San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

You are here: Home / Archives for Beryl Forman

Placemaking, Community Building and Permits: Taking Back the Alleys in San Diego Neighborhoods

by

City planning tends to be a long range, expensive approach to transforming cities, with a greater focus on the creation of planning documents versus the implementation of projects. While there is no argument that regional and transportation planning has led to a new wave of urban living throughout the country, on a localized level, placemaking offers neighborhood leaders a greater opportunity to engage the public, envision tangible projects and work together to enhance their surroundings.

When The Media Arts Center of San Diego expanded their operations on El Cajon Boulevard in 2012, they launched an initiative called Take Back the Alley to transform their back parking lot into a gathering place. This catalytic placemaking initiative continued forward on an annual basis with greater support from the El Cajon Boulevard Business Improvement Association as well as local and corporate volunteers to expand into the alley to support business activity and residential issues.

[Updated 5/25/18 to include photo gallery]   [Read more…]

Border Life: Unprecedented Waits for Bi-National Commuters and Tourists

by

By Beryl Forman

Before getting married, my Brazilian husband lived in San Diego for several years with an expired visa. Acknowledging the circumstance, he remained acutely nervous of military bases, checkpoints and kept his distance from the international border.

Before anything bad happened, he returned to Brazil. After my first visit to see him, we decided to get married and applied for a fiancé visa. As assumed, the process was arduous, inconvenient and expensive, with several unexpected hurdles.

Four years passed, and he was finally granted a visa and we were married. On the day he received his green card, we accompanied some friends for an evening across the border. With the intentions of parking in San Ysidro, by accident, and quite ironically, we drove across the border. Luckily, the border agents allowed us to avoid the headache of the border wait by assisting us in making a U-turn directly in the front of the line. That night, my husband successfully crossed the border twice with his brand new green card.   [Read more…]

San Ysidro Bi-National Multi-Modal Transit Center

by

By Beryl Forman

The City of San Diego’s 700 block of East San Ysidro Boulevard is likely the most integral property to activate the San Diego/Tijuana Bi-national Border Region, as high level economic dialogue between the U.S. and Mexico unfolds. This block is not only home to the world’s busiest pedestrian border crossing, but also San Diego’s most heavily traveled trolley station, by far.

With up to three hours delay at the border nearly every day, and 7 billion dollars a year lost in economic productivity due to border delays, a grand opportunity lies ahead for this strategically located property. In order to realize this potential, it is important to understand some of the current issues and proposed plans for this site.   [Read more…]

Tijuana’s Avant Garde Mom Store

by

By Beryl Forman

In 2003, Rashad Marx, who was just 19, opened The Source, a boutique in Tijuana dedicated to independent design and graffiti art. He sourced most of the clothing from north of the border by connecting with designers in LA, San Francisco, New York, and San Diego. The Source thrived for a little over five years before it finally fell victim to Tijuana’s economic decline, which came as an aftermath to 9-11,the Mexican drug war and American border policies. 

From the 1920’s to the early part of the 21st Century, Tijuana was a constant mecca for tourists.  Its downtown entertainment corridor, Avenida Revolución, was thronged by Americans seeking a vaguely exotic, cheap foreign excursion. Tijuanans tended to steer clear of the crowds and the escalated prices in the main ‘tourist’ drag, even though there were many young people who would probably have enjoyed mingling with the wild, drunk Americans. Once tourism plummeted, downtown businesses began catering to the desires of Tijuana’s young and artsy locals. The city began its slow renaissance led by business entrepreneurs, cultural organizations, and artists.   [Read more…]

City Heights’ & Little Saigon’s A-Chau

by

By Beryl Forman

Since the end of the Vietnam War, many Vietnamese families began settling in San Diego. In City Heights, families were welcomed with settlement programs, which is why there is a large cluster of family-owned Vietnamese businesses along El Cajon Boulevard.

A Chau, which means Of the Orient, has had their stake in this community since 1986. A Chau was first at 54th and University, but when it was time to expand, they moved to El Cajon Boulevard at Menlo Avenue. This is in the center of what today is being branded as the Little Saigon district.

When the Nguyen family first arrived in San Diego, Hoa, the mother of the family, had a dream of owning her own business. She refined her skills in Vietnamese cooking, particularly on a selection of meats such as ham, head cheese and pâté, traditionally suited for the Vietnamese sandwich known as banh mi.   [Read more…]

A Bi-National Convergence: Small Scale Street Improvements for Livable, Sustainable Neighborhoods

by

Tactical Urbanism in San Diego and Tijuana

By Beryl Forman

Building a thriving bi-national region between San Diego and Tijuana is an enormous feat. Based on conversations with practical-minded leaders around bi-national planning, “intentional collaborations and concerted leadership” are the foundation of success. Aside from the largest setback to improve bi-national affairs, which is the border wait time, much can be accomplished on the neighborhood level to lure travel between the region. With a growing interest to establish a vital bi-national region, I believe that in the next few years we must plan for small scale pilot projects, in an effort to establish a framework for collaboration and build positive momentum.

Improving the livability of our urban environments commonly starts in the immediate vicinity of where people live, work, shop and socialize. While large scale planning projects such as transit oriented development have their place, incremental, small-scale street improvements are increasingly seen as a way to garner community interest and support before making significant financial commitments.   [Read more…]

Awash Ethiopian Restaurant: A Home Away From Home for African Immigrants

by

In 1980, Aster Keleta arrived in San Diego. It was just three months before the United States began granting Ethiopians refugee status. Seeking citizenship was more arduous, but it allowed her to settle in and be of assistance to other incoming Ethiopians, a passion of hers that has continued on for over 30 years.

With the stability she has gained in her professional career, she recently decided to plunge back into the restaurant business once again. Aster and her partner Dr Carrol Waymon are now the new owners of Awash, an Ethiopian restaurant on El Cajon Boulevard at 50th St. Aster admits that she has missed having the creative freedom of running her own business, which also allows her the opportunity to reconnect with her identity and culture.   [Read more…]

Where’s Planning in San Diego? Moving Beyond Process and Delivering Results

by

By Beryl Forman

Once San Diego fulfilled its quest of becoming a sprawled out metropolis, narrow minded city officials questioned the purpose of future planning. To some, development is equivalent to planning, so with no more available land to build, the value of planning was in question. Aside from accepting that our county had become a sprawling mess, good planners would argue that the objective of contemporary urban planning is to ‘Return to the Center”, to improve the life and environment our city’s dense urban neighborhoods. With a new found interest in urban living, San Diego’s city leaders and urban planners alike are proudly re-examining the purpose of planning.

To expand on this subject, panelists Bill Anderson, former director of Planning for the City of San Diego, along with Mike Stepner, former city architect, and Howard Blackson, local urban designer seen at the forefront our city’s urban issues, spoke at February’s C3 (Citizens Coordinate for Century 3) breakfast dialogue.   [Read more…]

©2010-2017 SanDiegoFreePress.org

Code is Poetry