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Some many years and years ago, I was at a meeting where the subject of the land the William J. Oakes Boys and Girls Club was sitting on was brought up for discussion. The Club is located on Marcey Avenue between South 29th and South 30th Street, within the Memorial complex; the land belongs to City parks and is leased to the Club. As I recall, there are two buildings on the property, the main building which houses offices, meeting rooms, a gymnasium and a recreation room, and an adjoining building that houses an Olympic-sized pool.
At the time the discussion arose (this had to be over twenty years ago), the Boys Club property had deteriorated. From the exterior of the building, which sits in the middle of the block, to the corner of S. 30th, there was a chain-link fenced open area that had at one time hosted baseball games and other activities. For years, the field had rarely been used, and was overgrown with weeds that were occasionally trimmed down to bare dirt where cars sometimes parked.
This issue was raised at a meeting of the Memorial Recreation Council, a group of people who advise the Park and Recreation Department on matters pertaining to Park and Rec facilities within their jurisdiction. The concern, and later the consensus, of the people attending the meeting was that if the Boys Club wasn’t using the land then they should return it to the Park Department. Anyone familiar with the history of the area knows that the struggle over Park and Rec facilities, who gets to use them, control them, run them, staff them, can be contentious and controversial. At the last minute, alumni and others from the Boys Club came to fight the proposal before the Recreation Council, but as residents argued, they’d had many years to put the field into some kind of order but nothing had been done and it was time to move on. As I recall, the Park and Rec Department eventually did take the land in question back from the Boys Club but did little to improve it, didn’t even remove the fence surrounding the field; basically, taking the land back was a repossession in name only.
Some years later, a proposal to build a skateboard park on the field was brought forward and approved. Many residents felt that this skateboard park would be a good thing for the children of the community. Other people had more of a “wait-and-see” attitude. As part of the agreement, the people who were involved in the planning process asked that the park be a no-fee facility.
Named after a lady, and her husband, who had been active in the community, the Maxine and Bill Wilson skateboard park was an big success from the day it opened. The facility was publicized on skate websites, which drew skateboarders from everywhere to come and try out the new park. When the park opened, the Park Department had imposed an admission fee, which had not been part of the original agreement. As I recall the reason given was that all City skateboard parks charged admission and this skateboard park could not be an exception. While the fee was minimal, the net result was that community residents and Council members complained that minority children from within the community were standing outside the fence watching white children from wealthier communities using the facilities. The response from the Park Department was that all City parks were public parks and open to everyone.
At night, the local kids were jumping the fence and skateboarding. They were skating with no helmets, under bad lighting conditions, with no adult supervision, and in a dangerous environment; park workers reported that they were finding gang graffiti scrawled in the skateboard park basins when they arrived in the mornings. The Council and concerned residents brought up the skateboard park issue with Park and Rec staff and with the San Diego Police at every meeting, but the situation continued to deteriorate.
The budget crisis hit the City, and in January of this year all skateboard park employees were re-assigned, and the skateboard parks were opened free of charge to the public. At first this seemed to be a good thing for the children of the community, as they finally had the free and unlimited access to a facility which they had been promised in the planning stages. There is another side to the skate culture; inevitably, the skateboard park at Memorial began to attract a rougher, hardcore element. Drugs, drinking, smoking became a commonplace part of the skate scene there. The children were being exposed to that strange vibe, it was being integrating into their lives, and into the community’s environment. Days were bad, nights were worse. Not a month went by that the Memorial Recreation Council didn’t hear reports of full-out fight clubs, drunken brawls, girls under threat of attack, blood found on the premises, at the skateboard park.
The Memorial Rec Council asked the Park Department to re-staff the skateboard park but were told it wasn’t possible. The City instead provided and installed security cameras at the park, on the playing fields, and at the swimming pool; the police also increased their patrols and enforcement in the immediate area. The City is currently looking into allowing trained volunteers to staff the skateboard park. In the meantime, the problems at the skateboard park have decreased considerably. People who use the playing fields daily report that the situation appears to be under control at the moment.
Some many years and years ago, I was at a meeting where the subject of the land the William J. Oakes Boys and Girls Club was sitting on was brought up for discussion. The Club is located on Marcey Avenue between South 29th and South 30th Street, within the Memorial complex; the land belongs to City parks and is leased to the Club. As I recall, there are two buildings on the property, the main building which houses offices, meeting rooms, a gymnasium and a recreation room, and an adjoining building that houses an Olympic-sized pool.
At the time the discussion arose (this had to be over twenty years ago), the Boys Club property had deteriorated. From the exterior of the building, which sits in the middle of the block, to the corner of S. 30th, there was a chain-link fenced open area that had at one time hosted baseball games and other activities. For years, the field had rarely been used, and was overgrown with weeds that were occasionally trimmed down to bare dirt where cars sometimes parked.
This issue was raised at a meeting of the Memorial Recreation Council, a group of people who advise the Park and Recreation Department on matters pertaining to Park and Rec facilities within their jurisdiction. The concern, and later the consensus, of the people attending the meeting was that if the Boys Club wasn’t using the land then they should return it to the Park Department. Anyone familiar with the history of the area knows that the struggle over Park and Rec facilities, who gets to use them, control them, run them, staff them, can be contentious and controversial. At the last minute, alumni and others from the Boys Club came to fight the proposal before the Recreation Council, but as residents argued, they’d had many years to put the field into some kind of order but nothing had been done and it was time to move on. As I recall, the Park and Rec Department eventually did take the land in question back from the Boys Club but did little to improve it, didn’t even remove the fence surrounding the field; basically, taking the land back was a repossession in name only.
Some years later, a proposal to build a skateboard park on the field was brought forward and approved. Many residents felt that this skateboard park would be a good thing for the children of the community. Other people had more of a “wait-and-see” attitude. As part of the agreement, the people who were involved in the planning process asked that the park be a no-fee facility.
Named after a lady, and her husband, who had been active in the community, the Maxine and Bill Wilson skateboard park was an big success from the day it opened. The facility was publicized on skate websites, which drew skateboarders from everywhere to come and try out the new park. When the park opened, the Park Department had imposed an admission fee, which had not been part of the original agreement. As I recall the reason given was that all City skateboard parks charged admission and this skateboard park could not be an exception. While the fee was minimal, the net result was that community residents and Council members complained that minority children from within the community were standing outside the fence watching white children from wealthier communities using the facilities. The response from the Park Department was that all City parks were public parks and open to everyone.
At night, the local kids were jumping the fence and skateboarding. They were skating with no helmets, under bad lighting conditions, with no adult supervision, and in a dangerous environment; park workers reported that they were finding gang graffiti scrawled in the skateboard park basins when they arrived in the mornings. The Council and concerned residents brought up the skateboard park issue with Park and Rec staff and with the San Diego Police at every meeting, but the situation continued to deteriorate.
The budget crisis hit the City, and in January of this year all skateboard park employees were re-assigned, and the skateboard parks were opened free of charge to the public. At first this seemed to be a good thing for the children of the community, as they finally had the free and unlimited access to a facility which they had been promised in the planning stages. There is another side to the skate culture; inevitably, the skateboard park at Memorial began to attract a rougher, hardcore element. Drugs, drinking, smoking became a commonplace part of the skate scene there. The children were being exposed to that strange vibe, it was being integrating into their lives, and into the community’s environment. Days were bad, nights were worse. Not a month went by that the Memorial Recreation Council didn’t hear reports of full-out fight clubs, drunken brawls, girls under threat of attack, blood found on the premises, at the skateboard park.
The Memorial Rec Council asked the Park Department to re-staff the skateboard park but were told it wasn’t possible. The City instead provided and installed security cameras at the park, on the playing fields, and at the swimming pool; the police also increased their patrols and enforcement in the immediate area. The City is currently looking into allowing trained volunteers to staff the skateboard park. In the meantime, the problems at the skateboard park have decreased considerably. People who use the playing fields daily report that the situation appears to be under control at the moment.