Why this matters
Recreation centers offer quality of life benefits such as access to exercise, socializing and cognitive development for children.
After closing it for more than a year, San Diego unveiled a renovated recreation center and a new playground in San Ysidro.
Officials spent $5.8 million to upgrade the Colonel Irving Salomon San Ysidro Community Activity Center, a nearly 14,000-square-foot facility at the end of Diza Road. The center neighbors La Mirada Elementary School and residential properties.
The project includes a new playground, an outdoor basketball court and drinking fountains, drought-tolerant landscaping and irrigation improvements, according to a city statement. Many of the upgrades improved wheelchair accessibility to the center’s walkways, including relocating an indoor water fountain near the restroom and resurfacing the parking lot.
San Ysidro resident Yajaira Caro brought her two children to the fenced playground while she watched them from a bench nearby on Friday afternoon. She said it usually gets crowded with children on the weekends.
“Before this was all built, there wasn’t really a dedicated area for kids to play,” Caro told inewsource in Spanish. “Now, you can come here to eat with the children or bring them to play and have fun.”
The playground is right next to the center’s parking lot, so she said the shallow fencing around the playground also prevents children from getting hurt if a car comes along.
Special events, community gatherings and sports leagues that were previously relocated during construction returned to the activity center. However, the center’s indoor boxing ring has been taped off due to new walkways.
City spokesperson Benjamin Cartwright said the renovations required the city to remove an interior door and keep an exterior door open to the court behind the center.
“This open accessibility into the boxing room poses an unsupervised opportunity for people to use the boxing equipment, creating a liability for the city,” he said.
Cartwright said staff are discussing with the center’s former boxing instructor alternative ways to continue offering the boxing program that don’t pose a liability. The boxing ring belongs to the instructor, too, he said.
Funding for the renovations came from a $4 million federal grant, development impact fees and funds from the sale of city-owned properties.
About one mile south, San Ysidro has one other recreation center and a senior center at the San Ysidro Community Park.
Type of Content
News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
