This is where many of the towns homeless and junkies hang out. You do not want to bring your kids here.
Frugalista C.
I used to live in San Luis Obispo, and I'm so glad I don't anymore. Just stopped by a business near Mitchell Park and was absolutely horrified at the current situation. Homeless people, belongings and trash everywhere. Definitely did not feel safe. Absolutely horrendous. Probably won't be coming back to SLO much anymore.
Lesley M.
First off, gorgeous park. But - I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone today. Here's the story. I am visiting from out of town and wanted to take my daughter to play while my husband worked in SLO. Mitchell Park is in walking distance to our hotel so we headed there in the morning. For the first hour or so, the sun was shining and we were enjoying the giant play structure and well-maintained grounds. You can see that this park was designed with fun for children and the community in mind. There were employees from the city maintaining the grounds and they were friendly. Around the grassy areas and picnic tables, I noticed four different pockets of homeless people, some with tents, some sprawled out passed out and some keeping to themselves. I noticed but I didn't pay much attention because no one was bothering us. After about an hour it got weird and I'm not sure where these creepers came from but it was palpable. First, there were a number of grown men showing up alone and sitting on the benches within the toddler play area. One of them asked me a few questions about my daughter and my intuition fired. A mother's intuition is rarely wrong. I'm not a fearful person and obviously people can sit where they please but he was a creep and he opened the creep floodgates. From then on for the next hour a wave of men rolled into the playground, hung out in the bathroom for way too long before coming back out to lurk. It was like someone sent out an alert to fellow looky loos and they all showed up. When you see men in and out of a public bathroom for extended periods of time, hanging out for longer than it takes to poop and wash their hands - you gotta wonder what's going on. Next - it got scary. One guy walked up very quickly to the bench where we were snacking with such assertion that I instinctively picked up my daughter and walked away. He then did a 180 and went into the bathroom where he stayed for a while. I was figuring out how to walk away safely on foot at this point. It was bad. I'm not afraid of people and love going to new places - but I listen to my gut. My gut said you are surrounded by creeps and there are no other mothers here for a reason. At the perfect time, law-enforcement rolled up to deal with a pocket of people who were clearly recovering from a long night/week/month of using and needed to go. Thank God for the timing. I kept the law enforcement officers in eye sight as I convinced my little one that we needed to go. I felt so relieved that they were there and looking back, I should have just asked them to keep an eye on us as we walked back. I describe this as a twilight zone experience because as they were doing their jobs, there was a dude following the officers with his phone in their faces filming their every move as if they were doing something wrong. Newsflash - your park needs them there! I hope the city continues to address issues in this park and has the support of the community because it has so much potential and is very fun for little ones. When the moms, babies, and police are the ones being stalked - I'd say it's a problem. Cheers to the park staff though. Beautiful space, designed and maintained with care. And thank you to the officers
This is where many of the towns homeless and junkies hang out. You do not want to bring your kids here.
I used to live in San Luis Obispo, and I'm so glad I don't anymore. Just stopped by a business near Mitchell Park and was absolutely horrified at the current situation. Homeless people, belongings and trash everywhere. Definitely did not feel safe. Absolutely horrendous. Probably won't be coming back to SLO much anymore.
First off, gorgeous park. But - I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone today. Here's the story. I am visiting from out of town and wanted to take my daughter to play while my husband worked in SLO. Mitchell Park is in walking distance to our hotel so we headed there in the morning. For the first hour or so, the sun was shining and we were enjoying the giant play structure and well-maintained grounds. You can see that this park was designed with fun for children and the community in mind. There were employees from the city maintaining the grounds and they were friendly. Around the grassy areas and picnic tables, I noticed four different pockets of homeless people, some with tents, some sprawled out passed out and some keeping to themselves. I noticed but I didn't pay much attention because no one was bothering us. After about an hour it got weird and I'm not sure where these creepers came from but it was palpable. First, there were a number of grown men showing up alone and sitting on the benches within the toddler play area. One of them asked me a few questions about my daughter and my intuition fired. A mother's intuition is rarely wrong. I'm not a fearful person and obviously people can sit where they please but he was a creep and he opened the creep floodgates. From then on for the next hour a wave of men rolled into the playground, hung out in the bathroom for way too long before coming back out to lurk. It was like someone sent out an alert to fellow looky loos and they all showed up. When you see men in and out of a public bathroom for extended periods of time, hanging out for longer than it takes to poop and wash their hands - you gotta wonder what's going on. Next - it got scary. One guy walked up very quickly to the bench where we were snacking with such assertion that I instinctively picked up my daughter and walked away. He then did a 180 and went into the bathroom where he stayed for a while. I was figuring out how to walk away safely on foot at this point. It was bad. I'm not afraid of people and love going to new places - but I listen to my gut. My gut said you are surrounded by creeps and there are no other mothers here for a reason. At the perfect time, law-enforcement rolled up to deal with a pocket of people who were clearly recovering from a long night/week/month of using and needed to go. Thank God for the timing. I kept the law enforcement officers in eye sight as I convinced my little one that we needed to go. I felt so relieved that they were there and looking back, I should have just asked them to keep an eye on us as we walked back. I describe this as a twilight zone experience because as they were doing their jobs, there was a dude following the officers with his phone in their faces filming their every move as if they were doing something wrong. Newsflash - your park needs them there! I hope the city continues to address issues in this park and has the support of the community because it has so much potential and is very fun for little ones. When the moms, babies, and police are the ones being stalked - I'd say it's a problem. Cheers to the park staff though. Beautiful space, designed and maintained with care. And thank you to the officers
Free snowcones 7.4.11! Woo
Great Fourth of July party here each year.
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