room. There also is a walking trail and a playground on the Busby Street complex property.
The police substation will house the department’s Assisting Columbia’s Elderly (ACE) program, its school resource officer program and its citizens police academy.
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin says the new community complex brings a long-desired facelift to the Busby Street section of Burton Heights/Standish Acres.
“This particular street, a dead-end street that dead ends right into that pedestrian bridge there, was just a nightmare,” Benjamin says. “Overrun with crime and drugs and anything you can think of that you didn’t want in your neighborhood was there. So, we reclaimed it and made an investment in something that, now, the neighborhood can be proud of.”
The $3 million project — which used a mix of federal and city funds — was shepherded by the Columbia Empowerment Zone, a nonprofit economic development corporation that works directly with the city. The Columbia nonprofit is one that grew out of the federal Sumter-Columbia Empowerment Zone, a program that ended in 2009 and was intended to alleviate urban blight.
U.S. Rep Jim Clyburn appeared at the Nov. 20 opening of the Busby Street complex. He says the new facility is a strong example of the intent of empowerment zones.
“The concept of an empowerment zone is to bring diverse community groups together around the same table and seek common ground,” Clyburn said. “We’re not born into unity. We develop experiences along the way that make us all uniquely different, and we will grow as a community when we can bring all those experiences into the same room, around the same table, giving honor and respect to everybody’s life experiences, and try to find ways to bring those experiences into a viable effort on the part of the communities in which we all live.
“This project is one of the best experiences of what an empowerment zone is supposed to be about.”
District 2 City Councilman Ed McDowell, a minister, saw an almost Biblical element to the Busby Street center’s completion after many years of planning.
“That dead-end street has now become possibility that enwraps itself in hope, in promises,” McDowell said on Nov. 20. “Resurrection always comes after something is dead. As I understand the theological motifs attached to that, it took [Jesus] three days. It took us a little longer for resurrection. But guess what? It’s up and it’s running. New hope, promise, protection.”
Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook, who often extols the concepts of community policing, says he’s particularly intrigued by having a police facility on the same site as a community center run by parks and rec.
“This is the first time we will be co-mingling with parks and recreation, and I think that will absolutely lead to a great opportunity to collaborate with parks to bring community events and strengthen relationships that make communities safer,” Holbrook said.
Benjamin notes that the opening of the vibrant new Busby Street center could lead to greater walking traffic across the Clyburn Pedestrian Bridge.
“I’ve seen more pedestrians on the bridge lately than I ever have,” the mayor says. “I hope it is an attractive way to pull people in. There are police there, there is additional lighting, there’s a walking trail there for the seniors and a playground for the children. I think it will enhance public safety. It drives me crazy, particularly when I see children running across 277. That’s so dangerous. So, hopefully it will encourage active use of the bridge.”
