Author: Durga

SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION

This site was created as part of a growing movement to get newer, safer and more usable playground equipment at Brentwood Park (in Eastside Costa Mesa, CA) after over a decade of neglect and mismanagement. Please read the History of Brentwood Park.

Over 300 local Eastside Costa Mesa residents have signed a hard-copy petition asking City Council to update the park/playground. If you are interested in signing or learning more, please send an email to: BrentwoodParkAction@gmail.com.

You can also sign the online petition.

Make the request for new playground equipment (such as swings, sun tarps/shades, an enclosed toddler lot that prevents unleashed dogs from jumping on and overwhelming small children, a new, more usable structure for 5-12-year olds and benches to sit on near the playground). The city also needs to add a walkway connecting the park from Monte Vista Avenue to Brentwood Street, to allow those who are handicapped or with strollers to more easily access the playground. Additionally, there is no safe way to access the park from the north (where most residents walk from). Traffic on Monte Vista travels very fast (often speeding). There is no crosswalk, no speed bumps, and no safe accessible walkway for residents from the surrounding neighborhood. Residents have asked multiple times for the city to install a stop sign, speed bumps, a crosswalk, anything to help with the safety of our children. Until more parents and Costa Mesa taxpayers start asking City Council to improve the park, it will continue to go neglected.

SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION

“In every neighborhood, all across our country, there are good people insisting on a good start for the young, and doing something about it.”

mister rogers

In 2011, in a statewide competition for grant funding, the Office of Grants and Local Services of the State of California Parks Department awarded Costa Mesa $275,000 to develop Brentwood Park.

In 2014, ground-breaking was scheduled to commence. However, conflict arose when elected Council Members during this period wanted the funds to go to Westside parks. In 2015, the city had to return the funds to the state.

In the 2016 Parks & Recreation Commission Park Report for District 3, Brentwood Park received a “C” rating.

Conclusions and recommendations from the report included:
■ Swings should be available at all parks
■ Shade structures should be incorporated in parks where tree shade is not available

In the 2017 Update of the Open Space Master Plan review of all of Costa Mesa’s Parks and Recreation playgrounds, only (2) parks — Brentwood and Pinkley — out of Costa Mesa’s thirty, were specifically called out for their outdated equipment (on page 64).

Pinkley Park’s playground equipment was replaced in 2019.