Neighborhood Coalition Holds July 27 “Stand Up for Parks” Rally
A new coalition of residents from neighborhoods across San Diego will speak out about serious flaws in the City’s proposed Parks Master Plan on Tuesday, July 27 at 11:00 a.m. at the North Park Community Park’s northeast corner, Howard Avenue and Idaho Street (across from the North Park Water Tower).
The “Stand Up for Parks” rally is organized by the Neighborhood Coalition, which includes representatives of the communities of City Heights, Golden Hill, La Jolla, Morena, North Park, Pacific Beach, Point Loma, Talmadge, and Uptown. They will come together to deliver these messages:
Community Planning Groups and Recreation Advisory Groups should have as much input into the Parks Master Plan as the development community.
Elected officials have a responsibility to actively address the concerns of neighborhood residents, and they must be held accountable if they don’t.
Takeaways from NPPC July Meeting: Show Us The Money!
A public comment on the bewildering exercise of developing an annual priority list for Capital Improvement Projects (CIPs) in North Park:
“We do all this work to come up with these lists, then we give the lists to the City, and they throw the City dart at the money board to figure out what gets done. I think that’s backward. We should know how much money we have and then tell the City what projects we want done, because we live here and they don’t.”
The Chair’s comment on the City’s CIP process:
“We knew this [exercise] was coming. We asked the City, as did many other community planning groups, for guidance as to when it was coming and how we should prepare. And then in June, they told us they wanted it by the first week of August. So [the Subcommittee] is pulling off a Herculean feat by trying to get anything out the door that has public input incorporated.”
Kudos to Janice DeYoung and John Rumsey of MPA Architects and their client for their willingness to consider community input in the development of a vacant lot at 4665 Park Boulevard. Their NPPC presentation shed light on how the City works with developers, including this observation from DeYoung:
“There are a lot of fees that go with these projects. It would be nice if, when you pay a fee for the community, that it goes to the community. But you never really hear what happens to the fees once you pay them. When you see the list of fees, you start thinking, ‘Oh goodness, who’s going to get these fees?’”
The Chair’s report included a reminder that NPPC members should not exploit their status by presenting their personal opinions as Board opinions:
“It’s not appropriate to put forward your own viewpoints as the Board’s viewpoints. This is something that can damage a planning group’s reputation. You cannot put forth an opinion and qualify it with your membership in this community planning group or a subcommittee thereof.”
*SoNo Neighborhood Alliance is a non-profit that informs and engages residents of North Park and Golden Hill/South Park about neighborhood quality-of-life issues that include: land use and development, traffic, green space, parking, and code compliance.
