From left, friends Kevin, 12, Rey, 11, and León, 9, sit for a portrait at Brentwood Mobile Home Park in Chula Vista. October 3, 2023.
The occasional flying soccer ball has become an unfortunate but common occurrence for the residents of the Brentwood mobile home community in Southwest Chula Vista. Dozens of young families live there, but many kids have nowhere to go. So they play in the streets, dodging the neighbors’ cars and diving into nearby yards to retrieve stray balls.
“Angry is the word, probably. Because the city don’t hear us,” Ramirez said. “Our kids need the park.”When Harborside Park opened in 2006, many neighbors in Brentwood and across Southwest Chula Vista were thrilled. So it made all the more difference that Harborside, one of few green spaces near the Brentwood mobile home community, was just a few blocks away.
At first, some Brentwood residents said they were relieved. But months went by, then a year, and the park remained closed. Then, in May, the city councilThe news was a shock to many in Chula Vista. City staff had prepared a reopening plan that would use federal American Rescue Plan funding to renovate the park and bring down the fences within a year. They had also held surveys on the proposed renovations, neither of which had mentioned closing the park for good.