Beauty and the Beast: A Story of a Beautiful Park and Revolting Bathrooms
Imagine yourself spending time at Balboa Park, the captivating landscapes, art, culture, history and the general buzz of a place that is called the Heart of San Diego. Then imagine yourself having to use the restrooms: it is nothing short of a full assault on your senses.

Even though restrooms looked acceptable from the outside, the interior area of most facilities in the park were repugnant. Rubbing salt into the wound, homeless individuals occupied some of the bathrooms to attend to their most basic human needs. For example, I encountered one individual washing her cloths in the sink, making it difficult for visitors to wash their hands or use the sink otherwise. I was insulted when I asked her if I could document her situation in order to be a voice of change.

Balboa Park, which is home to the world famous San Diego Zoo and numerous museums, attracts locals and tourists and it is a major economic force in the area. Based on a study conducted by Balboa Park Conservancy, the greater San Diego area benefits from more than 356 million dollars annual impact produced by this iconic park (Testa, Winston, Hilmer, & Dillette, 2017). Thus, a prudent marketing and financial strategy would be to renovate or overhaul the existing bathrooms. With any public capital project comes a question of budget. Is there enough funding to paint a less disturbing portrait of facilities in Balboa Park?

Based on a San Diego Union Tribune report, none of the restrooms in Balboa Park meets the city’s minimum standards. The facilities are in great need of renovation. However, in some cases, it is more cost effective to demolish the old structure and construct a new bathroom. 9.5 million dollars allocated to build a parking structure has been repurposed to improve bathrooms since the parking structure project collapsed due to anticipated high costs (Van Grove, 2019).

Nonetheless, San Diego citizens might think that 9.5 million dollars is not sufficient to undertake such an imposing capital project. Are additional sources of funding available?
Some argue that institutions such as various nonprofits and museums housed in Balboa Park virtually pay no rent in face of massive deferred maintenance bill. For example, in 2018 San Diego Zoo paid City of San Diego a little over 92 thousand dollars in rent while it reported more than 288 million dollars in revenue. (Morlan, 2018). The opposing party argues that these institutions maintain the interior and exterior of their buildings and space contributing to the overall charm of the park and promoting tourism. Therefore, they should not be subject to higher rents (Morlan, 2018).
What do you think as a San Diegan?

References
Morlan, K. (2018, September 24). Balboa Park groups run big budgets, but pay virtually no rent. Retrieved January 25, 2020, from Voice of San Diego: https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/nonprofits/balboa-park-groups-run-big-budgets-but-pay-virtually-no-rent/
Testa, M., Winston, C., Hilmer, T., & Dillette, A. (2017). Balboa Park benefit study . San Diego: n.d. Retrieved from http://balboaparkconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Balboa-Park-Benefits-Study-2017.pdf
Van Grove, J. (2019, May 8). Balboa Park bathrooms are gross. Is help on the way? Retrieved January 25, 2020, from San DIego Union Tribune : https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/growth-development/story/2019-05-08/balboa-park-bathrooms-are-gross-but-this-report-could-change-that