After 20 years of allowing riders to pedal through Gallagher Square (formerly the Park at the Park), the San Diego Padres organization has quietly enacted a bicycle ban.
Exclusion of bikes was certainly not in any of the Padres’ promotional material about the renovation of Gallagher Square.
Gallagher Square is the 2.8-acre plot of land situated directly behind the outfield at Petco Park, the Padres home baseball field in downtown’s East Village. The land (still considered a public park) was originally slated to be a public access area when the Padres were negotiating to build Petco Park more than 20 years ago.
Earlier this year, the Padres completed a $20 million renovation of Gallagher Square. The renovation reconfigures the park to maximize the space to be used as an amphitheater for concerts that can attract crowds of 10,000 and more.
Proceeds from the concerts are split between the Padres and the City of San Diego.
Approval of the redo was fast-tracked by San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria’s administration without public comment.
A downtown citizen’s group is currently in litigation with the team over what they say have been excessively loud concerts at Gallagher Square. In press releases, the Padres have said remediation of the sound issue was part of the renovation.
The sound remediation has not yet been tested.
Overall, reaction to the Gallagher Square renovation has been mixed. There have been raves by media organizations and members of the public.
In general, downtown residents’ reviews are not as glowing. Pet owners are miffed about natural grass being replaced by artificial turf, and by the small size of a new fenced-in dog run.
A bike ban in Gallagher Square came out of nowhere.
On Thursday April 4, as I’d done for two decades, I rode my bike into Gallagher Square. I was there to see the first day of installation of fences and nets for four temporary Pickleball courts. (I observed one foursome using the courts.)
A security guard in a cart approached me and told me I could not be here on a bike. He was surly and gave conflicting directions. At first, he said I could not be in the park. Then he wavered and told me I could not ride a bike near the Pickleball courts. When I tried to question him further, he got in his cart and drove away.
A second security guard approached me and asked about the previous encounter. I told this guard that I think I can ride in the park but not near the Pickleball courts. This second guard said he’d been telling bikers all day they couldn’t be in the park.
An email reply from Padres Coordinator of Guest Experience Lindsey Cassidy succinctly said: “Unfortunately, bikes will not be permitted into the square.”
That begged the question: Are the Padres allowed to regulate the usage of bikes in a public park?
Yes, says City of San Diego Parks and Recreation Area Manager Wendelien Anderson.
“Sometimes there is a need to regulate bikes and other wheeled conveyances except for those used principally as medically assistive devices or for the aid or assistance of physically limited or disabled persons,” Anderson says. “This regulation is in place for safety reasons.”
The Gallagher Park bike ban was not on the radar of the head of a major local bicycling organization.
“The San Diego County Bicycle Coalition is disappointed to hear that bikes aren’t allowed in Gallagher Square,” says coalition director Chloé Lauer. “We would prefer that active transportation options, like biking, were consistently supported throughout downtown.”
Lauer adds: “We provide education to encourage safe cycling practices, and we rely on fellow cyclists to choose to ride on the street or walk their bikes when they realize their presence could interfere with the comfort of pedestrians or children at play.”
In a previous story about the Gallagher Square renovation, The Sun spoke to one of the original architects of The Park at the Park.
“At the Park at the Park, the public could walk around anywhere and everything was usable by the public,” says Marty Poirier, principal and co-founder of Spurlock Poirier, the landscape architects that initially designed the park. “It does seem to be much more of a privatized place now. How the neighbors get treated remains to be seen.”
The weekend after my recent bike confrontation, Gallagher Square was being used as the start/finish line staging area for the Padres Pedal the Cause. Participants in this fundraising effort for cancer research rode bikes in and out of Gallagher Square gates to great fanfare.
Given the new bike ban, isn’t it bad optics, at the very least, to continue to hold this event in Gallagher Square?
A spokesperson for Curbound, partner in the Padres Pedal the Cure event since 2013, could not be reached for comment. SDSun
