By South OB Girl
Areas with dead trees at Dusty Rhodes Park have been cleared of them. And the stumps were removed as well. This was a two phase process, with separate equipment required for stump removal, according to Monica Honore, the area manager for Parks and Rec.
Dead trees have been removed. All photos were taken Friday afternoon, 9/29 by South OB Girl.
Some of the changes we see happening at Dusty Rhodes Park are occurring because the City is currently maintaining the park. The contract with Aztec Landscaping wrapped up at the end of June 2017, and City staff have now been taking care of the park.
The future is sounding better for Dusty Rhodes Park. Conrad Wear of Councilmember Zapf’s office reported at the recent OB Town Council meeting on Sept 27th that there is funding for 50 new trees available for the park. Additionally, Wear reported that the parking lots and roads in the park will be repaved and re-striped.
The Dusty Rhodes Park Recreation Council met Thursday Sept 28, and Monica Honore reported plans from a City designer for Parks and Rec which included 78 new trees for the park. Whether that number of 78 trees includes the 50 trees confirmed by Zapf’s office — is unknown at this time.
The grass and remaining trees seem to be a little greener. The large dog park looks in poorer condition than the rest of the park. Perhaps humid conditions of the past few months helped the grass, or perhaps it was increased watering by the City.
Monica Honore reported at the Dusty Rhodes Park Rec Council meeting that PERC is being done five days a week for the gopher situation. PERC is the standard extermination procedure used city wide. It will take time but the gopher situation should eventually improve.
I met Tracy and Clint, who live in Normal Heights. Here is Clint in action obtaining a dog poop bag.
Additionally, repairs of the irrigation systems throughout the park will be an ongoing process with some repairs having been done already.
Dog poop bags have been stocked regularly, according to park goers. In fact, they have been the high-quality, somewhat luxurious “mutt mitts” made with heavy duty plastic.
The couple in the photo, Tracy and Clint (last name withheld by request), stopped going to the park for a while. Tracy said, “It was horrible. It was dusty and filled with holes.” Tracy said the dog poop bags are great and a huge improvement.
The future for Dusty Rhodes Park is still unknown but is looking a little brighter. It is refreshing to see the City address the situations in the park, when many people throughout San Diego have little hope that the City can ever address concerns in our communities. Perhaps we can all have a little more optimism now.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Did they get rid of the junky furniture that people left in the park?
It would be nice if people would stop parking on the grass also. How come they don’t get ticketed for that behavior?
Hopefully good changes are coming? Why did the city, park & rec, etc. let if fall to its deplorable condition?
As to how things ended up like this. Because the City didn’t do anything. Until the City decided to do something. When Aztec was underperforming the City did not step in. And the City didn’t step in until the contract ended in June. Re the ‘junky’ furniture. Still there. Mixed opinions among park goers. Some people like to sit in it. Some people consider it ‘junky’ like you. Re parking on the grass. Guessing if the police/traffic enforcement see cars on the grass they issue a ticket. And it would be good for the grass if people did not park on it.
CORRECTION:
Conrad Wear clarified the number of trees which will be provided by Zapf’s office –6. Which is the number requested by the Dusty Rhodes Park Recreation Council. The other trees (50ish) are part of the Hillside Improvement project at Sunset Cliffs. The Hillside Improvement Project is still in the planning phase, for the area of Sunset Cliffs Natural Park between ‘Garbage Beach’ and Point Loma Nazarene University.