Submitted by Dan Hunting

Cays Park is a beautiful, green, safe, open public space, home to many healthy activities for many citizens for over 50 years. The Cays Park Master Plan transformation is environmentally unsound, unpopular and expensive (probably $40 million cost). We are a growing grassroots movement to stop this disaster. We advocate caysparkleaveitasis.org and goodgovernancecoronado.com.

In 1903, President Teddy Roosevelt visited the Grand Canyon and said “leave it as it is” to the dismay of the local politicians, promoters, entrepreneurs and developers. Cays Park is part of a coastal dune system that has been altered, but further changes with lighting, benches, tables, paved walkways, shade structures, hills, shrubs, felling of 15 healthy trees and an expensive visually disturbing deck would be an end to the beautiful, the green, open, safe, public space we know as Cays Park.

We are actually in favor of improvements and expansion of the restrooms, the playground, indicated improvements to the tennis and pickleball courts, all of which can be started today and probably should have been done years ago. We oppose the road demolition areas and road widening and the other unnecessary infrastructure mentioned above in the master plan. The map and footprint of the park does not need a major expensive change.

The Cays Park Master Plan includes the enclosure of the dog run and we argue that politicians mandated this to be the centerpiece of the plan and paid over $400,000 to the park designer to achieve this primary outcome. Therefore, the politicians can blame the park designer for this controversial result. Also, when all else fails, blame the dog owners and the dogs for the total free run of the entire park, and besides, we have never seen dog owners cited for their dogs running all over the park. The politicians are to blame for not building it to standard, then and now, fenced, and for decades they have not done the simple and correct solution which is a $50,000 fence at most. However, dogs and dog owners have the right to squatters and in legal terminology are adverse possession. We argue that the politicians are afraid to face the controversy and take the right action. Citizens don’t need a $400,000 park designer to get a mandate. Our feedback on caysparkleaveitasis.org strongly supports fencing of the dog park, i.e. it is the will of the people.

As a victim of a dog tormented as a child, I am not without prejudices on this controversial issue. As a physician and microbiology student, I cannot imagine the likely excessive coliform bacterial contamination of the lawn throughout the park. I know plenty of people who won’t walk on that lawn for that reason. County Public Health investigates the pollution of our beaches but they cannot provide a solution (a foreign country solution is needed); but the contamination of the Cays Park peat has a solution. The enclosure of the dog run is a solution without county public health involvement. About half of the 20 beautiful Coronado parks have no dogs allowed policies and signs.

We used to take the kids to swim at La Jolla Cove and the kiddie pool, but now the seals have taken over those beaches because of the cowardice of San Diego politicians. Children and adults today are not allowed to swim on the beautiful beaches. I really hate to see the takeover of the entire Cays Park by dogs. Warning, the takeover is moving forward and forward! Why can’t the politicians today make the plain and simple and right solution to this controversial problem?

The playground at Cays Park has one of two play structures “fenced” for over a month. This permeable and useless “fence” is just yellow hazard/warning tape and traffic sawhorses. A chain link fence or equivalent would be more appropriate. This play structure has heavy rust and it is an obvious unsafe structure and liability risk. The current barrier is porous and any child can climb and injure themselves on the damaged play structure. If this rusty and broken play structure won’t be fixed, why not, please, just pull it away? Don’t you agree, safety first? FYI, the other play structure is facing the same fate, but maybe with a lot of work it can be restored.

The above facts document maintenance neglect of Cays Park. Proximity to the sea causes metal to rust, but rust can be prevented by proper, persistent and repeated painting.

The good news is that inspection of the playgrounds at Spreckels, Sunset, Mathewson and Glorietta Bay Parks showed well-maintained play structures.

And on a positive note, on the 4th of July, Cays Park was full of many families and picnic gatherings without the “benefit” of permanent benches, tables, shade structures, lighting, bushes, fences, hills and other messy, unnatural, environmentally unsound and expensive elements of the Cays Park Master Plan . FYI, when we picnic these days we bring our own stuff ie pop up tents, chairs, tables, grills, frisbees, smashball, volleyball net, croquet, bocce ball, etc.

We conclude that the City and the Parks and Recreation Department cannot maintain the expensive and not necessary and not indicated or requested infrastructure planned for the proposed new park disaster. Other failures of the City and Parks and Recreation Department include the community pool, flooding at the community center, flooding at the Spreckels Center, etc. all of which were probably preventable.

Stop the Cays Park Master Plan disaster. Visit us at goodgovernancecoronado.com and caysparkleaveitasis.org.

With respect,
Dan HuntingM.D