www.LaPrensaSanDiego.com | MARCH 23 2018 | PAGE 7
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Aprueban Zona de Almacenamiento para Indigentes a Pesar de Respuesta Negativa de la Comunidad
BY MARIO A. CORTEZ
A
pesar de una indiscutible respuesta negativa por parte de residentes de vecindarios que actualmente batallan con el problema de individuos que viven en la calle, la Junta de Regidores de San Diego voto para aprobar la apertura de centro de almacenaje para personas sin hogar durante una reunión el martes, 20 de marzo.
La votación sobre el tema dio resultado de 8-1 a favor de la apertura del centro. El Regidor del Distrito 8, David Álvarez, cuyo distrito seria sede el centro, fue el único voto en contra. El sitio aprobado, ubicado en la esquina de las calles 20 y Commercial en Sherman Heights, tendrá 500 botes en los cuales individuos sin hogar podrán almacenar sus pertenencias con el fin de que estos puedan recibir
servicios de transición como cuidado médico o transporte. Residentes de vecindarios como SHerman Heights, Logan Heights y Barrio Logan, los cuales han tenido que lidiar con los problemas asociados con poblaciones sin hogar por años, se reunieron antes de la votación para dar a conocer su desapruebo hacia el proyecto. Poco antes de la reunión
HOMELESS
ESCONDIDO
DISTRICT 8
storage facility site is too close to his school and a cause for concern. “According to the municipal codes, we have 1,500 feet that we should respect from anything that is not safe for our kids and the building is about 15 feet away from our playground, so we are concerned about what is going to happen,” Bishop said. Bishop also that his school playground has been closed for the last couple of years due to safety concerns over the large number of homeless individuals hanging around adjacent streets. Adrianna Flores of neighborhood group Compassionate Solutions was present to voice her discontent at the proposed site, stating that the nearby communities had no say in the placement of the storage center. “We were never notified the residents about this issue and everything was just thrown at us and it is not fair that everything is thrown at the residents of Logan and Sherman heights, it is time for other communities to step in and help,” she said. Michael Fernandez was present to voice his concern over an increase in homeless individuals transiting through the area. “Basically, we’ll see more homeless people walking and sleeping around the storage area all day,” Fernandez said. During the City Council meeting, changes were made to the initial plan for this storage facility. The total number of storage bins for the facility was reduced from 1,000 to the approved 500. Provisions such as creating a neighborhood committee to oversee the center’s operations and an opening date after June 12, when Our Lady’s School finishes its academic year, were also included.
Foundation picked only five schools of the 200 participants, and two of them are located in San Diego County. “We are always needing engineers in our business, and our colleges have a healthy population that pursue technical science, but we start working with middle schools and high schools to promote the studies in science and to help them understand their innovative minds,” Ramirez said. “We are very active in fostering this type of education in our communities, not only through the grant but also with high school and college internships that help create a pipeline for science jobs.” Del Dios Academy of Arts and Sciences had to generate a video proposal of what their vision was for a new STEM lab at their school, and that’s how they got picked among the only five winners nationwide. “The classroom were the new STEM lab is located used to be a woodshop room, and when the class ended, the room was transformed into an Alternative Learning Center, which will house students for behavior and intervention, but we decided to transform and model the room with a STEM focus,” said Albert Ngo, principal at Del Dios Academy of Arts and Sciences to La Prensa San Diego. “We had computer labs before and we have our science classrooms but nothing that was dedicated only to STEM education, we had to have our STEM classes in our normal classrooms.” Ngo said that a high percentage of the students at Del Dios Academy of Arts and Sciences have a socialeconomic disadvantage, and if it wasn’t for the grant, they may no be able to experience STEM educations, STEM opportunities that can be now provided through the new lab.
nity plan for Barrio Logan, and many more. Candidates were given two minutes to answer questions read by the residents who asked them. On the topic of homelessness and the housing crisis, Moreno said that in relation to the housing crisis there needs to be more affordable housing and stated that her goal would be to have affordable housing near transit lines. She said people are being squeezed out of their own homes with rent price increases, but later emphasized that she does not support rent control, citing the expensive rent prices in San Francisco as her example of why that approach does not work. Moreno is a South Bay native who is currently a City Council policy advisor to Councilman David Alvarez, and sits on the boards of Border View YMCA and MANA de San Diego. She is the only woman running for the District 8 seat. On homelessness in San Diego, she said that the San Diego County Board of Supervisors needs to step up with regards to mental health services, one of the major issues affecting the homeless. Martinez explained that he understands that solutions to issues like homelessness can be complicated because each person has different reasons for being homeless. He is the director of publci relations for the Imperial Beach Health Clinic. Martinez said that organizations need to join together to tackle the problem and he also explained that there needs to be more focus on what he called “transitional homeless” and preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place with rent control. A San Ysidro native,
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de la Junta de Regidores, aproximadamentes 200 personas, incluyendo residentes, empresarios del área, líderes religiosos, estudiantes de primaria y el Regidor Álvarez hablaron en contra del sitio de almacenaje. Noel Bishop, director de la Escuela Our Lady’s en Barrio Logan, declaró que el sitio de almacén estaría muy cercano a su escuela y eso le preocupa mucho.
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“De acuerdo con los códigos municipales, hay mil 500 pies de distancia que se deben de respetar en torno a cualquier cosa que no sea segura para nuestros niños y el edificio está aproximadamente a 15 pies de nuestro patio de recreo, así que estamos preocupados acerca de lo que va a pasar”, dijo Bishop. Bishop también mencionó que el patio de recreo de la escuela ha estado cerrado los últimos años por preocupaciones de seguridad causadas por el número de indigentes que se presentan en calles aledañas. Adrianna Flores del grupo ciudadano Compassionate Solutions estuvo presente para mostrar su molestia con el sitio propuesto, resaltando que las comunidades de esta zona de San Diego no tuvieron ni voz ni voto en decidir donde colocar este servicio. “Jamás fuimos notificados acerca de este tema y todo se nos aventó y no es justo que los residentes de Logan Y sherman Heights, es tiempo que las demás comunidades se pongan de pie y ayuden”, dijo Flores. Michael Fernández, residente del área, se mostró preocupado por el posible incremento en personas sin hogar que transitan por el área. “Básicamente veremos más indigentes caminar y dormir alrededor del área y no
habrá lugares para que ellos usen el baño o regaderas y veremos más basura en nuestra comunidad”, afirmó Fernández. Durante la reunión de regidores, y antes de aprobar este proyecto, se hicieron cambios al plan de crear una zona de almacenamiento. El número de tambos de almacén se redujo de mil a 500 y provisiones para crear un comité de vecinos para vigilar las operaciones del centro fueron agregadas. Una nueva fecha de apertura posterior al 12 de junio, cuando termine el ciclo escolar de Our Lady’s, y hacer limpiezas a un radio mayor alrededor de la zona de almacenes también se aprobaron.
MEMORIAL
ENVIRONMENTAL
“This monument represents a lasting presence in this cemetery, a monument dedicated to the service and sacrifice that airborne troopers in any branch of the military have provided for this country, many of them gave their all, but many of us, paratroopers are ready to give the rest,” said Vietnam veteran and recipient of the Purple Heart, Nick Aguilar, who was part of the honor guard rifle salute at the event. “The monument it’s a tribute for the high-spirited and high-quality service that the airborne is committed to, and for the long-standing tradition of 78 years of being the best and elite of infantry of the U.S. Army.” Aguilar served on the Sweetwater Union High School District board, on the San Diego County Board of Education, and has been a member of the Color Guard and Honor Guard of the San Diego Chapter of the 82nd Airborne Division Association, for eight years. The Miramar National Cemetery is located at the northwest corner of Marines Corps Air Station Miramar, and it was designed to provide a full range of burial alternatives to approximately 235,000 veterans in San Diego County.
including three exclusive families of the region. The study indicates that there is a need of promoting a binational cooperation to get a better adaptation of climate change and to increase, in any way possible, the social well being in the border communities. The conference was held at the Mexican Consulate in San Diego in collaboration between Tijuana Innovadora and the marine program of the California Gulf at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Red Global MX members, on Wednesday, March 21. “It’s very important for us to have this proximity and connections with the scientific community so they can explain to us what is really happening through truthful information,” said the Consul General at the Mexican Consulate in San Diego, Marcela Celorio. “To understand the border, you need to live in it. And this type of initiatives is for us to get to know what’s happening and to take advantage of all that knowledge for better decision in the climate change and environmental issues.” The California drought was also discussed at the conference, and the audience could see some images of reservoirs at the North of California, to see the change and severity of the drought in recent years.
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Martinez currently serves on the San Ysidro School District Board. Ramirez, who had many supporters in the room, said that City Hall has constantly pushed the problem to communities and explained his disagreement with Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s plan to open a second storage facility for homeless in Sherman Heights. “That is the kind of halfbaked ideas that have turned our communities int to he dumping grounds for the elite,” Ramirez said. Ramirez was previously human rights director at Alliance San Diego and is now running for City Council. On land use and planning, Martinez said that to resolve issues of zoning and land use, there needs to be an updated community plan for Barrio Logan, which dates to 1978. Moreno added that there was a plan update in Barrio Logan that was reversed by a referendum, but added that some communities, like San Ysidro and Otay Mesa, have updated their community plans. Barrio Logan resident Philomena Marino asked candidates what they would do to improve parking in her community, which is largely impacted by the amount of people who work in the surrounding industrial companies and Navy, making it difficult for the residents who live in the neighborhood. “One was a cookie cutter, one was extremely heartfelt and I think that one actually offered a solution,” Marino said on how each candidate answered her question. District 8 includes the communities of Barrio Logan, Grant Hill, Logan Heights, Memorial, Nestor, Ocean View Hills, Otay Mesa, San Ysidro, Shelltown, Sherman Heights, Stockton, and the Tijuana River Valley.
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