By Anna Daniels
It is hard to make generalizations about a community with over 75,000 residents. It is even harder to make generalizations about a community in which 41% of the residents are foreign born and those residents were born in over thirty different countries. City Heights must be understood in bits and shape shifting pieces.
To understand City Heights, it must be rolled across the tongue and savored in the local markets and restaurants. It must be heard in the cacophony of buses, street vendors, garbage trucks, music from quinceañeras and children’s voices. It must be felt on an early morning canyon walk.
The San Diego Free Press focus on City Heights will be delivered up over the next month as a fragmented incomplete narrative. Twenty-one percent of the residents here speak no or little English. It is a daunting challenge to provide a way for myriad disparate voices to be heard. In the upcoming weeks we’ll be covering a variety of topics and people. The narrative that we will present is shaped by these inescapable factors:
City Heights past The Chollas Creek watershed, which includes City Heights, was a significant settlement for Native Americans. In the 1880’s Abraham Klauber and Samuel Steiner purchased over 200 unincorporated acres in the hopes of developing it, and named it City Heights. The Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915 spurred that development. City Heights became the incorporated city of East San Diego in 1912. In 1923, East San Diego was annexed to the City of San Diego.
The big game changer was the Mid-City Plan, adopted by the San Diego City Council in 1965. The plan proposed to densify City Heights and other mid-city communities as a means of increasing business and commerce. If you want to understand City Heights, you must look at City Heights today in the context of that conscious policy decision close to four decades ago. There are 15,000 people per square mile in City Heights, compared to the city-wide average of 4,000 people per square mile.
After the fall of Saigon, City Heights becomes the Ellis Island of San Diego Our national policy on immigration has changed greatly throughout our country’s history. Since the fall of Saigon in 1975, political refugees have become a significant portion of the immigrants here.
These refugees have escaped political upheaval and civil wars in Vietnam, Ethiopia, the Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Laos and most recently, Burma. Immigrants come to City Heights to learn English at the Adult Education Center and acquire basic skills to obtain employment. A variety of non-profit organizations, such as the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and African Alliance provide support and assistance.
City Heights is home to Little Saigon and Little Mogadishu. City Heights is also home to residents without legal documents from Mexico, many of whom who were brought here as children. The latter are now beginning to receive legal residency through a slow, costly process. While many of the immigrants in City Heights have legal status, they aren’t necessarily citizens. That means that they are unable to vote in local or national elections.
The new City Council District 9, which includes City Heights, was drawn as a majority minority district after the 2010 census. This redistricting is an attempt to addresses the thorny issue of who speaks for City Heights.
That question embodies the tension that exists between the few– older, for the most part white property owners– and the many– younger, ethnically and racially diverse renters. It remains to be seen how that tension plays out in terms of actual political power and for whom in District 9.
A young community with engaged young people While it is noteworthy that the average median age in City Heights is younger than the city-wide age, and there are more children per household than city-wide, youth here are organizing and engaging in public policy decisions that affect them, their families and their community. This youth involvement should not be over-looked.
The City Heights Planning Area Committee (CHPAC) has allocated two voting seats to young people. Youth led the advocacy efforts for skate parks and free mid-city bus passes for high school students. They are concerned about juvenile incarceration rates in City Heights and what those rates say about race and equal justice. They are exploring alternatives to our juvenile justice system in the form of restorative justice. Mid-City Can has played a seminal role in mentoring youth leaders and identifying issues.
City Heights residents struggle to make ends meet Almost a third of City Heights residents live below the poverty level. The median household income here is $38,000/yr compared to $61,000/yr city-wide. Affordable housing is critical. Public transportation is critical. Libraries and Park and Recreation facilities and services are not simply amenities–they are vital core services. Educational opportunities are also critical.
A number of non-profits and religious institutions in City Heights have sought to address or mitigate the lack of adequate public policies necessary to address the endemic poverty. There are food distribution programs, community health clinics, small scale economic efforts, and affordable housing partnerships.
Much less visible but undeniably influential are the presence of Price Charities and the California Endowment. Price Charities has a longer history in the community and is best known for their role in the redevelopment that occurred in the 1990’s. The California Endowment has focused on health issues. Both of these entities have provided a significant infusion of money into City Heights and a vision for City Height’s future.
The life lived in City Heights is much more complex and vibrant than the factors that shape it. In the upcoming weeks, we’ll write about community resistance, bursts of creative energy, the progressive presence, Egyptian Revival architecture and explore the mysteries of jackfruit.
We need your help and participation! If you have any pictures of City Heights that you would like to share, or would like to submit something about City Heights, please send your pictures as a jpg and submissions to contact@sandiegofreepress.org In the subject line simply type “City Heights.”
Anna Daniels
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Such a wonderful opener, Anna. Thank you so much for spreading out the tableau of City Heights for all of us to digest, slowly. It is so important for San Diegans to know about City Heights and all of its diverse amazement. Congrats for being there for us and your community all these decades – you are truly the epitome of a community activist.
Frank- I am writing this today because I happened to meet you at the City Heights Community Development Corp. office in 1990, where you were working as a Community Organizer. Thank you. ;-)
Anna — most San Diegans, particularly those who live and work north of Mission Valley, have a vague awareness of the complexity and uniqueness (and maybe even the existence?) of the community called City Heights. Your introduction to the community has instantly transformed a neglected and undervalued place into a living, breathing component of our city. I’m looking forward to subsequent articles and I applaud you on this one.
It is nice to hear such love for City Heights. City Heights is a neighborhood that is rich in culture and ethnic treasures. Little Saigon is the best place in San Diego to get ingredients for true southeast Asian food. Over the last couple of decades, the reputation of City Heights has improved to the point where I don’t have to cajole and drag friends to restaurants there. That also true of my own neighborhood. As time goes by and mass transit improves, City Heights will become more valuable in the eyes of San Diegans.
Actually two very popular destination bars are The Tower Bar and Til Two Club (formerly the Beauty Bar). Both places are very popular live band venues especially for under the radar indie and punk bands. Most people thorough out San Diego who are into those styles of music are very aware of these two places, at least that’s the impression I get based on circles I run around in. What’s interesting about them is that they are largely staffed and patronized by people who don’t live in CH and by and large few people who do live in CH go to these places. They’re sort of destination bars. The Tower of course has its long and interesting history.
OK I see I repated myself here;)
Goatskull- I’m trying to remember some of the places in the 90’s where we went dancing and listened to music. I definitely remember the Wabash Hall. There was another place on University Avenue around Fairmount. We listened and danced to a lot of reggae in those venues, and there was a tiny joint off of El Cajon, also around Fairmount, that had Indy bands. The owner was a young woman.
One unforgettable, tense evening- the Rodney Kind verdict had been announced earlier that day– we walked over to the Red Sea Restaurant and listened to Bitoto play. (We also got completely slammed on tej, Ethiopian honey wine. ) Can you fill in any of the blanks?
Was it Megalopolis?
Buffy- you are right! Here’s the info from a 2004 U-T article:
MEGALOPOLIS (4321 Fairmount Ave., City Heights area): A hole-in-the-wall across the street from Pearson Ford, Megalopolis was one of the hidden nightlife gems of the mid-’90s. For the SDSU crowd that was old enough to drink legally, it was a must-stop. Somehow, they showcased live bands in here when the jukebox and beer weren’t entertainment enough. It all lasted for a very short time, however.
Goatskull- Bacchanal was in Kearny Mesa. I remember it too!
That sounds more realistic. I remember hearing of Megalpolis but for me the 90’s was sort of a non scene period and I was rather out of it, pluse I lived in Spring Valley at the time.
The Bacchanal possibly? That’s one place I remember hearing about but never went to and I’m not sure what part of town it was in.
University in Normal Heights there was The Zombie Lounge which became The Radio Room which became Eleven which is now The Void and that’s next to The Soda Bar. I don’t remember who occupied where the Soda Bar is now.
Anna,
What a wonderful and interesting project! Your love and dedication to City Heights and the hearts and souls of the all the residents is an inspiration for all of us. Cannot wait to read and see more. It’s also clear that you have a great following of great many people inside and outside of your community. Anna, you make a difference !
Cit Heights will eventually save San Diego from itself.
And, Anna, that was an artful, easy-reading introduction to the cascade of articles about strip mall feasts and cheap car repairs, and, bargains in hats, and insurance brokers who actually work for you and all the other features of the real world that are sure to follow.
Bob- I take it there will be no subsequent article from you about “bargains in hats… ” Thank you for that. We will work hard to keep the coverage real, albeit a tad quirky.
Dear Ms. Daniels,
Thank you for this effort and all your past contributions.
Mr. Stump- I know you are a citizen expert about the Chollas Creek Watershed. What should we know? What should we be reading? Thanks, as always for the encouragement. I continue to search for the green ball, when we are only offered the red and blue ball.
Awesome – another neighborhood spotlight! Loved the previous ones, and can’t think of anyone better to curate than Anna, who’s already produced a trove of great reads on her ‘hood!