San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

You are here: Home / Archives for Avital Aboody

Conservationists Seeking More Help From City To Restore Local Canyons

by

Many of the scenic trails winding through San Diego’s canyons are the unintended consequences of a San Diego infrastructure policy that made it possible to transform sewer line access paths into popular nature walks.

On a recent afternoon, Eric Bowlby, Executive Director of the non-profit organization San Diego Canyonlands, and Jason Allen, Senior Ranger with the City of San Diego Open Space Division, strolled along one such path parallel to Interstate 15 at the southern end of Juniper Canyon. They took turns identifying native and invasive plant species and praising each other’s tireless work to restore 3500 acres of open space in forty canyons throughout San Diego.   [Read more…]

Ceramic Heights: A New Creative Outlet for City Heights

by

Have you ever taken a ceramics class? If you were lucky, maybe your high school art class or summer camp let you play around with hand building. But for most of us, we’ve either never had the chance or think of ceramics as “that thing I tried once upon a time”. For Amanda Gardner, ceramics has been a hobby since she was a kid growing up in the suburbs of Chicago.

Fast forward to adulthood and Amanda joined the coast guard. She was stationed in San Diego in 2007 and spent 4 years in the service as an electrician. After leaving the coast guard, she found herself picking up a variety of different jobs, constantly learning new skills.   [Read more…]

Humble Heart Thrift Store: Thrift, Coffee, Love

by

By Avital Aboody

The Humble Heart Thrift Store will be celebrating its 5th birthday on August 10, 2015. Five years ago, Michael Modrow Jr. was laid off from his job as a manager at Midas where he had worked for seven years. To get by, he started doing yard sales at his home, selling off a handful of personal things that he had collected over the years. Mike is an active member of his church. Upon hearing about Mike’s situation, the church offered to give Mike permission to sell the variety of donated items that weren’t a good fit for distribution to the homeless, such as furniture.   [Read more…]

Reclaiming Public Spaces: The Art of the Alley in Logan Heights and North Park

by

By Avital Aboody

Last weekend, hundreds of San Diego residents picked up shovels and paint brushes to successfully beautify and activate four alleyways in North Park and Logan Heights. The Media Arts Center on El Cajon Boulevard started the “Take Back the Alley” initiative three years ago by converting their parking lot into a beautiful outdoor events area. But this is the first time that the initiative has actually expanded into the alley (spanning the two blocks between Kansas and Ohio Street), as well as three parallel projects in Logan Heights! For more about how this project got started, read my previous article: Take Back the Alley!   [Read more…]

Take Back the Alley!

by

by Avital Aboody

Alleyways are a defining feature of older urban neighborhoods. Such extensive networks of passageways and open spaces that offer easy access to homes and businesses with minimal car interference should be celebrated and utilized. Yet rather than developing alleys for the benefit of the community, they have become the forgotten public spaces.

Years of neglect have turned alleys into prime locations for dumping, tagging, drug dealing, sexual activity, physical assault, loitering, and almost every other type of criminal activity you could imagine. The excessive trash, lack of adequate lighting, and poor maintenance contribute to an environment that is unsanitary and unsafe for residents, business owners, and employees that live and work around alleyways.

It is bad enough that alleys are public health and safety hazards, but when you take into account the fact that low-income urban neighborhoods are also severely lacking in parks and public gathering places, improving alley conditions becomes even more essential.   [Read more…]

Poppa’s Fresh Fish Company Brings a Fresh Face to Logan Heights

by

By Avital Aboody

If you have ever been to any of the big farmers markets in San Diego (Little Italy, Ocean Beach, Hillcrest) then you have seen Poppa’s Fresh Fish Company. Maybe you have tasted their signature live sea urchin, shared a good laugh with owner Mark Lane, and joined the growing fan club of rare seafood lovers.

If so, you will be pleased to know that after nearly five years selling in farmers markets, Poppa’s Fresh Fish is opening its first storefront location in Logan Heights! The business owner, Mark Lane, is hard at work getting the space ready for their big grand opening, but he took some time out of his hectic schedule to tell me the story of his business and why he is excited to move into the neighborhood.   [Read more…]

A Taste of Colombia on Imperial Avenue: Antojitos Colombianos

by

By Avital Aboody

If you’ve eaten on Imperial Avenue before, you’ve probably enjoyed some great tacos or perhaps pupusas. But you might not know about the newest gem on the corridor: “Antojitos Colombianos,” the first and only Colombian restaurant in San Diego. The doors at 2851 Imperial Avenue opened for business in January 2012, and this home-grown restaurant has been happily providing customers with a truly authentic Colombian experience ever since.

The owner of “Antojitos Colombianos,” Javier Rodriguez, is from Cali, Colombia. He moved to San Diego 28 years ago to study business at San Diego City College, and then decided to build his life here. Javier capitalized on his previous experience in hotel management, as well as his love for food, and spent the next twenty years managing various restaurants. In 2005 he got together with a couple of Italian friends and opened his first business, a continental restaurant in La Jolla.   [Read more…]

What’s in a Name? Five San Diego Neighborhoods in Search of an Identity

by

By Avital Aboody 

About one year ago I moved from Los Angeles to San Diego and began working as the Project Coordinator for the Greater Logan Heights Community Partnership (GLHCP), a collaborative of community-based organizations serving Logan Heights, Memorial, Sherman Heights, Grant Hill and Stockton. These five neighborhoods are bounded by Route 94 to the north, 1-15 to the east, and 1-5 the south and west.

The GLHCP is an outgrowth of the Neighborhood First Initiative piloted by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) in 2008. The group formed as an earnest effort to unite community-based organizations and empower residents to take action to create sustainable change in their neighborhood. Before taking this job, I had never heard of any of these neighborhoods, let alone the varying names that are used to refer to them collectively. But as I launched into my work, I quickly learned the significance of names in this community.   [Read more…]

©2010-2017 SanDiegoFreePress.org

Code is Poetry