An 18-foot-tall chicken named Chiquita watches children run around the playground, while Alexandra Villalobos sits on a picnic blanket with her son Max Camacho, 12, at Emma Prusch Farm Park in east San José. Her two youngest children are using the newly renovated playground, and Villalobos has warned them to avoid the hot metal slides and rough wooden logs to climb.
Pop-up canopies with laminated signs warn families about scalding hot slides under the scorching sun. But the temporary canopies don’t fully shade the three metal slides, leaving Villalobos disappointed. He said after a long wait for a new playground, the park renovations are not enough. Park advocates said this highlights inequities in East San Jose, leaving city officials working on the playground’s issues more than a month after it opened in May.
“The overall look is really beautiful. But I don’t think it’s really functional and practical,” Villalobos told San José Spotlight. “It’s supposed to be all-inclusive, right? It’s designed that way. But in the short time we’ve been coming, it’s a little bit more dangerous than other parks we’ve been to, so I don’t think it’s been carefully thought out.”
Daisy Barocio, District 5 parks commissioner who represents the area, said the playground’s scorching slides are a disappointment because this is the first park in east San Jose designed to be accessible to children of all abilities.
Barocio takes her children there regularly and said it’s an east side gem for families who don’t have access to similar resources outside of school.
“(Safety) should not be something parents worry about,” he told San José Spotlight. “They take the children to a park to enjoy themselves, to spend time in community and with family, without worrying if their child is going to burn.”
Ed Bautista, a spokesman for San Jose’s parks department, said the city is experimenting with short-term solutions to address hot slides while looking at long-term solutions during the summer months. He said workers check the slides daily and the design was deliberately pointed north to beat the heat. He said the department has not received any complaints about the records.
Bautista doesn’t believe the park’s renovation reflects an inequality on the city’s east side because it is the largest all-inclusive playground in San Jose with ample amenities spread throughout the rest of the park. Welcome feedback from the community.
“Our city staff went above and beyond to build an iconic playground. We just think he’s one of the best,” he told San José Spotlight. “The selection of elements was exceptional, it’s great. The play structures, the chicken on the hill, really come together into a large and very enjoyable play area overall.”
The approximately $4.4 million playground expanded the play area to approximately 0.75 acres at the nearly 43.5-acre Emma Prusch Farm Park. It was conceived more than six years ago and fills a previously empty field next to the original playground, which includes a gravel play area and farm-inspired play equipment. It faced delays largely due to the construction process, Bautista said. It was designed by MIG, Inc. and received funding from the County of Santa Clara All-Inclusive Playground Grant Program.
Melissa Erikson, MIG director who led the project, said MIG and the city are looking at more shade options for the playground and said that as the young trees age, the tree canopy will help cool the slides. She said MIG did consider heat, but had to balance long-term sustainability with seasonality.
The city and MIG also conducted community outreach activities primarily in English and Spanish during the design phase.
“We know that no one wants to get hurt. The goal is for people to be able to participate in the components and have a variety of opportunities to participate,” Erikson told San José Spotlight. “We want people to be able to enjoy it safely. That said, most play structures have some metal, whether it’s hand bars or grab bars, but certainly at the bottom of the slide, that’s a concern.”
East San Jose is no stranger to the disparities that residents experience. This year, the city’s park maintenance backlog left many east side parks in disrepair. The renovations also come after city parks lost millions in funding following a reduction in development taxes and fees for at least 14 high-rise housing projects.
Ward 5 Councilman Peter Ortiz said he was upset to hear about the hot slides, but he had no control over the design because it was in its final stages when he took office. He said he is working with the parks department to address residents’ concerns in the short term, while also looking at long-term future solutions, such as shade sails and heat preventative coatings.
“While this playground delivers on a promise for east side families, the challenges we faced and continue to face highlight a pattern of inequity toward east side amenities,” he told San José Spotlight. “Constant construction delays, unclear communication, and ultimately faulty equipment signal to our families that they do not deserve high-quality services.”
For now, the slides will remain hot and the logs will remain rough as Chiquita watches. Villalobos said she and her three children will continue to visit Emma Prusch Farm Park, but will also avoid unsafe equipment.
“Maybe if the community got together and said, ‘Hey, we love the park, but it’s still not really safe.’ The slides aren’t safe if they’re that hot,’” she said. “’What are we going to do to improve the playground?’ “We are very grateful that it is here and it is new, but it could definitely use some improvements.”
Contact Annalize Freimarck at [email protected] or continue @analise_ellen on X, formerly known as Twitter.
