SAN DIEGO — CBS 8 received pictures from viewers showing unsanitary conditions in the public bathrooms at Kellogg Park at the south end of La Jolla Shores.
“The bathroom stalls at this point are looking like a third-world country and they are not being cleaned when they normally should be,” said Janie Emerson, president of the La Jolla Shores Association. “No toilet paper, debris all over the floors, feces and urine all over the floors, dirty toilets, broken changing tables. This is an ongoing problem, and it needs to be addressed by the city. People aren’t going to want to come and experience this kind of filth. It’s ridiculous.”
President Emerson points out that many families and children from all over the city frequently visit the park.
“You don’t want your kids to use a bathroom that looks like it’s been through the war, so to speak,” said Emerson.
“It is unacceptable,” said District 1 City Councilmember for San Diego, Joe LaCava, who is working to resolve this issue with the Mayor’s Office and the Parks and Recreation Department.
“This is the time of year when spring break does bring more individuals and unlike days and years gone by where spring break was more predictable, when you knew exactly when it was going to happen,” said Councilmember LaCava. “Spring break seems to be a little more scattered now, so they may not have allocated the resources to pick up the extra activities that resulted in the problems that we see,”
“I think when there’s activity like, when the colleges have activity or if it’s a holiday or spring break, I think there’s just a lot of people that head down here and just trash it up,” said La Jolla resident, Phil Hill.
According to the City, the bathrooms are only cleaned once a day right now, due to staffing shortages, but normally they’d be cleaned twice a day, especially during spring break, and even three times a day during summertime.
The city is finding it hard to fill these positions.
“The city needs to take a look at their hiring practices and create incentives for people to do these jobs,” said Emerson. “It may be an entry-level job, but it impacts the entire economy of the City of San Diego.”
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