The images of the Memorial Park bathrooms in Logan Heights that NBC 7 aired in October were so disgusting that most of them had to be digitally blurred.
The problem, according to Little League parents, had been going on for months, but it was only after NBC 7 aired the story that the city stepped up.
Families at the park now have access to clean bathrooms, with unclogged toilets, plenty of toilet paper and hand soap available, and no graffiti on the walls.
“Now our kids have a safe and clean bathroom that they can actually sit down in,” Rosemary Favela said.
There’s a big difference between the bathrooms Favela’s kids contemplated using just a month ago at Memorial Park and now.
“Without having to deal with poop on the wall, urine and seeing all the disgusting things that were all over the floor,” Favela said.
The families were forced to deal with the unsanitary conditions for months.
“We have reached out a number of times to the city, to the Get it Done app,” Favela said.
Memorial Park Little League coach Ruben Quintero said he asked for help from everybody, eventually reaching out for help to NBC 7 Responds, who contacted San Diego City Councilmember Vivian Moreno, who said she was aware of the problems and had spoken to Parks & Rec about it but nothing had been done.
Parks & Rec told NBC 7 Responds: “Staff clean the restrooms at the park daily and do their best to keep up with inappropriate use.”
“We raised awareness of the needs we have here in the park,” Quintero said.
About a week after NBC 7 Responds aired the story, Parks & Rec said:
“The senior center at the park will now be open till 7 p.m., so the Little League will also have access to their bathroom, and the aquatics division is working to make the pool restrooms available, so the kids have multiple options for clean restrooms during their practices.“
“[It’s a] nice improvement for us,” Quintero said. “The morale is getting better, which is the main thing for the youth.”
NBC 7 Responds shared the good news with Councilmember Moreno, who, in a statement, told NBC 7 Responds:
“Thank you to the Memorial Park Little League and the community for your ongoing commitment of voicing your concerns on this issue. Our families and children deserve to have access to a clean and safe restroom at all times. We will continue to strive to make sure that restrooms at Memorial Park be the same and clean as any other facility in San Diego.“
The bathroom situation at Memorial Park isn’t the only thing that changed: Days after NBC 7 Responds’ story aired, Parks & Rec said, “Staff recently met with the Little League director and had a productive meeting, and now have a great line of communication directly to rec-center management.”
“We’re having meetings once a month to sit down with our board members and theirs,” Quintero said.
“We’ve never seen this kind of communication,” Favela said. “It had never been like this before,” adding, “We’re forever grateful that it aired, that you guys came out here and did the story, and it caught attention not only from our parents, the community, the city, from Parks & Rec, because they were able to know what our kids were dealing with on a daily basis.”
As of now, though, there are no plans to have the new senior center/pool bathroom options available on Sundays. According to Parks & Rec, they’re looking into cleaning the outdoor bathrooms three times — instead of twice — seven days a week so that the kids and parents have access to a clean bathroom.
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