The local Point Loma bike track – called the “Famosa Pump Track” – has to shut down, according to Darren Miller who attended Wednesday’s meeting with the Mayor’s Office and the San Diego Housing Commission.
“It’s a loss,” Miller told me, “but there’s a potential win,” he added, explaining there’s some real motivation to find another potential site for an OB / Point Loma kids’ bike track.
The Famosa Pump Track is a plot of hilly land across Catalina from Bill Cleator Park, and has been used by local kids and adults for decades. Miller has been instrumental in organizing efforts to build and maintain the site. As Fred Robinson described it in a recent OB Rag post:
The particular piece of land …is a long-vacant plot of dirt situated between a middle school and a townhome community, directly across the street from a popular community park.
“The San Diego Housing Commission,” Miller said, “made it clear – they’re not interested in working with the community in resolving this.”
Others at the meeting – besides Darren, representatives of the Housing Commission, Anthony George from Mayor Faulconer’s office – included Conrad Wear from Councilwoman Lorie Zapf’s office and Ben Stone of the San Diego Mountain Bike Association.
The Housing Commission told those at the meeting they plan to develop the roughly 5 acres and put in 78 units of affordable housing. A feasibility study is currently underway, and as Miller described, they will be having machinery at the site taking soil sample and testing the area for earthquake issues. “They could be there tomorrow,” Miller said, “and plow it under.”
“It’s a huge liability,” Miller continued, “for the Housing Commission, they said – and there’s absolutely no way liability can be addressed.”
“They’re not interested in trying to get a temporary solution,” Miller said.
“The Housing Commission made it clear they don’t want us to use the bike track. It’s future is inevitable.”
Miller also told me George and Wear seemed to know what the Housing Commission’s stance was going to be – “They weren’t surprised,” Miller said.
He also added that both George and Conrad seemed to be very interested in finding an alternative site for a kids’ bike track, somewhere in the Point Loma and Ocean Beach area. “They’re eager,” Miller said, “to have that as the solution.”
Asked how he felt, Darren replied: “I’m very disappointed that we’re not able to put some kind of park at the site. The community needs more open space.” He then got more upbeat: “I’m eager to work with the city to make a bike path” somewhere in the area. He didn’t want to speculate where.
I asked him about the sign he’d put up asking folks not to use the track. “It’s down,” he said, “I checked on it yesterday morning and it’s gone.”
What if there’s kids there right now, I asked. “I can’t be expected to be responsible,” he responded, “for people using it.”
Well, there’s no doubting it – the Famosa Pump Track is history. And the local community will have to find another site (or sites). Some say there’s plenty of possibilities around, like how about the middle of Dusty Rhodes Park? or space somewhere in Robb Field? or …?
Got a site for a kids’ dirt bike track?
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