JUNE 11, 2025 — Update: A Major Step Toward Protecting Parks, Libraries, & Rec Centers. Now Tell Mayor Gloria to Not Let Us Down

Thanks to YOU, the San Diego City Council voted to restore funding for parks, libraries, and recreation centers.

This is a major win — but it’s not final yet.

The Mayor still has the power to veto or strip these restorations.

We cannot let that happen.

You told City Council why parks, libraries, and rec centers are essential to our communities and showed what people power looks like at the local level. We didn’t just protect city programs and services, we restored respect and opportunity to our neighborhoods.

Now we need to make sure Mayor Gloria signs the Council-approved budget — without cuts, delays, or reversals.

⸻

New Call to Action: Tell Mayor Gloria to Sign the Budget Without Undermining Our Communities

Your voices helped restore:
• Library and rec center hours in low-income neighborhoods
• Youth and elder programming
• Funding for the Office of Race & Equity
• Summer meals, citizenship classes, and Wi-Fi access at libraries

These aren’t line items — they are lifelines.

Tell Mayor Gloria:

Sign the Council-approved budget — no vetoes, no walk-backs.

---

Wednesday, May 14, 2025 — UPDATE: Mayor Todd Gloria released his revised city budget. Once again, he failed to prioritize San Diego’s working families and most vulnerable communities. The revised proposal is a formal refusal to restore a single dollar for libraries, parks, and rec centers—vital resources for communities that have long been underserved. Instead, he chose to further inflate a bloated Communications Department budget and give $1 million for a roof at an animal service building.

This budget doesn’t reflect shared sacrifice. It reflects who our city chooses to protect—and who it chooses to abandon.

The federal government is slashing support for programs our neighbors rely on: after-school care, library literacy programs, immigrant legal aid, and summer meal support. In that context, San Diego’s budget should be a shield—not a knife.

---

The federal government is gutting essential programs that support working families, children, seniors, immigrants, and people with disabilities.

In response, Mayor Todd Gloria has proposed a budget with “across the board” cuts to hours and staffing at libraries, recreation centers, and parks with no consideration for the special impacts felt in San Diego’s very low, low, and moderate resource neighborhoods.

That’s unacceptable. When our communities are under attack, San Diego should step up, not cut back.

The federal government has already attempted to eliminate all library funding via the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which supports literacy, job training, and ESL programs in local libraries. They are proposing massive cuts to after-school programs, nutrition assistance, and legal services for immigrants.

Now, San Diego’s own proposed budget risks compounding these harms — putting the last line of community support on the chopping block.

---

Here’s what could be lost if the cuts move forward:

• Adaptive recreation and therapeutic programs for seniors and residents with disabilities.
• After-school STEM programs and literacy workshops that celebrate Black history and cultural pride.
• Free youth sports leagues and teen mentoring for at-risk youth.
• Summer day camps and meal distributions for families facing food insecurity.
• Multilingual story times, citizenship classes, and job search help for immigrant families.
• Free Wi-Fi and laptop checkouts for students in homes without internet access.

When federal programs are dismantled, our local services become even more important. But the across the board cuts in the proposed budget tells the people most impacted by federal cuts — “you’re on your own.”

We call on Mayor Gloria to revise the budget and protect funding for the daily operations of all parks, libraries, and rec centers in San Diego’s most vulnerable neighborhoods.

No excuses. No exceptions.

---

Add your name to tell Mayor Gloria and the San Diego City Council:

• No more cuts to libraries, parks, and rec centers.
• No more sacrificing our neighborhoods.
• No more making San Diego work for everyone except San Diegans.