Where freedom found a home: Brooklyn, Illinois, America\u2019s oldest Black town<\/a><\/p>\nRep. Budzinski secured the funding through the Fiscal Year 2026 Community Project Funding process to build a brand-new community center and skating rink from the ground up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe village has not had a community center. A center that can bring everyone together, whether it’s kids for after school programs, giving people workforce development skills, or a place for seniors. This $2 million investment is going to provide that,\u201d said Budzinski.<\/p>\n
For Brooklyn, the first Black-incorporated town in the United States, the investment is being hailed as a long-awaited sign of progress after years of disinvestment.<\/p>\n
“That heartbeat is beating once again today,” Mayor Trenton Atkins says. “This is the day that we are still rejoicing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nA home for the next generation <\/p>\n
The site of the future center is located on Madison Street, a stretch of road that will be officially marked as part of the historic Route 66 later this summer. While the building currently stands abandoned, 9-year-old Tyland Trotter already sees the promise of what it will become.<\/p>\n
“”I can bring my friends and family here and we can skate, play around, play basketball, do everything,” Tyland said.<\/p>\n
Budzinski emphasized that the center will serve as a multi-generational hub, offering:<\/p>\n
After-school programs for childrenWorkforce development and job skills trainingA dedicated space for seniors <\/p>\n
“Getting this community center done is a really important first step,” Budzinski said. “But it cannot be the last step.”<\/p>\n
As the village awaits a formal construction timeline from federal housing officials, residents are already celebrating a changing tide. For young people like Tyland, the future of Brooklyn is no longer a distant dream \u2014 it’s already here.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always going to be some point of life where someone is going to love you,\u201d Tyland told 5 On Your Side.<\/p>\n
The funding for Brooklyn is part of a broader $34 million investment across Budzinski\u2019s 13th District.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Metro East town was awarded $2 million to build a new community center and skating rink. Congresswoman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-209045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}