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Desde la Logan: What Does Chicano Park Mean to You?

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By Brent E. Beltrán

Since I live across the street from Chicano Park I sometimes take its beauty for granted. I see it every day as I exit my apartment complex’s parking structure. I see it when I do laundry. When I walk to Las Cuatro Milpas for my tortilla fix. Whenever I return home from wherever I’ve been. I live within its shadows and those that helped create the space.

It’s an ubiquitous presence in my Barrio Logan life. It’s always there. Standing proudly in the background of my existence. Because of that sometimes it all blends together. But not this coming Saturday, April 20. The annual Chicano Park Day Celebration is when Chicano Park is at the forefront of people’s minds. It’s a time to remember and celebrate the occupation of land and a community fighting for its dignity. It’s a time when the park shines from within the shadows of the San Diego Coronado Bridge.

I know what Chicano Park means to me. But I often wonder what does it means to others? I thought I’d ask a few people that question. What does Chicano Park mean to you? Here are their answers, in their own words and in their own linguistic style. After reading please make a comment below and let me know what Chicano Park means to you.   [Read more…]

Restaurant Review – Las Cuatro Milpas

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Las Cuatro Milpas
1875 Logan Ave. (Cesar E. Chavez Pkwy.)
San Diego, CA 92113
619-234-4460

In a way, it grieves me to be writing this review because Las Cuatro Milpas is one of my very favorite Mexican Restaurants and it is already so busy I hate to know that others reading this review will want to get in their car and drive down to Barrio Logan immediately.

But before you do, check the time because they open at 8:30am and close at 3:00pm, UNLESS they run out of food and close earlier.

The first time I went to this wonderful, small – much smaller then than now – was in 1966.  My husband and I stood in line for almost 35 minutes, next to the then-mayor and Police Chief of San Diego. The line stretched almost around the block then – and still does today.(New people stand in line now – they served all the “old ones.”)   [Read more…]

I’m not Sure if I Adopted Barrio Logan or if It Adopted Me…

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By Letitia Rogers

I’ve moved around a lot. From where I was born, in El Cajon, to rural Oregon and even more rural Alaska. Wherever we lived, though, we were still San Diegans, listening to the Beach Boys Christmas album — even with snow outside. I spent 20 years in LA and never seemed to settle, always hinting at a return to San Diego.

In 2007 I made the move and while working downtown, my car got towed. The impound lot was near Barrio Logan. Uh oh. I’d never been there and only had vague stories of why not to go there. Danger was implied. We exited at Cesar E. Chavez and driving by old houses with bars on the windows, I wondered: who lives here?

That move didn’t stick and I ended up back in LA. While figuring out my next move after a film job ended, I got a call from a family friend in San Diego about an opportunity. Gayle is a caterer & chef and had decided to open a restaurant in Barrio Logan. Very little foot traffic and a down economy wasn’t ideal but she’d moved her catering kitchen to a building at Newton and Beardsley and taken over the old Guild restaurant space in the front.

She was going to give it a go. I was intrigued. It was to be friendly and relaxed with affordable, good food for the people working and living in the community. I think my ever-on-the-move brain only heard the word “community.” That’s what I was looking for and I said “Yes.”   [Read more…]

Jam Sessions with Bill Caballero at Barrio Logan’s Voz Alta

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by Bob Dorn

“At my jam everyone’s equal; nobody’s better than anybody else.”

What Bill Caballero is really saying is that the floor at Voz Alta Project in Barrio Logan is open to the worst players in San Diego, even if only for a moment. And, so long as they learn from their failures they’ll almost certainly win a few more choruses with the house band if they have the nerve to try and catch Caballero’s eye the next time they come to the jam.

No more than 1000 square feet of space within the building at 1754 National Ave., Voz Alta is where some of San Diego’s best musicians might drop by to sit in with the house band Caballero leads every Thursday night. It costs nothing to get in (tips are appreciated), though musicians often have to leave their pride behind at the doorway. The house band (which sometimes includes local music journeymen Kiko Cornejo Sr. and his son Kiko Jr. on timbales/percussion, Andy Esparza on bass, Ignacio Arango on guitar, Paul Lopez on congas/percussion and others) minus leader Caballero get a part of the tip jar; the hackers and nobodies must await their turn in the appropriate agony of anticipation.   [Read more…]

Desde la Logan: West Coasting Tour Brings More Love to Barrio Logan

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At the end of March master graffiti artists, Isaias Crow and Werc Alvarez, returned to San Diego for the first stop on their West Coasting Tour 2013. In addition to painting in San Diego, they are creating murals in Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and others spots in between as part of their tour. While here in town they created three beautiful, unique murals. The first one in San Ysidro at Casa Familiar’s The Front, another at Pedal Pushing Bicycle Shop on El Cajon Blvd in Talmadge and the third and final San Diego mural at La Central Market in Barrio Logan across the street from Chicano Park.   [Read more…]

Field of View: Barrio Logan

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In spite of being surrounded by freeway on-ramps and overpasses that attempt to make it appear like an oversight, Barrio Logan represents a culture and community that’s decidedly alive. It’s something that can be felt within seconds of parking, and seen in nearly every direction by way of the skillfully executed murals throughout the neighborhood.   [Read more…]

Desde la Logan: San Diego Free Press to Focus on Barrio Logan this Month

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My esteemed editors here at the San Diego Free Press, with the ok of us hardscrabble community journalists, have decided to focus our attention during the month of April towards the neighborhood that is my home: Barrio Logan. In March, we turned our attention to the hipster haven of North Park. And now we look a little southwest towards the barrio under the bridge.

Barrio Logan is one of the oldest neighborhoods in San Diego. It used to be one whole community called Logan Heights, named after congressman John A. Logan, but the creation of the Interstate 5 freeway that bisected the neighborhood changed that. Then the building of the San Diego-Coronado Bridge changed it again. Thousands were displaced from building the freeway and the bridge. Now Barrio Logan encompasses a relatively small patch of land sandwiched between the San Diego Bay and the I-5 freeway and north of National City and south of San Diego’s East Village.

Less than 5,000 people inhabit my barrio. Thousands more come during the day to work here in the shipyards, the Port of San Diego and the other companies that line the bay side of Barrio Logan. Of those 5,000 barrio denizens about 85% of them are non-white, most of which are of Mexican descent. But things are changing. There are demographic shifts as property values rise and the proximity to Downtown San Diego is realized. Developers are drooling to take over the land to build condos and hipster bars. A showdown over the future character of my community is on the horizon.   [Read more…]

Barrio Logan No Longer a Food Desert: Gets Spiffy New Supermarket

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The new Northgate Gonzalez supermarket opened on December 12, 2012 bringing fresh foods and groceries to an area long neglected by mainline supermarket chains – Barrio Logan. It is located at the corner of Cesar Chavez Parkway and Main Street. Prior to opening, this ethnic Latino neighborhood had only the usual complement of fast food restaurants offered to poor ethnic neighborhoods such as McDonald’s and Church’s and Popeye’s fried chicken chains.

In a food desert there is little in the way of fresh fruits and vegetables, but thanks to the Mercado Redevelopment Project, Barrio Logan has been considerably spruced up and is a food desert no more! In 2010 The San Diego City Council approved plans to transform two city blocks of vacant land in Barrio Logan into the Mercado Project which also featured 92 affordable housing units.   [Read more…]

The Two Ends of a Bridge (Seeking Environmental Justice)

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I look at a picture of the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge emptying into the Crown City against a waning yellow and orange sunset and the word “beauty” sums up all that I see.

And as one drives into Coronado there’s more beauty to be seen, little plots of sand, the green colors of a park and a golf course; it’s pleasant to the eyes.
As I reverse the trip in my mind, I find the sunset and gentle setting fading behind me and I remember how just a few days ago I listened to a woman’s voice tremble and watched as she, in mid-muddled-sentence, fought back tears. She was sharing a story out of her community’s struggle for environmental justice on a “Barrio Live” bus tour which was put on by the Environmental Health Coalition (EHC). She so desperately wanted not to cry but her emotions couldn’t be put aside as she described a neighborhood where people have had to keep their doors and windows closed at all times because the bad stuff that is in the air is at levels way, way, way above what is considered “unhealthy.”
How does one tell about a little boy who lived in one of the homes and became seriously ill, remaining so for years, and not feel like weeping?   [Read more…]

Desde la Logan’s Las Monthly Ondas April Edition: Chicano Park Celebrates 43 Years

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On April 22, 1970 a rag tag group of artists, activists, and community members joined forces and took over the land underneath the San Diego-Coronado Bridge in Barrio Logan. At the time, construction was about to begin on the building of a California Highway Patrol substation. For many years, residents of Barrio Logan had been promised a park. Seeing the pending creation of a CHP substation was the straw that broke this barrio’s back.

City College student Mario Solis, the Paul Revere of Chicano Park, discovered bulldozers on the site and immediately began to spread the word. He burst into the Chicano Studies class of professor Gil Robledo and let all present know what was going down under the bridge. At noon, Chicano high school students from San Diego High and other area schools walked out and marched to the construction site.

Protesters formed human chains around the bulldozers. Many demonstrators planted trees, flowers and cactus. The community wanted their park. As the crowd swelled to over 250 people, construction on the site was called off. The community took action and occupied Chicano Park for a total of twelve days. With many protesters coming from outside of San Diego after hearing the news of the occupation.   [Read more…]

Easter Celebration 2013 in Barrio Logan

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by Alejandra Enciso Guzmán

The new ‘Mercado del Barrio’ and Northgate Market (a supermarket chain from LA) were the proud hosts of a great family gathering organized to celebrate Easter in the heart of Barrio Logan. A free afternoon event was held at the recently opened retail center. These projects had been in the works for over two decades.

“We partnered with Chelsea for the affordable housing. Everything came together pretty smoothly; the community was really positive about it. We did not have any kind of disputes so we wanted to make sure we got the community involved with this center and do some events for families and make them more aware that we are here” explained Kimberly Powell, Real Estate Manager for the Honors Association and Shay Realtors.

There is a also a new residential area above the retail center. It has a very urban and ‘downtown’ look. “It is mixed use. To build this it took about two years, but had been an ongoing project for about five years; we worked with the community to make it happen. It is a multimillion dollar project that had A LOT of people involved to make it happen” explains Powell “We are talking about 91 apartments –all affordable housing, based on your income”.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Saving the Grand Old Party: They Got One Part (Old) Right

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The long awaited post election analysis and plan of action for the Republican Party was released in Washington this morning. While there are reportedly 219 recommendations, we’ll give you the short version inside because it’s like watching a train wreck and you can’t look away.

Whether it was the young man suggesting slaves benefited from being given “food and shelter” at a session on race consciousness, or the rantings of the National Rifle Association Wayne La Pierre, there was plenty of wingnuttia on display as the shock troops of right huddled and muddled. Of course then there was Sarah Palin doing her ‘Statute of Liberty’ pose with a Big Gulp as a stand up for freedom moment.

  [Read more…]

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