For years, Evans Hotels has positioned itself as one of Mission Bay's most prominent stewards. The family behind the Catamaran Resort, Bahia Resort Hotel, and The Lodge at Torrey Pines has spent decades helping shape San Diego's tourism industry. Current second generation owner William L. Evans has served on numerous influential boards and commissions tied to tourism, hospitality, and civic development. Few families have had a greater impact on San Diego's visitor economy.
Which is why what is happening directly outside the Catamaran feels so at odds with that legacy. Take a walk along Sail Bay on a busy summer weekend and the pattern quickly becomes apparent. The shoreline path is lined with dozens, likely well over one hundred, public trash receptacles stretching around the bay. Most are functioning exactly as intended. Yet the receptacles immediately adjacent to the Catamaran property are frequently overflowing with cups, food containers, napkins, wrappers, and other refuse.
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Once the cans reach capacity, the consequences are predictable. Seagulls tear into exposed garbage. Wind carries debris across the sand. Some of it inevitably finds its way into Mission Bay. This is not a one-off occurrence. It has become a recurring feature of one of San Diego's most heavily visited waterfront corridors.
To be clear, the City of San Diego likely bears the ultimate legal responsibility for maintaining these public receptacles. The beach is public. The walkway is public. The trash cans are public infrastructure. But legality is not the only issue.
For decades, the Catamaran actively occupied large portions of the public beach directly in front of the resort with lounge chairs, umbrellas, and guest amenities. Several years ago, most of that operation moved across the public walkway onto the resort's lawn overlooking Sail Bay. The guests, however, never left.
Today, the waterfront immediately outside the hotel remains a hub of activity. Visitors gather for food and drinks, nearby coffee and alcohol service, watersports, boat rentals, sternwheeler cruises, and beach fire pit experiences. The Catamaran's dock operations, watersports concessions, coffee shop, and bayfront amenities all rely on the shoreline as a central component of the guest experience.
Yet despite the substantial amount of guest activity occurring in these outdoor spaces, the resort appears to provide remarkably few guest-facing trash receptacles in some of its busiest outdoor gathering areas. The Catamaran's expansive north and south bayfront lawns, which serve as the primary relaxation spaces outside the resort's pool area and regularly accommodate dozens of lounge chairs and guests overlooking Sail Bay, do not appear to contain anydedicated trash receptacles within the lawn areas themselves.
By contrast, at least five large City-owned public trash cans line the adjacent public walkway and beach directly outside those same guest seating areas. While the resort does provide a medium-sized wood-enclosed trash and recycling receptacle near its coffee shop, pier, and boat rental operations, along with two additional receptacles near the pedestrian entrance connecting the resort to the bayfront walkway, much of the refuse generated by guests utilizing the lawn and waterfront areas appears likely to be directed toward the public cans immediately outside the property.
Whether intentional or not, the arrangement creates a situation in which public infrastructure effectively serves as the primary waste-disposal system for some of the resort's most heavily utilized outdoor guest spaces. When visitor traffic surges during weekends, holidays, and summer months, the predictable result is that the City-owned receptacles directly adjacent to the resort become overwhelmed while many other public cans around Sail Bay remain comparatively manageable.
To be clear, the City of San Diego likely bears the ultimate legal responsibility for maintaining these public receptacles. The beach is public. The walkway is public. The trash cans are public infrastructure. But legality is not the only issue.
For decades, the Catamaran actively occupied large portions of the public beach directly in front of the resort with lounge chairs, umbrellas, and guest amenities. Several years ago, most of that operation moved across the public walkway onto the resort's lawn overlooking Sail Bay. The guests, however, never left.
Today, the waterfront immediately outside the hotel remains a hub of activity. Visitors gather for food and drinks, nearby coffee and alcohol service, watersports, boat rentals, sternwheeler cruises, and beach fire pit experiences. The Catamaran's dock operations, watersports concessions, coffee shop, and bayfront amenities all rely on the shoreline as a central component of the guest experience.
Yet despite the substantial amount of guest activity occurring in these outdoor spaces, the resort appears to provide remarkably few guest-facing trash receptacles in some of its busiest outdoor gathering areas. The Catamaran's expansive north and south bayfront lawns, which serve as the primary relaxation spaces outside the resort's pool area and regularly accommodate dozens of lounge chairs and guests overlooking Sail Bay, do not appear to contain anydedicated trash receptacles within the lawn areas themselves.
By contrast, at least five large City-owned public trash cans line the adjacent public walkway and beach directly outside those same guest seating areas. While the resort does provide a medium-sized wood-enclosed trash and recycling receptacle near its coffee shop, pier, and boat rental operations, along with two additional receptacles near the pedestrian entrance connecting the resort to the bayfront walkway, much of the refuse generated by guests utilizing the lawn and waterfront areas appears likely to be directed toward the public cans immediately outside the property.
Whether intentional or not, the arrangement creates a situation in which public infrastructure effectively serves as the primary waste-disposal system for some of the resort's most heavily utilized outdoor guest spaces. When visitor traffic surges during weekends, holidays, and summer months, the predictable result is that the City-owned receptacles directly adjacent to the resort become overwhelmed while many other public cans around Sail Bay remain comparatively manageable.
Which leads to a fundamental question - if a resort is willing to market Sail Bay as a central feature of its business, profit from activities occurring directly adjacent to the shoreline, and encourage guests to spend their days enjoying the waterfront, should it also play a more active role in helping maintain that environment?
The issue is not whether Evans Hotels is legally obligated to service City-owned trash cans. The issue is whether a company whose brand is built on waterfront hospitality should be comfortable watching overflowing garbage bins, windblown litter, and scavenging seagulls become a recurring feature of the landscape immediately outside its doors.
That question becomes even harder to ignore given the company's recent history with sanitation-related issues elsewhere on the property. In 2024, the Catamaran's main kitchen, banquet operations, and room-service facilities were ordered closed multiple times by San Diego County health inspectors following inspections that documented major vermin violations and numerous additional deficiencies. Inspection records show closures in both July and October 2024 after inspectors cited issues including vermin activity, food-contact surface violations, improper food handling, sanitation deficiencies, and facility maintenance concerns.
To the resort's credit, the issues were quickly corrected and the facilities reopened. Current inspection records show substantially improved compliance. No one is suggesting that overflowing public trash cans are equivalent to health code violations inside a commercial kitchen. But both situations raise a similar question: how much responsibility should a major hospitality operator assume for the environment immediately surrounding its business?
That question feels particularly relevant when discussing a family whose influence extends far beyond a single hotel. The Evans family has spent generations building one of San Diego's most successful hospitality companies. More recently, the family found itself in national headlines through Billy Evans, whose marriage to convicted Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and subsequent launch of a blood-testing startup drew widespread media attention. The family has never shied away from occupying a prominent place in San Diego's civic and business landscape.
Prominence carries benefits. It also carries responsibilities. And one of those responsibilities should be ensuring that visitors do not leave behind a trail of garbage that ultimately ends up in Mission Bay.
Nobody is asking the Catamaran to solve every litter problem in San Diego. But adding additional trash receptacles throughout guest areas, increasing cleanup efforts during peak visitation periods, monitoring nearby public receptacles, or partnering with the City to address chronic overflow conditions would hardly seem unreasonable for one of Southern California's most successful waterfront resorts.
Instead, the current situation creates the appearance that everyone is waiting for someone else to act. The City can point to staffing and resource limitations. The resort can point to municipal ownership of the trash cans. Meanwhile, the garbage keeps piling up. The seagulls keep spreading it around. And Mission Bay continues serving as the final destination for trash that nobody seems eager to claim responsibility for.
At some point, legal responsibility becomes less important than stewardship. Because residents and visitors do not distinguish between "city trash" and "resort trash" when they are staring at overflowing garbage cans directly in front of one of San Diego's flagship waterfront hotels.
They just see trash. And frankly, they shouldn't have to.
That question becomes even harder to ignore given the company's recent history with sanitation-related issues elsewhere on the property. In 2024, the Catamaran's main kitchen, banquet operations, and room-service facilities were ordered closed multiple times by San Diego County health inspectors following inspections that documented major vermin violations and numerous additional deficiencies. Inspection records show closures in both July and October 2024 after inspectors cited issues including vermin activity, food-contact surface violations, improper food handling, sanitation deficiencies, and facility maintenance concerns.
To the resort's credit, the issues were quickly corrected and the facilities reopened. Current inspection records show substantially improved compliance. No one is suggesting that overflowing public trash cans are equivalent to health code violations inside a commercial kitchen. But both situations raise a similar question: how much responsibility should a major hospitality operator assume for the environment immediately surrounding its business?
That question feels particularly relevant when discussing a family whose influence extends far beyond a single hotel. The Evans family has spent generations building one of San Diego's most successful hospitality companies. More recently, the family found itself in national headlines through Billy Evans, whose marriage to convicted Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and subsequent launch of a blood-testing startup drew widespread media attention. The family has never shied away from occupying a prominent place in San Diego's civic and business landscape.
Prominence carries benefits. It also carries responsibilities. And one of those responsibilities should be ensuring that visitors do not leave behind a trail of garbage that ultimately ends up in Mission Bay.
Nobody is asking the Catamaran to solve every litter problem in San Diego. But adding additional trash receptacles throughout guest areas, increasing cleanup efforts during peak visitation periods, monitoring nearby public receptacles, or partnering with the City to address chronic overflow conditions would hardly seem unreasonable for one of Southern California's most successful waterfront resorts.
Instead, the current situation creates the appearance that everyone is waiting for someone else to act. The City can point to staffing and resource limitations. The resort can point to municipal ownership of the trash cans. Meanwhile, the garbage keeps piling up. The seagulls keep spreading it around. And Mission Bay continues serving as the final destination for trash that nobody seems eager to claim responsibility for.
At some point, legal responsibility becomes less important than stewardship. Because residents and visitors do not distinguish between "city trash" and "resort trash" when they are staring at overflowing garbage cans directly in front of one of San Diego's flagship waterfront hotels.
They just see trash. And frankly, they shouldn't have to.
SanDiegoVille reached out to Evans Hotels seeking comment regarding the recurring overflow conditions, whether the company believes the current level of trash management is adequate given the volume of activity adjacent to the resort, whether additional receptacles or collection efforts have been considered, and whether the company accepts any responsibility for environmental impacts associated with trash generated by guests utilizing the public beach immediately outside the property.
In a written statement, Evans Hotels Chief Marketing Officer Ilsa Butler said the trash receptacles along Sail Bay are owned and serviced by the City of San Diego. Butler stated that while the public beach and boardwalk areas are not maintained by Evans Hotels, the company "regularly removes litter and debris from areas adjacent to the resort throughout the day" and is committed to implementing additional measures to support cleanliness along the bayfront.
The response, however, did not directly address why the overflow conditions appear concentrated near the Catamaran compared to other areas of Sail Bay, whether the company believes the current trash infrastructure is sufficient given the volume of visitors drawn to the waterfront adjacent to the resort, whether additional guest-facing receptacles have been considered, or whether Evans Hotels accepts any responsibility for trash generated by guests utilizing the shoreline immediately outside its property.
While Evans Hotels states that its team regularly removes litter and debris from areas adjacent to the resort, those efforts have not been readily apparent during visits, particularly during busy weekends when overflowing receptacles, scattered trash, and seagull activity are most noticeable.
It is worth noting that SanDiegoVille's Instagram account remains blocked by the official Instagram accounts for Catamaran Resort Hotel & Spa, Bahia Resort Hotel, and The Lodge at Torrey Pines following previous reporting involving Evans Hotels and members of the Evans family.
Should Evans Hotels provide additional responses to the unanswered questions outlined above, this article will be updated accordingly.
Originally published on June 10, 2026.
Originally published on June 10, 2026.
