Five years after San Diego started redirecting millions in parks money from wealthy neighborhoods to low-income areas, city officials are broadening how they measure equitable access to recreation across the city.
While funding for facilities upgrades and parks programs in low-income areas is still crucial, city officials say equity also includes citywide philanthropic efforts, expanding programs for seniors and other efforts.
To reflect that, city officials have revamped their annual parks equity report to cover more areas and to set new goals that are beyond the scope of previous reports.
“Recognizing that equity extends beyond programming, this year’s report takes a more comprehensive look at access across parks, open spaces, recreation centers and aquatics facilities,” said Salome Martinez, the city’s program equity manager.
The 62-page report covers a wide range of efforts by the San Diego Foundation, a citywide youth sports program and “age well” services for seniors.
“An accessible local park system in each community is an essential service, as it provides safe parks, recreational programs and green spaces that encourage greater physical activity, provide positive health benefits, strengthen community engagement, expand economic opportunity and improve environmental quality,” said Andy Field, the city’s parks director.
The report also covers the creation in 2024 of four joint-use parks with the San Diego Unified School District, guided nature walks and creation of community gardens in neighborhoods across the city.
While expanding the report will force the city to track its progress on a wider range of criteria, Councilmember Raul Campillo said it will also help the public understand how much the city accomplishes with limited resources.
“This is a lot of highlights that I wish more residents knew about,” Campillo said. “These are the things the public really expects of us and I think we’re really delivering on.”
The report still summarizes the shift of resources — developer impact fees — from wealthy neighborhoods to low-income areas.
A revised parks master plan the City Council approved in 2021 ended a practice of developer impact fees being used for parks projects only in the neighborhood where the development was built.
Instead, 80% of the fees are redirected to parks-deficient communities, including at least 50% to what are called communities of concern — typically low-income areas where investment by the city has historically been lacking.
In 2024, the city redirected $15.9 million to 19 projects in parks-deficient areas.
The projects, some of which have been completed, include field and lighting upgrades at Memorial Community Park, improvements to Clay Neighborhood Park in Rolando and hardcourt upgrades in Emerald Hills, Encanto, Southcrest, Skyline and Otay Mesa.
The report also focuses on a wide range of efforts by the San Diego Foundation.
They include a program called Come Play Outside, which provides discounted recreation opportunities to more than 30,000 low-income young people each year, and the parks ambassadors, which provides leadership opportunities to young people ages 16 to 24.
The foundation also sponsors Parks After Dark, which drew 37,000 participants last year, a summer movie series that drew more than 5,700 and a citywide sports program.
In 2024, citywide sports participants included 2,100 in basketball, 1,268 in soccer, 732 in flag football and 660 in volleyball.
For seniors, the city has recently opened or re-opened four facilities — Bay Terraces Community & Senior Center and Cathy Hopper Friendship Center in 2023 and the Memorial Senior Center and Park De La Cruz Community Center in 2024.
Also for seniors, the city launched a new fitness festival last year.
Along with the broadened report, the city launched a new equity in parks and recreation webpage on Nov. 17 to highlight how city investments are addressing longstanding inequities.