SAN DIEGO — The Mesa Verde Park in Mira Mesa playground will soon have a new sandbox and missing parts will be replaced.
CBS 8 is working for you, and getting answers from the City of San Diego after viewers contacted us about their local park and playground.
Mayor Todd Gloria’s office contacted CBS 8 after our story aired and said that the Mayor’s office and City Councilmember Kent Lee’s office, which represents the area, met at the park to see what is wrong.
We met with the Director of the San Diego Parks and Recreation Department Andy Field. He manages hundreds of maintenance staff assigned to take care of city parks daily.
But for the past couple of weeks, we’ve reported stories with viewers who are unhappy about the condition of their local park. He said, “We're working very hard to meet the needs of the community to the extent we can with the budgets and resources we have.”
We asked Field about Mesa Verde Park with its missing playground equipment and sandbox that neighbors tell us has not been replenished or even raked in years. He said the playground structure has a life expectancy of 15-20 years. It was built in 2002. He says it’s still safe to play on, but it’s at the end of its service life. He said the missing seesaw and missing ladder have been ordered and they’re hoping to have them replaced and in play in the next 2-3 months.
As for the sandbox, Field said, “The sandbox does need to be replaced and replenished. That should be done as soon as possible. I'm hoping this week or the next week. It shouldn't take that long.”
Field said the top priority right now is a $40 million expansion and rebuild of a section of the Mira Mesa Community Park plus coordinated projects with San Diego Unified Schools expanding 2 a middle school and elementary school park areas.
So how does the city pick and choose which areas and parks get updated?
Field said the city focuses its efforts based on feedback it gets from community groups, recreation groups, and town councils. “We highly recommend that residents take the time to visit their recreation group monthly and to go to the planning group to vocalize concerns.”
But viewers have expressed to CBS 8 that they feel like the city spends more money in the nicer neighborhoods, and the more diverse neighborhoods like Mira Mesa, get neglected, and they aren't wrong.
A 2021 city audit found a funding disparity that benefited recreation centers and parks in wealthier communities.
Field said a report five years ago found the city has hundreds of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance issues at parks, and over the past couple of years San Diego City Council adopted a new parks Master Plan that called for the consolidation of development impact fees and to use that money to pay for the installation of new facilities, make improvements, expand parks, and address those deferred maintenance issues. He said, “We are trying to catch up after years of being disinvested, and that catch-up will take some time because we have such a staggeringly huge workload to address.”
Even though the Mesa Verde Neighborhood Park is old, it’s not slated for replacement or updating anytime soon.
Right now the city is focusing on a $40 million expansion and rebuilding of part of the Mira Mesa Community Park. So how does the City pick which parks get the high-dollar improvement projects?
Field said it listens to feedback from community groups like recreation groups and town councils.
“We highly recommend that residents take the time to visit their recreation group monthly and to go to the planning group to vocalize concerns. Without having volunteers and hearing feedback we can't manage San Diego parks as well as they would like," Fields added.
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