Last week, former San Diego City Councilmember Donna Frye sent one of the staffers for Mayor Todd Gloria a picture of poop. \u201cThis Kodak Moment is from Mission Bay Park this morning near one of the closed bathrooms. Please share with the mayor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frye was adding hers to the ongoing hum of voices upset at the city\u2019s closure of restrooms in Mission Bay Park, some of which were just recently constructed. It\u2019s not going away. Councilmember Raul Campillo, whose effort to re-open them went somewhat viral, kept up his case. He sent a survey to subscribers to his newsletter and found that 98 percent of them think that the city should follow his plan to re-allocate a budget item set aside for a ballot measure that won\u2019t happen to open the bathrooms.<\/p>\n
Engaging frustrated residents about the budget seems to be part of the goal.<\/p>\n
The city could have just locked the bathrooms \u2014 they do this all the time \u2014 but staff added context with signs that read: \u201cClosed until further notice due to budget reductions.\u201d Helpfully, an angsty bathroom-needer is invited to scan a QR code to find the nearest restroom.<\/p>\n
You may assume that would lead to an interactive map that shows where you are and where the nearest relief is. It does not. It leads to the Mission Bay Park site<\/a> on sandiego.gov and if you scroll down, you can see a link to \u201crestroom availability.\u201d That leads to a PDF map of which restrooms are closed and which are not. If a visitor doesn\u2019t know where they are in Mission Bay, maybe they can flip back and forth between Google maps and the PDF and figure it out.<\/p>\n (They could have just printed the map instead of the QR code on the sign but then you wouldn\u2019t get to learn how many acres the park is, which is maybe calming as you try to hold it.)<\/p>\n The Politics Report reached out to Frye for her thoughts. She\u2019s long been an advocate for Mission Bay. In 2008 she helped pass Measure C, which set in motion the concept of keeping some of the lease revenue from all the hotels and attractions there in the park. And in 2016, Measure J allowed more of that money to be used for things like restrooms.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why there are new restrooms being built even while the city can\u2019t keep them open.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mayor and Council have stepped in it again,\u201d she said. \u201cSorry, this just lends itself too easily to potty humor.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a problem that can be easily corrected and will cost a lot more than what you save in dollars and in good will and bad publicity and public sentiment and in the health hazards you\u2019re creating,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s such a small amount of money in the grand scheme of San Diego\u2019s finances. It is hard to figure out what\u2019s really going on here. The \u201cdue to budget reductions\u201d signs and the stubbornness to budge or find a creative solution does contribute to a theory that the city leaders want you to feel the angst and translate it into \u201cwe should give the city more money.\u201d<\/p>\n But they\u2019re also not asking for more money. They have new money from the new trash fee, and Measure C, the hotel room tax \u2013 specifically a tax on visitors who are the exact type of people who need public restrooms in Mission Bay park.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s nothing else even on the horizon. \u201cThis city needs more revenue\u201d is a fine position for someone to take but then maybe they should take it?<\/p>\n Instead, we\u2019re left with no hope. The message is: We don\u2019t have the money. Your ideas for finding the money are childish and short-sighted. Just download the PDF and move along.<\/p>\n Where\u2019s Jen?<\/p>\n Campillo saw a leadership opportunity in the Mission Bay situation and jumped on it. As he prepares to run for mayor, this is perfect.<\/p>\n But this also isn\u2019t his district.<\/p>\n Similarly, last week, Council President Joe LaCava took to the socials and excoriated the kids for jumping off Sunset Cliffs. Like all great things, social media has turned a slightly-less-known gem into a trending spot and hordes of young people have headed to the most prominent jumping spot. A couple of them chose more daring versions and required rescue. One hopes to walk again.<\/p>\n Rescues at the Cliffs are nothing new. But the volume of jumpers is and so then is the volume of injuries.<\/p>\n Like a good dad, LaCava\u2019s statement was part warning, part threat.<\/p>\n \u201cI am concerned about what actions the city might take to protect the sensitive cliffs, including fencing the cliffs from the public,\u201d he said. \u201cDon\u2019t be the one that pushes the city towards closures.\u201d<\/p>\n He said they should look to joining the junior lifeguards annual jumps off the pier in La Jolla if they want to jump in the ocean. I love that. I picture him with a clipboard going to some 22 year old about to jump and saying, hey, would you consider paying $150 and waiting a year for a chance to jump with proper supervision?<\/p>\n But again, this wasn\u2019t his district. This is Councilmember Jen Campbell\u2019s district as is Mission Bay. Normally, the councilmembers try to stay out of their colleagues\u2019 districts.<\/p>\n Campbell said she prefers to work in the background.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a certain etiquette at City Council, a way you treat your colleagues. It\u2019s a certain etiquette that the newer members never learned. You contact Councilmember of the district where you want to say something or do something. People have suggested I write up a new etiquette book. We had one, but it\u2019s been lost,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She said the mayor assured her he would not close bathrooms at the beach.<\/p>\n \u201cI assumed that meant Mission Bay, those are beaches. But I shouldn\u2019t have assumed anything. I don\u2019t care where they find the money but they must reopen them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cOne fourth to one half of the city\u2019s budget is based on tourism and sales tax, both of which go up when we have tourists so we need to do everything we can to assure us that it never goes down. If you close those bathrooms, you make visitors upset and they may not come back,\u201d said Campbell.<\/p>\n \u2014<\/p>\n Scott Lewis oversees Voice of San Diego\u2019s operations, website and daily functions as Editor in Chief. He also writes about local politics, where he frequently… More by Scott Lewis<\/a><\/p>\n This story was first published by\u00a0Voice of San Diego<\/a>. Sign up for\u00a0Voice\u2019s newsletters here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, former San Diego City Councilmember Donna Frye sent one of the staffers for Mayor Todd Gloria…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":["post-430330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}