City of San Diego Receives Shipwreck Recognition for Removing Youth Sports Not Criminal Element

After parents installed lights at a city-owned park so their kids could play softball after dark, the City of San Diego informed them they could not use the lights, even though the parents covered all costs to improve the city’s asset. It appears the city is more focused on removing safe and healthy opportunities for youth rather than focusing on removing the criminal element surrounding the homeless population. 

Few activities are more safe, healthy, and enriching than competing in youth sports. 

Few things are more dangerous than failing to address the continued criminal behavior surrounding San Diego’s unsheltered homeless population. 

Additionally, in January, unsheltered homelessness in downtown San Diego reached an all-time high for the sixth consecutive month. The January count of 1,939 is nearly three times the number of people who were unsheltered in downtown only two years ago. Current efforts by the City of San Diego to provide lifesaving shelter is nowhere near the scale required to reduce homelessness. We urge the Mayor and City to treat this tragedy as the crisis that it is and significantly ramp up the shelter beds in the City. 

Reducing the criminal element by removing criminal behavior and the criminals who are committing crimes will immediately reduce the number of people on the streets while also protecting the public and those who are literally homeless, such as youth and seniors. 

We remain focused on providing strategies and funding to help the City of San Diego, the County, and every other city throughout the region to reduce homelessness. 

However, removing opportunities for youth to participate in sports rather than removing the criminal element is, in our view, significantly missing the mark.

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