Saratoga News

Letters & Opinions

Speak Out

Sad that there are no
restrooms in parks

It's sad to hear that the outhouses were once common in Saratoga ("Outhouses were very common in Saratoga many years ago," Stereopticon, by Willys Peck, July 17) and were let go because of changing times. To think that back then Saratogans did not mind seeing an outhouse here or there!

I recently talked to Kevin Meek, park maintenance for Saratoga, and asked him why Saratoga city parks did not have porta-potties or restrooms. He said the community would not tolerate such a thing because of the fear of homeless people or someone staying in the park after hours. So, I set out to see what would happen if I stayed in Gardner Park after hours. I sat for a good hour, and not one person came running into the park with a flashlight yelling out, "You, you person, you!"

I also do recall, a while ago, that San Jose was trying out a French-style restroom where it was automated and the patron could not stay in there too long. I wonder why Saratoga did not jump on the bandwagon on one of these.

I see countless mothers and their children playing in the park. One day I took a friend of the family and her two small children to Gardner Park to show it off to her and chat. She told me that she was so inclined to visit a new park with two small children each and every time she would go out for a breather. She told me that she discovered the majority of parks she has visited in the surrounding area did not have bathrooms. So, if you have to go, you have to go. Correct? Luckily, her son was out of diapers and she ever so quietly, making sure no one was looking, walked toward a tree. It was the same tree I had seen a dog urinate on earlier.

She questioned why the parks don't put this into consideration that pregnant mothers and small children visit the parks on a regular basis. I quietly murmured, "I wonder, too!"

Dancy Freeman

Aspesi Drive