Residents of Pacific Beach banded together last month to send a message to Mayor Todd Gloria and City Council President Joe LaCava: Leave the toys alone at Fanuel Street Park.
It fell on deaf ears. According to Pacific Beach parents, the toys were removed Tuesday.
Their original letter, e-mailed on Feb. 5, was co-signed by 33 San Diego residents whose children frequent the park.
“Not all parents can afford group child care, and not all parents were able to move their toddlers off wait-lists and into public (transitional kindergarten) programs, but this free group play experience helps fill the void in their socio-emotional education. Our children love to come to this park and look forward to discovering the ‘new’ toys,” the letter said.
Sara O’Connell, a 20-year resident of Pacific Beach and mother to a 4-year-old boy, said in early February a city worker informed parents that a longtime staple of Fanuel Street Park – donated toys – would be cleared out in the coming months.
“It was alarming because I don’t see how it costs the city anything, they all appear to be donor-provided,” O’Connell said. “If they want to focus on cleaning up the park, there are certainly things that they could clean up.”
This is after Fanuel Street Park’s playground was deemed unsafe and removed in August, leaving a sandpit, spring toys and a swing set. There are no short-term plans to replace the play structure due to a lack of funding, according to Nicole Darling, the director of San Diego’s communications department.
Darling said removal of the toys comes in an interest of safety and park maintenance.
“Unfortunately, the toys interfere with our teams maintenance activities including raking and tilling the sand area, litter removal, sweeping and clearing walkways of sand and other obstructions and inspecting the area to identify maintenance/repair needs and other safety concerns,” she said. “These toys are not the city’s to maintain or store on park property and impact the cleanliness of the park and surrounding area.”
Times of San Diego contacted LaCava’s office several times and was directed to the Parks and Recreation Department, which has yet to respond.
Parents wrote that it is hard for them to understand why the city would try to undermine volunteers’ efforts to provide alternatives for children to play.
“The toy lot has been at the park as long as one parent can remember, at least 15 years,” they wrote. “Please don’t try and fix what isn’t broken; leave the toy situation at Fanuel Street Park tot lot as-is.”
After sending the email to her representatives, O’Connell said she had not received any response. She said she attended a Feb. 18 town hall meeting where she handed the letter to LaCava in-person.
“We are not asking them to pay for anything; that’s what just kills me,” O’Connell said. “You’ve got a whole bunch of moms and kids who live here who say, ‘Leave things as is, it costs you nothing.’ I don’t understand what the fight is about.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
