The San Diego Childhood Obesity Initiative (COI) is committed to promoting active living across San Diego through safe, accessible routes to schools and parks. As part of this commitment, COI held an All-Partner Park and Walk Audit event on September 24th, 2025. Over 40 people — including community leaders, COI partners, and representatives from elected officials’ offices — came together to discuss and identify barriers to walking and bicycling around Memorial Community Park and Rodriguez Elementary School in Logan Heights.
This event was for all COI partners, but the COI Community Council as well as our Government, Healthcare, and Schools & After School Domains took the lead at the event. We began with a brief presentation by the COI backbone team, where Jackie Resnick and Gabriel Garcia discussed how the walk and park audit fits into COI’s 2025 priority to improve community infrastructure in San Diego. The Government Domain co-chair, Kristin Haukom, who previously provided comprehensive walk audit trainings to COI domain workgroups and the Community Council, briefly reviewed how to conduct a walk audit for those who were unfamiliar.
Participants then broke into three groups to walk three separate routes in the area surrounding the Logan Heights Library, Memorial Community Park, and Rodriguez Elementary School. Teams identified barriers to walking or bicycling, safety concerns, and other observations. These findings will be shared with city and community leaders in order to implement improvements that would make this area more user friendly to everyone in the area.
The walk audit concluded with a picnic near the playground where attendees enjoyed lunch in the shade discussing what they say on during their audits and connecting with each other. One attendee noted that, the “COI backbone team did an excellent job organizing and implementing the first park assessment/walk audit! It was a really good turnout of a broad group of stakeholders, including several City of SD Parks & Rec staff.”
We invite you to gather your friends, take a walk, write down what you see, and share your findings with local officials, decision-makers, and COI. For more information and Walk Audit Instructions, check out the COI Walk Audit Resources or contact [email protected].
