As we are all growing weary of the the pandemic and all the many adjustments to our daily lives, parks have become our refuge. Here in San Diego where I live, parks were closed for some time and then finally reopened. I am fortunate to live in a part of San Diego with access to a wide variety of open areas, beaches, bays, grasses fields, tree lined trails along Rose Creek and much more if I leave my community but not all San Diegans are so fortunate.
Some of our older communities and especially communities of color don’t have the same level of access. The City of San Diego has proposed the Parks Master Plan to solve the problem. But are trying to force it through in the middle of pandemic with no public outreach nor opportunity for all communities to help shape an effort that will give every community great parks.
Image by Stan Petersen from Pixabay
But with all the other planning efforts to increase housing by reducing development impact fees, the plan boils down to taking half of these funds away from communities like mine and giving them to lower income communities. While I have no problem with this, half of nothing is still nothing, so it’s a slight of hand.
What we need our next mayor to do is find funding for parks including capital projects as well as funding for our amazing rangers, operations, and maintenance. A great playground doesn’t stay great without upkeep.
Read my opinion piece in Voice of San Diego.