At the Aug. 24 Chula Vista City Council meeting, Council voted unanimously, with Council member Steve Padilla absent, to temporarily close Harborside Park for health and safety reasons for 90 days with the option to extend the closure at the city manager’s discretion. Council also approved waiving the bidding requirements to procure temporary fencing, security and public outreach services, and permanent fencing as needed, appropriating $350,000 from the General Fund.
This comes after the park has been scrutinized as having been taken over by the unsheltered, with reported drug use in the area, increasing crime rates, and its proximity to Harborside Elementary School, causing concern from the Chula Vista Elementary School District. The county of San Diego’s Health and Human Services Agency’s Family Resource Center also borders the park.
CVESD Superintendent Dr. Eduardo Reyes said in reality, Harborside Park is no longer a park over the past few years due to the complications with the substantial number of unsheltered individuals using the park as their home.
“Structures have been removed, bathrooms have been closed, students or children are not playing in the park because it is inaccessible for them to play,” he said. “On any given day, you will find 40 to 60 tents. The park faces the school where kids play, have recess, and do sports, and it is divided by one fence.”
Reyes said children exposed to things that cause a negative impact in their lives can hinder a student’s progress in learning.
“There are illegal activities happening every day,” he said.
“There is drug use, drug sales. A week ago, a man was arrested for walking around naked, exposing himself. School administration had to clear the field because there was a man defecating right at the fence. A few months ago, there was a dead body found next to the fence due to an overdose. Couples have been seen having sex and doing other adult activities. This is all happening right in front of students. Children, ages 5 to 12.”
Reyes said school staff finds needles, used condoms, drug paraphernalia, empty beer and alcohol bottles, and other unsafe items on campus next to the fence. He said the school custodian circles the perimeter every morning to pick up unsafe items, but during the school day they find other unsafe items that have been thrown across the fence onto school property. He asked Council to support the 90 day closure until a solution could be found.
Chula Vista Police Department Executive Captain Phil Collum, Executive Operations & Community Engagement Division, which included the Community Policing Unit, consisting of the Homeless Outreach Team, said the data that concerns citizen calls to the police, proactive policing of the park, and citations issues at Harborside Park area said it has been consistently the highest call for police services since at least 2019.
“Our first responder services are used considerably in this area because it is where we are called the most,” he said, adding that in taking the top four parks with calls for police services, Harborside Park is 50% higher than the city’s next highest park for calls, Rohr Park. He also said HOT has spent $151,700 in overtime since 2021 but could not break down that data into Harborside Park.
“It is not a crime to be homeless,” he said. “Let us make that absolutely clear. But we are talking about (a) crime problem. And a very significant one in this area. We are talking about people who have been victimized, including surrounding community and businesses, neighbors, schools, teachers, students, and individuals living in the park,” adding that the HOT is there every Wednesday outreaching to the individuals in the park.
City Manager Maria Kachadoorian said that HOT would still continue its services during the closure of the park. Code Enforcement personnel said the number of code enforcement calls for businesses in the area increased significantly due to the unsheltered population, but as soon as requirements were met, the problems came right back, and it was hurting the local business community.
Park Ranger Sam Alzubaidi, a park ranger for 9 years, and part of that time part of the HOT said the park became problematic quickly and has been getting increasingly worse.
“In an effort to keep Harborside as a usable park we tried to activate it by bringing family events to the park,” he said. “Quickly Harborside Park became a place for illicit and illegal behavior,” then showing photos of drugs, paraphernalia, a dead body, and more to show the problems that the park is facing today.
When asked about HOT responses from the unsheltered by Mayor Mary Casillas Salas, specifically at Harborside, Alzubaidi said though the response is extremely good around the city, at Harborside, there no success rate in getting the unsheltered to accept help.
During public comment for this item, a few residents and a couple of CVESD board members spoke in favor of closing the park. But the majority of public comment on this item called on the City to do something other than push the unsheltered away to another place, as it is not a solution to the unsheltered problem. Several community members told Council that they wanted the park back as it is the only green space available within walking distance for residents in the area.
Small business owner, and homeless advocate Mandy Leon said people falling into homelessness is not a personal failure, but a policy failure by city government.
“Chula Vista has been told by homeless advocates for years that this is coming to your front door, and you have been negligent in doing anything to provide for these people,” she said. “You push them to San Diego, they push them back here, and they end up at Harborside because it is next to the Health & Human Services building. I had someone call McAllister today to get in. They could not get in. There are wait times for these programs because there are so many people and not enough services. There are none in Chula Vista. There is no housing here, no single-room occupancy…Even if they wanted, the meager resources you give are not enough…This issue is a societal issue, spurred by the opioid crisis, the pandemic, and inflation. While many of these people will not accept help, many will if you had the type of help that meets them where they are at.”
Criminal Defense attorney Collen Cusack said she represents the unsheltered pro bono to challenge the unconstitutional ordinances with which they are cited.
“You might not know me, but you might if you close this park and start citing everyone,” she said. “Homeless persons have no choice but to exist in public space. All the judgement and condemnation is focused on those with the least power, while those with the most power are skirting their responsibilities by not providing them with adequate and accessible housing. We are in a state of crisis, and you cannot end that crisis by making the victims of that crisis the scapegoat.”
Salas said there is no easy solution to solve this problem, and in closing the park, her first question was, “Then what are you going to do?” She said it might cause other problems, like unsheltered individuals moving into the neighborhood and businesses. She said when the item first came to her, she was torn with a decision.
“With every meeting that we had [with the community] it has been divided opinions,” she said. “It has been ‘close the park,’ but then other people rightly say, ‘you know City, it is your responsibility. You built that park for the community, we lost control of it, and you should fix it.’”
Salas, who grew up in the Harborside neighborhood, said the park needs to be fixed but doing it prematurely by fixing the lawns and amenities, without having a compassionate solution for the unsheltered.
“Any approach we take is not going to be perfect,” she said.
“There is no perfect solution to this. It is only us trying to find the best method to get control of that neighborhood again, and that park…Like it or not, unhoused people have constitutional rights like we do. That is a public space, so while we have public hours, they are allowed to be there. Our hands are tied in many different ways.”
Salas said she is not really happy with the proposal because she does not believe that it is a solution, but she said she thinks it is something the city must do to get more control and figure out what can be done collectively as a community to look for real solutions.
Council member Andrea Cardenas said she knows first-hand of how parks and recreation centers have a positive impact on youth and families in the city.
“All of these things that we as a city have failed to deliver because of COVID, because of recession, because of inflation…the amount of work that has been put into this by our staff is incredible. That does not minimize the fact that it has not worked…We clearly have not found the exact way to address all these issues in a holistic manner. Yes, we have a housing crisis, an affordability crisis, a jobs crisis, a crisis with mental health issues, services for our unsheltered population. No one on this dais will deny that.”
Cardenas said the unsheltered are on the streets for a plethora of reasons and that everyone has been touched by this issue. She said she did not like the idea of closing the park and taking away green space for the community but believes the city has exhausted its resources at this time to solve the problem, and it would be beneficial to close the park temporarily, have time to assess what can be done to solve the problem, with the help of the community, the County, and partnerships.
“We will not fix this tonight and we will not fix this alone,” she said. “We need all of the partners and agencies that have a little part of Chula Vista.”
Council member Jill Galvez motioned for staff to conduct talks with the CVESD to consider temporarily loan the park space to the school. The motion passed for staff to initiate talks with the school district to see if it were possible and/or feasible. Galvez proposed loaning it for three years, still allowing the community to utilize the park facilities.
“I know there is a fear that if we hand over the keys of a Chula Vista proper owned resource to another entity, the city might never get that back,” she said. “I think that is kind of like cutting off your nose to save your face. That land belongs to us, the residents of Chula Vista. I do not think we should build anything on it. It is open space.”
