Golden Hill Park & Rec facelift

“It’s part of a transition to make the park more comfortable for families, and having shade will help,” says Park & Rec area manager Kathy Castello of the new pergola behind Golden Hill Recreation Center. Two more will follow, she says. “There [was] absolutely no shade.”

Also, Morley Field, Balboa Park Golf Course, and Golden Hill Recreation Center all have new signs for the first time any staff can recall. District three city councilmember Chris Ward appropriated $6000 of discretionary funds for the improvements, which also included landscaping around the signs.

Where Texas ends at Upas, the sign for Morley Field Sports Complex went up two weeks ago. The new signage for Golden Hill Recreation Center and the golf course is visible at the corner of 26th Street and Golf Course Drive, a busy five-way stop. Low-water-use ornamental landscaping is in the works, with chaparral plants, cacti, and blooming succulents.

“It will make a really nice entrance to the golf course and rec center,” said Castello. “People tell me they drive or walk by and don’t know it’s a recreation center; they think it’s a school or something else.”

Over the next few months, the community projects, programs, and services funds will also go toward an interactive nature play area at the recreation center. Fort-building, logs, boulders, pathways, and edible plants will upgrade the barren, dusty playground sandwiched between the sports building and the outdoor handball courts.

Golden Hill Recreation Center is also the recipient of a new community mural, courtesy of I Love a Clean San Diego’s semi-annual Coastal Cleanup Day. On Saturday, September 16, Ward and county supervisor Greg Cox visited Golden Hill Park to kick off the event.

Three hundred volunteers from all around San Diego gathered at the park, then split up into groups to work on projects in the neighborhood, such as litter removal along 26th Street and Golf Course Drive, tree-planting at Golden Hill Park, and new mulch around the comfort station at the rec center. A group of volunteers walked over to the center to paint a retaining wall behind the facility.