Ocean Beach Park Units…read more
Beautiful Location, Excellent Management -- But Long-Standing Safety and Maintenance Issues Need Addressing We've been coming to this unit at Ocean Beach for 5-6 years, and there is a lot we love about it. The view is fantastic, parking is secure, and the unit itself is spacious and consistently clean. Communication from the management company was excellent as always -- clear instructions on rules, security codes, and answers to questions before we even had to ask. That said, there are two issues we feel need to be raised, one inside the unit and one outside of it. Interior maintenance: None of the interior locks (bathrooms, bedrooms) function properly. This isn't new -- it's been an ongoing issue every time we've stayed here over the past several years. We understand things break, but a problem that persists for 5-6 years across multiple stays is a fixable maintenance item that shouldn't still be outstanding. Safety and enforcement in the surrounding area: This is the bigger concern, and the reason we're reconsidering how often we book here. Throughout our stay, we regularly encountered individuals in visible mental health crisis behaving in threatening or indecent ways near the building -- several instances of public indecent exposure, and unpredictable verbal outbursts directed at people who got within 40-60 yards. In addition, the public lot next to the building (between our building and the lifeguard station) has become a semi-permanent encampment of RVs and cars, with tents, BBQs, and debris that don't move for days at a time -- despite posted signage prohibiting parking from 2am-4am, which should give authorities the basis to enforce turnover. We regularly saw arguments, yelling, and thrown items from this same group. On our last morning, as we were checking out, five police cars and what appeared to be a sanitation crew arrived and began clearing the area. We had to leave before seeing the outcome, but the timing says it all: enforcement action came right as we were leaving, after being exposed to the underlying problem for our entire stay. This isn't a one-time thing -- it's a persistent condition of this stretch of Ocean Beach. It's had a real cost: we used to coordinate trips here with three other families, booking multiple units at once, and they've stopped coming because of what they were exposed to. We love this unit and we love Ocean Beach. But we're increasingly weighing what we're paying against what we're exposed to, and that comes down to a lack of consistent enforcement by the city and local businesses -- not anything within the unit or management company's control. If these two issues (locks, and the surrounding safety/enforcement situation) were addressed, this would easily be a 5-star stay every time.