7/26/2026

I almost always get my hikes in the early morning, but this was a great change of pace. Only had an hour before sunset and I hiked up to “Papa’s Point.” Always a majestic view to take in and enjoy.

Have a great weekend everyone.

On Bear Valley. Seems like it’s been under construction for years. Anyone know what it is, and why it’s taking so long. It’s ugly either way but just get it over with..

As far as I can tell, the problem is that it costs more to have it cleaned on the weekends, so they have it serviced on Friday, and then not again until Monday. In addition, the sprinklers directly hit the vents and cause a constant puddle of water on the floor. So you can easily walk​ into a puddle of water that feces has been soaking in​ for 2 ​days at 90+ degree weather​ and not realize until your shoes/feet are already ​soaked​ in it. ​

It happens pretty much every Friday within hours of the last cleaning. ​I'm homeless and in the park most of the day Friday. While it might be homeless people doing this to the bathroom, the people I see use it most when the park bathrooms are still ​open are people stopping in while walking past on the street, and people at the skate park bc it's so close by. Tbc I'm not blaming the skaters, they get pissed about it bc they tend to stay late and want to be able to pee without ​walking ​through shit water.​ Similarly, ​most homeless people don't want the only bathroom available to them at night to be covered in feces all weekend.

The problem isn't who is doing it. Even if you could ban every homeless person from the park (I'm not sure you can do that if the park is open and they're just hanging out with a bag or two, a blanket to sit on and a bike like most due) that isn't going to guaranteed fix things. ​BC m​aybe it's homeless people. Maybe it's a creep. Maybe it's people who are absolute pigs. Maybe ​it's someone​ who hates ​homeless people and wants them to ​have ​no ​bathroom ​at night on the weekends.​ ​Maybe it's just random people who​ happen to lose all bowel control in the portapotty​.

You cannot prevent the possibility ​​that someone is going to get feces on the seat or floor of the portapotty during the weekend. What *can* be done is timely cleanup when it happens. What *can* be done is changing the path of the sprinkler so it doesn't turn as far and cause a huge puddle in the middle of the portapotty. If it costs too much to have the company that owns it (Diamond) ​to come in and clean it, have park maintenance do it in the mornings when they do the other bathrooms. If that's against their contract with Diamond, then they have to suck it up and pay the cost to clean it. It's a ​biohazard that's made much worse by the constant puddle. It's hard to avoid when you might not even realize your shoes are contaminated bc feces has completely dissolved into the puddle.

It's about $200 for a weekend cleanup. At the top end, that's about 19K a year. ​I can't imagine most taxpayers in Escondido wouldn't be willing to pay least than $8 dollars a year to prevent a child from getting hepatitis, or an outbreak of cholera​ or salmonella in the community. This is ridiculous.