Bathrooms were closed at the Rec Center on Saturday. They were reopened on Sunday. There are two narrow stalls in the women’s bathroom. There is no room for a wheelchair or a stroller.
A reader wrote on Saturday, April 30, around 2 p.m. “I was just at the rec center. It’s at full capacity with every field covered in little leaguers, gyms full of basketball players returning to the rec center for the first time in years, and every tennis court occupied.”
The reader noted there was a major problem because all of the bathrooms at the center were closed for construction.
“Fine, progress requires some tradeoffs,” the reader said. “But what was the park’s contingency plan for the thousand people that have natural needs? Surely porta potties you say, right? No. Go walk alllll the way back to the library. Brilliant. I am sure the 8-year-olds playing baseball can make it that far.”
The reader asked the person at the table in the big gym about the lack of facilities and was told, “The crew had to turn them off [the pipes/water] for construction work.”
At the Rec Center on Monday, CTN learned that porta-potties had been ordered, but the company had never delivered them.
Circling the News sent an email to L.A. Rec and Parks General Manager Michael Shull who wrote in a May 2 email “signage and temp bathrooms were ordered, but neither happened.”
Shull wrote that there were “no excuses” for the lack of facilities.
Rec Center employees said the construction workers noticed there were no porta potties and worked extra hours, so they could finish the job that day. On Sunday, the bathrooms were reopened.
The bathrooms at the Palisades Rec Center are not ADA accessible and there have been prior issues with plumbing. At the last Pacific Palisades Park Advisory Board, members asked the City if the bathroom problem could be addressed soon.