San Diego residents, city leaders criticize proposed cuts to parks, libraries.

Plan to close budget gap would also reduce hours at city recreation centers

SAN DIEGO

San Diego residents and city leaders on Tuesday criticized and questioned the need for large proposed cuts to parks, municipal pools and libraries to close a $350 million budget gap created by lost tax revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic.

City residents, especially those with low-incomes or who recently lost jobs, will need these neighborhood resources more than ever when the city is allowed to reopen them in coming weeks, City Council members said during a public hearing on the cuts.

“Many of the residents in my district do not live in single-family homes with big backyards and swimming pools,” said Councilwoman Vivian Moreno, who represents South Bay communities. “A lot of these families rely very heavily on our fantastic parks system to access things like green space, fitness walks and organized outdoor activities.”

Councilwoman Dr. Jennifer Campbell, who represents the city’s beach communities, said libraries are just as essential.

“Cutting our libraries and their services should be one of the very absolute last considerations,” she said. “Libraries offer equal opportunity for all people of all backgrounds to gain knowledge. An educated community is necessary for our democracy to succeed.”

The proposed $6.9 million in parks cuts include reducing weekly hours at recreation centers from 60 to 45, closing pools for a 14-week period spanning October to March, and eliminating a ranger at Mission Trails Regional Park.

There would also be cuts to parks maintenance efforts and some scaling back on brush management, which plays a crucial role in wildfire prevention.

Andy Field, the city’s parks director, said the city is gathering community feedback to determine what hours each of the city’s 58 recreation centers would be open. Changes in operating hours will vary, including later openings and earlier closing times. Field said decisions will be based on community feedback and when each center has traditionally experienced the most use.

The cuts would essentially return recreation hours to pre-2016 levels, when they were all open 45 hours per week. Twelve of the 58 centers won’t be affected because they have remained open 45 hours per week.

In addition to the 14-week closures, each pool would see a reduction of three hours per week during the off-peak winter season and four hours per week during the peak summer season, likely resulting in Saturday or Sunday closures.

Total open hours would be reduced to either 37 or 47 hours per week, depending on each pool’s current hours.

The changes would force the elimination of swim team and water polo programs during the winter off-peak season.

The cuts wouldn’t affect the Ned Baumer Aquatic Center at Miramar College due to contractual obligations under a joint-use agreement.

Residents said the pool closures won’t just affect young people, stressing that many senior citizens rely on lap swimming as their primary form of exercise.

Field said 254,000 people used the city’s pools during the fiscal year that ended last June.

The cuts to library hours would be more uniform than at recreation centers. The city’s 35 branches would be closed on Sundays and Mondays, leaving each branch open 42.5 hours per week — 8.5 hours every Tuesday through Saturday.

“The one thing that is the most frustrating for our patrons is inconsistency — it’s not knowing when we’re open all of the different hours,” said head librarian Misty Jones.

Sunday and Monday are the slowest days at most branches, Jones said. Sunday was chosen because only 13 branches actually had Sunday hours. Monday was chosen because city branches were closed on Mondays for several years after the 2008 recession.

A 36th branch, the Mountain View/beckwourth Library in southeastern San Diego, would be closed permanently. Its patrons would be expected to use the nearby Malcolm X/valencia Park branch.

Library officials say they considered other options than the Sunday and Monday closures, such as each branch opening every day for fewer hours or treating nearby branches as duos, where one would close and the other would stay open full-time.

The $6.8M in library cuts also include reductions to maintenance at all branches and security at many branches, but not the downtown Central Library.

Jones said job search programs at the Central Library and the Serra Mesa branch would not be cut.

Residents criticized the cuts and expressed concerns Mayor Kevin Faulconer might proposed additional reductions in his “May revise” proposal May 19. They noted that libraries would already suffer among the largest cuts of any city department.

Several repeated a famous quote by University of British Columbia librarian Eleanor Crumblehulme: “Cutting libraries during a recession is like cutting hospitals during a plague.”