The mayor needs to look carefully at the balance in San Diego citizens’ lives and preserve the funding for the Park and Recreation Department as he moves forward with the fiscal year 2009 city budget process. The current fiscal state of the city and state presents challenges, but further reductions in the Park and Recreation Department budget will not better serve the needs of our citizens and will not help them lead balanced lives.
Look no further than the city’s mission statement to realize the importance of this issue. “We provide “¦ a well maintained and healthy enviro-nment; and abundant opportunities so our residents and visitors can enjoy the highest quality of life.” Achievement of that mission requires a functional and available park and recreation system.
On a more tangible level, Bill Maheu, then the executive assistant chief of San Diego Police Department, stressed during an address to the Administrators Association of San Diego City Schools on Feb. 15, 2007, that the city shouldn’t take money from the Park and Recreation Department for the police because “on the field, in the gym, these kids aren’t getting into trouble. Take money from the Park and Rec? How dumb is that?” Our teens need a safe place to go.
As a member of the Standley Park Recreation Council and current chair, I have seen the reduction in available hours for the Standley Park Recreation Center from 68 hours in 2004 to 48 hours in 2008. I have seen the reduction of hours for recreation leaders, cut from 48 hours to 26 hours. As a result, the city has lost valuable employees who have been forced to seek employment elsewhere, thus depleting the recreation leader pool. I have seen our swimming pool closed for months at a time. Our Recreation Council has been required to provide thousands of dollars in financial support to pay for maintenance previously provided by the city.
Many centers are all but closed on weekends, a time when most of us have free time to utilize them. We cannot follow a healthy lifestyle if our opportunities for exercise and community gathering are further curtailed and park facilities sit closed.
The overall state of the economy means that people are less able to travel long distances to take advantage of recreational opportunities outside of their immediate neighborhoods. People are working more and have less time to recreate. Our seniors depend on the City Park Recreation Center programs for exercise, health and nutrition, and in some cases a reason to get up in the morning. As a pediatrician, I have seen our obesity epidemic grow out of control over the past decade. What are we doing about it? In order to save a few dollars in the multi-million-dollar city budget, we are reducing access to ideal settings for exercise.
We need our local parks and recreation centers to provide a resource for balance in our lives.
The difficult choices the mayor and city council need to make for next year’s city budget must preserve the ability of our citizens to enjoy a healthy and balanced lifestyle and preserve the current level of funding for the Park and Recreation Department.
” Mark H. Sawyer, M.D., is the chair of the Standley Park Recreation Council.