Southern Boarder | HealthyCal - Part 2
 

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Potential parking reduction boxes in San Diego

Published: June 26, 2010 | Comments (6)


By Megan Burks

San Diego is stuck in a tight spot when it comes to parking. As the city gears up to change its parking requirements for new construction, debate has centered on whether to house people or to house cars.

Increasingly, state grants that subsidize affordable housing for low-income people are being awarded to “smart-growth” projects that encourage the use of public transit. One way to do that is to reduce the number of parking spaces in residential complexes, a strategy favored by cost-conscious developers and transit advocates.

Info from stock.xchng and the City of San Diego.

But residents in dense and growing neighborhoods take the opposite view: they want to require more parking, not less. Many say space for cars is already limited and that current transit offerings couldn’t shoulder a new wave of car-less riders.

A recent case in Lincoln Park, a low-income and predominantly Latino community in southeastern San Diego, illustrates the problem. The Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation, a local non-profit, wanted to build 200 affordable housing units in the community but needed a grant from a state housing bond for the project to pencil out.

The Jacobs Center scored 328 on an application for funding from Prop 1C. The qualifying score is 330. Chip Buttner, the group’s president and CEO, said most of the deductions were made because in San Diego, affordable two bedrooms need at least 1.75 parking spaces each, as opposed to one in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The different standards amount to an addition 150 parking spaces for the San Diego project. With California looking to cut carbon emissions, developments like this that allow for the status quo in car use just aren’t as attractive to the grant managers.

Now, at the behest of redevelopment agencies and affordable housing developers like Jacobs, San Diego is reevaluating its parking allotments in a study due out next year. The city is expected to reduce the ratio for affordable housing, and changes could eventually span the entire housing spectrum—potential reductions that worry residents in neighborhoods with little curb space to spare.

Developers favor reduced parking to increase housing

Market Creek Plaza, the partially completed project in Lincoln Park, is a bright, multi-colored compound that stands out among dry-brush hills, warehouses and fading homes. It brought the first grocery store to the area and has raised property values enough for a neighboring medical center to take out loans for expansion and offer hope for new jobs. Trolley tracks and 12 bus routes crisscross the 45 acres of continuous land slated for residential and commercial development by JCNI. It has the makings of a sustainable community center, except too much pavement.

Info from stock.xchng and the City of San Diego

According to Buttner, San Diego’s parking requirements have cost the project about $17 million in grants and set construction back at least a year. Michael VanBuskirk, a private consultant who helps developers write and submit proposals, said Buttner’s assertion that parking requirements weigh heavily on funding opportunities is valid. According to VanBuskirk, funding and government agencies typically ask developers to address sustainable practices in their proposals. Builds that encourage transit use and walking are favored, as are those that qualify for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, which accounts for parking ratios.

“A certain level of sustainable design is becoming expected in these projects rather than the exception,” VanBuskirk said.

Charles Davis, the director of project development at JCNI, said the amount of Prop 1C funding San Diego County got as a whole is representative of the preference given to smart growth projects. San Diego brought in just $23 million while San Francisco, a denser city with more efficient transit, won $175 million.

Eliminating space for cars could make San Diego developers more competitive. It could also help alleviate a shortage of affordable housing, said Davis and others. In 2002, the city council declared a housing state of emergency that hasn’t been lifted; the city can only meet about 25 percent of the demand for affordable housing, according to Terri O’Connor, a planner with the group conducting the parking study.

Market Creek Plaza is a multi-colored compound that stands out among dry-brush hills, warehouses and fading homes in Lincoln Park. It has the makings of a sustainable community center, but its developer says high parking requirements are holding it back.

“We have a housing crisis, not a parking crisis,” said Doris Payne Camp of the San Diego Housing Federation.

Camp, as well as Buttner and Davis, said the cost of building parking spaces might be better spent on constructing additional housing units. According to a city report, an individual parking space costs between $1,000 for surface and $22,000 for underground parking. Dave Gatzke, a project manager with Community Housing Works, said the range can actually top out at $40,000 when design and financing costs are included.

Gatzke said most new units in San Diego’s mid-city neighborhoods are stacked above ground-level parking. A parking space for this type of building costs $31,000 to construct, according to Chris Kennedy of Advent Companies, an Orange County development group that has studied parking costs throughout the state. Kennedy said eliminating eight of these stalls would fund one additional unit of affordable housing.

“The way I see it, you can either park people or you can park cars,” Davis said. The developers who spoke with HealthyCal.org said they’re more interested in sheltering people.

Some confused about designated affordable housing

Some residents, however, have said they’re worried that developer support for a parking reduction is actually aimed at bolstering profits. In a workshop hosted by the parking study organizers, several homeowners said they doubt money saved on parking would actually go to more housing.

“There’s this perception that every developer wears a black hat and rides away on an expensive horse,” said Marcela Escobar-Eck, a land-use consultant with Atlantis Group, LLC. “Affordable housing developers are a different breed.”

Because they use public subsidies from redevelopment agencies and state and federal funds, money spared by a potential parking reduction would go toward subsidizing similar projects. What’s more, the amount of rent charged and the type of tenants leased to are restricted for 55 years, Camp said. The owners of these buildings base rent on a fixed percentage of the tenant’s income. According to Buttner, rent typically covers just 10 percent of the cost to build and maintain the units.

Residents at the workshop also said they worry low-income families are the wrong target for a parking reduction, citing neighbors who share dwellings with other families and keep cars for both. While such living arrangements can be observed throughout the city, tenants in designated affordable housing cannot exceed maximum occupancy. Additionally, 2000 Census data suggests car ownership does, indeed, correlate with income; the less money a family makes, the fewer cars it owns. The current study will look at ownership trends, among others, at up to 30 affordable housing sites to further assess this trend, according to the study organizers.

Residents say they’re already over-parked

Despite the data, the daily hunt for prized curb space is still enough for residents to question a parking reduction. Recent gentrification has brought booming business districts and new duplexes to mid-city neighborhoods. Streets are full during peak shopping hours and again at night when residents return home and popular bars open. The San Diego Association of Government’s most recent forecast anticipates the population will grow by almost 50 percent by 2050, with most of the growth occurring in these same urban areas. With infill imminent and parking already at a premium, many residents are calling for an increase in parking ratios.

At midday, streets in this Serra Mesa subdivision are empty. But curbs fill up so quickly in the evening that community members are asking new developments to exceed the city minimum for parking.

About 15 minutes from the stalled Lincoln Park project, another residential development is idling—this time after neighbors complained it provided too little parking. In 2008, residents in Serra Mesa filed a lawsuit against the City of San Diego because it didn’t complete a traffic impact study for a new Westcore Properties development, the Palladium. Neighbors said the city didn’t consider traffic patterns and parking needs when it approved the multi-family project, and feared limited parking infrastructure would send new residents looking for parking in front of their homes.

“Try going over there late in the evening, parking is at a premium. People park in the adjacent single-family home area,” said Cindy Moore, the community member who spearheaded the lawsuit.

That’s because Serra Mesa is made up of subdivisions tucked between business parks and busy roads where parking is largely prohibited. A nearby hospital often means nursing and medical students share units while keeping a car each. Meanwhile, families in the more suburban subdivisions need space for multiple cars and recreation vehicles.

“I know my own family and friends and we have at least two cars, if not more,” said Carl Demas, the president of the local community council. “The city is being unrealistic about current patterns. We need an increase in parking.”

With rent set fairly high—about $1,600 for a one bedroom, Demas said—new residents were expected to have similar lifestyles and pavement needs. Though parking would be difficult, residents assumed Palladium tenants would also rely on cars, because services and entertainment aren’t within walking distance and transit is inadequate, Moore said.

“If excellent mass transit and abundant on-street parking were available, reducing the parking requirements might work,” Moore said.

Moore and her neighbors, who collectively raised more than $30,000 for the lawsuit, illustrate a sentiment that echoes throughout San Diego communities, no matter the location or density. In a city where public transit is deemed inefficient (http://www.healthycal.org/transit-cuts-hit-hard-in-san-diego.html), residents aren’t convinced to give up their cars or the pavement beneath them.

The city and Westcore settled with Serra Mesa residents out of court, electing to reduce the number of units and increase the parking ratio from two per two-bedroom dwelling (the city requirement for non-affordable housing) to 2.25. While awaiting an outcome, Westcore lost its funding and the project has since come to a halt, Demas said.

Transit advocates call for “growing pains”

Escobar-Eck, who consulted Westcore, said the settlement “ripped my heart out.” Escobar-Eck is in the camp of public transit advocates who say a parking reduction is necessary to break San Diego’s dependence on driving.

“In Southern California, we think it’s a right to have free parking—so much that we’re willing to drive around for 20 minutes to find a spot,” said Elyse Lowe, the executive director of Move San Diego, a nonprofit group that works to improve transit and increase ridership. “People don’t think about how much parking actually costs.”

“Parking [availability] and the pricing of parking is how we will see behavior change,” Lowe continued.

In addition to easing the development of affordable housing, supporters of a parking decrease said parking is a significant piece of moving San Diego toward smart growth and more robust transit. Lowe said residents may experience “growing pains” with infill and a subsequent parking shortage, but that the struggle could aid in changing people’s transportation habits.

“I think it’s important to look at how we’re evolving as a region,” Gatzke said. “As prices get higher and we see the environmental impacts of the fuel we use, we need to think about how we want to get around in 20, 30 and 50 years from now. Parking is a part of that equation.”

Study aims to strike a balance

Bill Keller, a business owner in downtown San Diego, said he would also like to see a greater reliance on public transit and walking. But he said he also recognizes that the downtown area, where cafés and services are concentrated, “is a different animal than other parts of town.” Keller said he hopes the city’s parking study will result in requirements that are tailored to individual neighborhoods.

The city is, indeed, looking at efficiency-based parking standards for affordable housing that vary according to proximity to transit and tenant demographics like age, O’Connor said. The changes are expected, however, to represent an overall decrease in affordable housing parking, according to Lowe, who sat on the committee that pushed for the current study. A 2007 study by the San Diego Housing Commission and planning division has already recommended a decrease to affordable and market-priced housing alike, suggesting that changes could eventually affect housing beyond the affordable designation.

The study is scheduled for completion in January 2011, with data from neighborhoods as varied and as Lincoln Park and Serra Mesa. A second public workshop for the study is scheduled for Sept. 21.

“It’s not a one-size-fits all,” Keller said. “It’s a tough issue because both sides are right.”

 

Student-run project part of SD safety net

Published: May 26, 2010 | No Comments

By Dr. Ellen Beck

San Diego’s safety net is in tatters. There is no county hospital and no school of dentistry. In order to receive County Medical Services, the health care program for indigent adults, people have to sign a lien against any future property they might own. And so, a “student-run” program has become part of the safety net.

The University of California at San Diego’s Student-Run Free Clinic Project provides comprehensive health care for people who do not qualify for government aid and cannot afford private insurance.

The Project was founded in 1997 by myself, a group of committed medical students and dedicated community partners. Since our inception, we have looked to medical students to be the main drivers in this model of high-quality care for the underserved.

We started in a church basement one night a week. Now we serve more than 2,000 people a year, providing high-quality health care on each day of the week. We operate out of two churches and a school, and serve those who do not qualify for access to care. The doctors-in-training — supervised by licensed physicians — even make house calls to the homeless, reaching out to people on the street.

The majority of our patients have chronic illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension, diseases that could lead to disability and death if left untreated. Our students provide much-needed care to these patients, helping to prevent blindness, amputation, heart disease and stroke. Student doctors are taught a humanistic approach, spending considerably more time with each patient than is common in traditional practices. And our dental clinic makes a point of doing restorative dentistry — not just poverty dentistry, which is essentially pulling teeth — so that toothlessness does not lead to joblessness.

Contributions of time, services and goods from an extensive network of volunteers and donors allow the clinics to run at the low average cost of $800 per patient per year. The project not only offers high-quality care, but trains and inspires the students who provide it. The students are learning not only to be physicians and scientists, but to be healers and teachers. Future health professionals arrive at medical school with passion, compassion and a desire to make a difference. Programs like ours help to keep those passions alive. Indeed, many graduates of the program return to the clinic as volunteer supervisors or start their own practices in underserved communities.

Students not only learn to be junior clinicians, but also all the elements of managing and coordinating patient services. Under supervision and with training, they are in charge of all aspects of the functioning of the clinic, including environmental waste management, supplies inventory, specialty services coordination and preventive services.

Through our patient-centered approach, we create an environment of respect and trust where people without access to care can take charge of their health. Patients are also provided the tools to achieve well-being for themselves as a whole, both mind and body, because of our trans-disciplinary model with health professionals and students across myriad specialties, which can include medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, mental health and acupuncture.

Although we are not the first student-run free clinic project, we are the first to “take the show on the road.” As a result of the national faculty training program we created, called Addressing the Health Needs of the Underserved, and numerous site visits and consultations, more than 15 other locations across the country have started student-run free clinic projects, in locations as diverse as Milani, Hawaii; Houston, Texas; Jackson, Mississippi; Orlando, Florida; and Kansas City, Missouri.

And recently, students from around the country held the inaugural meeting of a new student organization, the Society of Student-Run Free Clinics. More than 200 attendees from several countries attended the meeting in Jacksonville, Florida. We see ourselves as the midwife for the birth of this new organization. We have also created the first year-long fellowship in underserved health care in the country, where former students return after residency and licensure to devote their careers to this work.

The need for access to care is infinite, but there is also a need for health care that is humanistic and respectful: that builds trust over time and looks to the community to be the teacher. This kind of care does not simply bandage a wound, but helps to transform lives, both of patients, students and physicians. This is what we aim to achieve.

Dr. Ellen Beck is the director of the UCSD Student-Run Free Clinic Project in San Diego and a 2010 recipient of the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards.

 

Walking the Walk in Citrus Heights

Published: May 20, 2010 | No Comments

By Nicole Hara and Linda Peek

When Citrus Heights leaders began discussing how to make their community more walkable, they discovered an untapped reservoir of resident interest, commitment and action.

“We knew there were people who liked to walk in Citrus Heights, but we didn’t realize how many and how strongly they felt about it,” said the city’s mayor, Jayna Karpinski-Costa. “And we certainly didn’t realize all the obstacles that made it difficult, and sometimes downright dangerous, to walk in our neighborhoods.”

In 2007, with a grant from the California Healthy Cities and Communities (CHCC) Program, sponsored by the Center for Civic Partnerships, Citrus Heights began a major initiative to engage the community, especially older adults, in mobility planning. A survey and outreach/education component was followed by a proactive walkability planning process targeting older adults and people with disabilities, Over time the effort expanded to include accessible route planning, neighborhood ride audits and a comprehensive complete streets approach to achieve universal accessibility.

A Few Challenges to Overcome

Citrus Heights is an essentially built-out community located in the heart of the Sacramento region. With a population of 88,576 residents in just 14 square miles, it has the highest density in the region. The physical infrastructure in Citrus Heights’ neighborhoods is not conducive to walking. There are large sectors of the city without sidewalks, speed bumps, trail ways, bike paths or even lighting. Obstacles such as trees, bushes, cars and basketball hoops encroaching on walkways are common. The City is bisected by a major interstate highway, and arterial streets criss-cross the city carrying traffic to and from freeways located outside its boundaries. The traffic congestion has spilled over into Citrus Heights neighborhoods, creating resistance to projects that promote circulation and connect neighborhoods.

In addition to the physical and attitudinal challenges, Citrus Heights also faces economic challenges above and beyond the current downturn. As part of a revenue neutrality agreement to keep the County “whole” following Citrus Heights’ incorporation as a city in 1997, all property taxes are retained by the County for the first 25 years of cityhood. The City is in year 12 of this agreement, placing it in a unique revenue situation that requires innovative and thoughtful planning.

Residents Take the Lead

Citrus Heights’ neighborhood structure proved to be the key to getting the community engaged. According to Mary Poole, Management Analyst for the City, “This was a grass-roots program. I was the only city official at these neighborhood meetings. The residents really embraced the whole concept of becoming a walkable community and took ownership of the program.”

A total of eight interactive community meetings were planned and sponsored by different neighborhood associations in Citrus Heights. The meetings were well attended with 25-35 residents at each one. Neighbors learned about the principles of walkability, discussed examples of impediments to walkability in their immediate area and became excited about the possibility of creating meaningful changes.

A walkability survey focused residents’ attention on the factors that influenced their ability to get around and to access needed and desired services. In addition, outdoor audits were completed during or after a walk around the neighborhood, identifying obstacles to walkability. A total of 459 surveys and audits were completed. According to Poole, “The surveys and audits were powerful tools. So many people become actively engaged in thinking about the walkability of their community.”

The Citrus Heights Healthy Cities Steering Committee was instrumental in the success of the project. They developed the walkability survey based on one from the University of Washington.

“We had all the right people on the bus,” Poole said. “They showed up and did the work.”

Into Action

Results of the surveys and audits were presented at a community meeting hosted by R.E.A.C.H. (Residents’ Empowerment Association of Citrus Heights), the umbrella organization for the city’s 10 neighborhood associations. After hearing about the community-wide and neighborhood-specific findings, work groups of residents prioritized the needs, which were compiled in a comprehensive report and presented to the City Council.

The response to the walkability findings and priorities has been a joint effort by residents and the city.

Beginning in 2007 and continuing each year, the Citrus Heights staff and Council have incorporated the identified needs and recommended priorities from the walkability study in the annual Capital Improvement Project (CIP) budget process. As a result, multiple sidewalk in-fills and street connection projects have been completed, creating safe walking environments for residents. On the neighborhood side, residents were asked by the neighborhood associations to trim trees and bushes that encroach in the sidewalk or walking area along their property and most have been happy to do so. Residents have also modified their pet areas, so dogs will not frighten walkers passing by their home.

Walkability Plus

With the high level of resident interest and involvement and the commitment of the city to creating universal access for residents of all ages, Citrus Heights has expanded its original project to include a wide variety of related activities that enhance and promote walkability. The neighborhood associations have continued their focus on older adults by identifying accessible routes to services and destinations and distributing that information to residents. Several of the neighborhoods have also conducted neighborhood ride audits to assist older adults in learning to use the available transit services.

Given Citrus Heights’ unique fiscal situation, city staff has aggressively pursued outside funding and leveraged their healthy cities funds to bring in significant resources. In partnership with the school district, they were recently awarded almost $900,000 in Safe Routes to School funding that will provide sidewalk in-fill and intersection upgrades along a route that links a park on one end and a commercial center on the other, with the city’s high school and an elementary school in between, to encourage walking and biking for people of all ages.

The city’s decision to include “complete streets” as one of the four focus areas of the current General Plan update reflects the priority on walkability.

“It’s exciting to have the chance to convert all the things we’ve been talking about into written policy,” said Mayor Karpinski-Costa.

The city’s focus on older adults also continues, as Citrus Heights looks to the future and the growth of the older adult population. A special effort is planned to ensure that older adults are actively involved in the community planning process for the General Plan Update and a new effort being supported by CHCC funding from the Center for Civic Partnerships is underway to design and develop a Green Planning Academy geared for older adults.

For more information, please contact:

Nicole Hara, CA Healthy Cities and Communities Program Coordinator, Center for Civic Partnerships; nhara@civicpartnerships.org; 916.646.8680

Mary Poole, Management Analyst, City of Citrus Heights; mpoole@citrusheights.net; 916.727.4730

 

Clinic director wins leadership award

Published: April 29, 2010 | No Comments

Dr. Ellen Beck has won a $125,000 Irvine Foundation Leadership Award for her work with the UCSD Student-Run Free Clinic Project in San Diego. Her clinics catch thousands of patients who fall through the safety net in a county that does not have a county hospital. The clinics also train doctors to care for the poor.

Here is the Irvine Foundation write-up on Beck’s work, and a video profile of her provided by the foundation:

Dr. Ellen Beck’s free medical clinics in San Diego serve patients and doctors alike. They catch thousands of patients who fall through the county’s safety net (San Diego, uniquely, does not have a county hospital), while training doctors to care for society’s least-privileged. The project, directed by Dr. Beck and managed mostly by medical students, began in 1997 in a church basement with three doctors and five students, holding bake sales to pay for supplies. Today, 500 students see 2,000 patients annually at two churches and a school. They provide free, comprehensive care (medical, dental, medications, mental health counseling and acupuncture) for people who do not have insurance or qualify for government aid — and even make house calls to the homeless. Through contributions and volunteers, the clinic’s average cost per patient is a mere $800 per year, and many graduates start their own practices in underserved communities.

Dr. Ellen Beck, UCSD Student-Run Free Clinic Project, San Diego from The James Irvine Foundation on Vimeo.

 

San Diego tenants get no help fighting rats, mold

Published: April 4, 2010 | Comments (3)

By Megan Burks

Appalled by the substandard living conditions they found in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego, community organizers told residents last year that they would take their concerns to the city—literally. Armed with storage-sized freezer bags full of roaches and rats from houses and rental units, healthy homes advocates presented their findings to the San Diego City Council and asked for better housing code enforcement.

The group called for regulation of mold and vermin infestation to help combat the disproportionate level of housing-related asthma in City Heights. According to the National Latino Research Center, residents of City Heights are three times more likely to be hospitalized for asthma than others in San Diego County.

The council delayed action, asking for more information from Proyecto Casas Saludables, the organization spearheading efforts to improve living conditions in City Heights, and other stakeholders.

But the information the council needs could be as close as the California Health and Safety Code, which the city’s Neighborhood Code Compliance office said it already enforces. But the city’s enforcement leaves out several components of the state code, including regulation of insect infestations, mold, mildew, rats and other rodents, according to information on the city’s web site.

According to the California Department of Housing and Community Development, such negligence could be grounds for legal action against the city if shortfalls aren’t remedied.

Doug Hensel, the assistant deputy director of codes and standards with the department, said cities are obligated to uphold the code, which delegates enforcement to city housing or health entities.

Rosalie Leon, a supervisor with Neighborhood Code Compliance, said no agency in San Diego deals with mold or infestation complaints. That’s because the code doesn’t specify mold as evidence of substandard housing, said Alan Johanns, a program manager with the city’s Environmental Services Department, which doesn’t oversee housing code compliance. Instead, the code vaguely regulates “dampness of habitable rooms” and “inadequate sanitation.” What’s more, the code’s language suggests that a health officer–not expressly an inspector–is responsible for determining whether the unit has a cockroach, vermin or rodent infestation.

San Diego doesn’t have a health officer. Residents with these housing problems and other health queries are referred to the county government, which often cannot help. The County Department of Environmental Health regulates mold and vermin, but only for residents under the county’s jurisdiction. Complaints from city residents are looped back to the city.

Leon said residents with mold and vermin problems can also contact the California Indoor Air Quality Program for help. Funding cuts, however, have forced the program to discontinue its phone hotline. Residents can still email their concerns, but response time is slow; the program did not respond before press time.

Though Casas Saludables and other affiliated organizations said they do not have plans to take legal action against the city, they said red tape like this makes policy change necessary.

The residents most affected by substandard housing are also most likely to be refugees and immigrants with limited knowledge of local government services. Virginia Angeles, the director of Casas Saludables, said many of the residents she worked with qualified for Section 8 housing subsidies and feared their landlords would retaliate if they complained. That’s why Casas Saludables works to train residents to become promotoras who educate their neighbors on housing issues and help press for repairs at a grassroots level.

Valerie Camacho, a City Heights resident, said her lungs have been “pretty much obliterated” by living conditions in City Heights and the Imperial Valley. Although she did not want to comment on her current apartment, she said that generally, landlords in the area neglect their properties.

“A lot of the landlords don’t live in City Heights and never have and never will,” she said. “I don’t think they understand what it’s like to live with the realities. The majority of them live in North County and City Heights is just a cash cow to them.”

Alan Pentico, a spokesman for the San Diego County Apartment Association, said negligent landlords “are the exception and not the rule.” He said the association supports better code enforcement, but cautioned against mandatory inspection policies because of the cost to landlords and the city, and the privacy rights of tenants.

“There is already a process in place and it’s just a matter of following through,” he said.

Community organizers said the Asthma Coalition of Los Angeles County is a model for the kind of reform they’d like to see in San Diego. Los Angeles began mandatory three-year inspections after working with the coalition to alleviate childhood asthma, but Casas Saludables has not expressly pushed for mandatory inspections.

Currently, the city of San Diego conducts inspections only at the behest of tenant or community complaints. The Housing Commission, which oversees public housing, also does not conduct regular inspections of its properties, except to take inventory of fixtures when tenants move in, said commission spokesman Terry Rogers.

“Housing is crucial to make the difference for City Heights,” said Angeles. “It’s connected to everything.”

Though outdoor air pollution and health care disparities are other factors that plague the community, housing stock in the area is much older than in other parts of the county. According to the 2000 Census, only 17 percent of the housing in City Heights was built after 1980, compared to 32 percent and 36 percent in the city and county, respectively. This leaves residents susceptible to lead paint, old carpeting and leaky plumbing, all of which have been linked to asthma.

More than 80 percent of residents do not smoke or keep pets and said they clean on a regular basis. Still, nearly 80 percent had roach infestations and over half reported signs of mold, according to the National Latino Research Center. Of those with roach problems, nearly half had asthma.

“The single most determining factor for a person’s health is their zip code,” said Camacho.

Despite gaps in enforcement, the City of San Diego is addressing community health issues in City Heights with its Housing and Urban Development Healthy Homes grant. Awarded in 2007 and scheduled for renewal this summer, the grant allows the Environmental Services Department to fund voluntary inspections and follow-up education and repairs for low-income families affected by, or at-risk for, asthma. Since 2007, the program has worked with 225 households and educated hundreds more, said Johanns. The renewal will award $875,000 and is expected to serve 150 households.

Johanns said the program will complete a report later this year that he hopes will affect policy change and provide suggestions for more enforcement funding. City authorities and advocates alike said funding is the main hurdle for better housing regulation.

“In a perfect world, the government should and would enforce all their codes and regulations, but we are not in that world,” said Steven Kellman, an attorney with the Tenants Legal Center. “Based on such a limited budget and funding, the Neighborhood Code Compliance will have to work with a triage method.”

For now, Angeles said Casas Saludables is focusing on getting more funding and working with the community before it goes back to the city council. Hensel said the legal department with state housing authorities would need to be contacted for it to enter into discussions with the City of San Diego.

“We don’t just go out with a heavy hand at first,” he said. “We have and we will, but usually they just don’t really know what their responsibility is.”

City Heights residents grow their own remedies

Rich Macgurn scooped soil away to reveal a weed-like plant fanning out along the ground.

“This one dilates the bronchioles,” he said.

He revealed unsuspecting roots and more plants that could be passed over as weeds.

“These can be steeped in hot water for tea that boosts the immune system and opens the airways,” he continued.

Macgurn, who has a degree in herbalism, is reinventing the community garden. In City Heights, where residents are more likely to suffer from asthma, diabetes and obesity than in many parts of San Diego County, the community garden is as much about relief as it is sustenance.

Opened just over a year ago, the City Heights Community Garden provided plots of land and workshops for residents who want to grow vegetables. But Macgurn and garden coordinator Valerie Camacho also grow herbs and roots that can treat ailments common among residents. At periodic workshops, attendees are given handfuls of gumweed and astragalus, along with an information sheet–a prescription of sorts to take home to their wheezing kids or aging parents.

Camacho said the goal of these herbal remedies is to build up strength and resistance in the body, but she said she’s noticed the garden strengthening community ties, as well.

“Having this space is really important because everyone in this community knows someone struggling with a serious health issue,” she said. “It gives people a place to talk about issues.”

What’s more, Camacho said it gives residents who are new to the country a place to share experiences and learn from others who have successfully navigated health and legal systems in San Diego.

“It becomes about building self-sufficiencies,” she said.

 

Transit cuts hit hard in San Diego

Published: February 17, 2010 | Comments (4)

By Megan Burks

University Avenue in San Diego is one place where transit-dependent residents are seeing cutbacks in bus service. Photo by Megan Burks.

When Richard Kacmar’s boss told him his shift at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography was about to change, Kacmar didn’t know it would require tacking three additional hours to his work day. The change means he must give up his morning van pool and take public transit from his home in City Heights instead. The 15-mile trip, which takes 24 minutes by car, will take nearly two hours each way.

“It’s very sobering thinking about how much time he’s going to have to spend on the bus,” said Anna Daniels, Kacmar’s wife. “I don’t want my husband spending four hours on the road everyday. That seems very unreasonable.”

For Daniels and many of her neighbors she deems “utterly transit-dependent,” long bus commutes and inefficient routes are symptoms of decades-long neglect by transit authorities in a neighborhood where transit use is more than four times the national average, according to a study by the Mid-City Community Advocacy Network. Residents and advocacy groups say funding has been disproportionately allocated to freeway improvements and widening, while transit fares increase and routes get slashed.

Now, as San Diego becomes one of the first cities in the state to develop a transportation plan under a new state law requiring compliance with greenhouse gas emissions targets, City Heights residents are watching to see if their transit woes dissipate.

“Before, the main concern people had for the transportation plan was congestion,” said Kathy Keehan, the executive director of the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition. “Now we’re really going to be looking at ‘What are the environmental impacts of our transportation choices? What options can we create for people?’”

A bus stops at the transit station in City Heights on El Cajon Boulevard above Interstate 15. Photo by Megan Burks.

The San Diego Association of Government’s regional transportation plan through 2050 is scheduled to be completed next year. A preliminary report lays out policies that might be used to address emissions in the plan. Not yet approved by the board of directors, the strategy focuses heavily on developing neighborhoods where daily needs and access to transit are within walking or biking distance and transit options and infrastructure are expanded.

With density and an urban location already present in City Heights, this strategy holds promise for residents who want better transit options. But because 46 percent of emissions in San Diego County come from cars and light trucks, according to Keehan, Daniels said she worries funding will go toward targeting choice commuters, those who have cars but can choose to use transit instead. And for Daniels, that would mean more of the same.

“My concern is that, in the desire to conform with the regulations, they’ll put effort into the suburban areas to provide transit and it still will be under-funding and not recognizing transit-dependent people,” said Daniels, who has lived in City Heights for more than 20 years.

The revenue-constrained version of the San Diego Association of Government’s regional transportation plan through 2030 allots nearly twice the amount of funding for highway completion, highway widening and freeway connectors as is does for transit facilities and carpool lanes to accommodate rapid transit buses. Of the $5.9 million set aside for transit facilities, at least $3.5 million will go toward rail systems along the coast. SANDAG has planned rapid transit bus lanes on El Cajon Boulevard, a main thoroughfare that runs through City Heights and connects it to downtown, and moving north and south on Interstate 15, which runs through the middle of City Heights. Residents said it will be a big improvement, because access to major job centers is strained.

City Heights Transit Timeline

1985 The City of San Diego signed a memorandum of agreement promising to mitigate air pollution and build CenterLine, a transit line moving north and south in the center of the soon-to-be-built Interstate 15.

1987 San Diego voters approved TransNet, a half-cent sales tax for transportation expenditures.

1993 Caltrans signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the CenterLine project.

1998 Construction began to connect I-15 through City Heights.

2001 I-15 was completed from Interstate 8 to State Route 94, cutting City Heights in two.

2004 San Diego voters approved TransNet II, an extension to the original sales tax set to end in 2008.

2007 The CenterLine project was included in SANDAG’s regional transportation plan through 2030.

2006 The State of California began cutting State Transit Assistance funding. MTS begins raising transit fares

2009 The Third District Court of Appeals ruled the elimination of State Transit Assistance funding illegal. Environmental Impact Reports began to be compiled for transit stations along the CenterLine route.

2010 MTS cut service to deal with a $30 million deficit in state funds.

“We have more people working three to four jobs just to pay rent,” said Jared Brooks, a City Heights resident who had to wake up at 3:30 a.m. to get to his old job via transit. “I’ve been looking for a job for the past two years. Most of the jobs require reliable transportation and at this point I only have my skateboard, so it’s hard to find a job.”

Access to job centers took a hit this month when the Metropolitan Transit System reduced service on more than 60 bus and trolley lines in response to the state’s elimination of State Transit Assistance funding, a budget reduction that was ruled illegal by the Third District Court of Appeals last June. MTS spokesman Rob Schupp said San Diego lost $30 million in transit funding from the state this year.

Many of the cuts were made on Sundays to limit the impact, including discontinuation of routes that service Coronado, where many City Heights residents work seven days a week in hotels.

Todd Gloria, the city councilman who represents City Heights, said the governor’s staff said in a meeting last week that the state doesn’t expect to fund transit anytime soon. Schupp also said that MTS is budgeting no money from the state in future projections.

“We’ve been hit with a triple whammy,” Schupp said. “Ridership tracks very closely with unemployment, people are spending less, so revenue from sales tax is down and there’s reduced funding from the state.”

But Gloria said new cuts are just a small piece of a long legacy of neglect in City Heights, beginning with the 2001 completion of Interstate 15, which runs through the middle of the neighborhood. In exchange for dividing their community in two, residents negotiated a 1985 agreement with the city and then a 1993 agreement with Caltrans to get a transit line called CenterLine that would run along the center of the freeway and create a route to job centers in North San Diego County. The project was set back by safety concerns, according to Gloria, and is scheduled to be finished by 2014–almost three decades after the initial agreement.

“CenterLine is a wonderful metaphor for the way we do things for transportation here in San Diego,” Gloria said. “The freeway was completed ten years ago but the transit still isn’t there.”

The project is funded by TransNet II, a half-cent sales tax approved by San Diego voters in 2004 for transportation expenditures. But Gloria said he wants to see even more of that money go toward transit. Schupp said once the tax is shared among roads, freeways and transit, MTS only gets an eighth of a cent. Comparatively, Los Angeles transit gets 1.5 cents and San Francisco’s BART alone gets a half cent of sales tax, according to Schupp.

“We choose to put our money toward cars and I give you TransNet as exhibit A,” said Gloria. “It’s in effect until 2048 and two-thirds of those funds are going to go for cars. That may have been fine when voters voted for it, but do you think that in 2048 that we should be spending two-thirds of our money on cars? We have to make some changes because right now we’re locked into a 20th century funding formula that’s going to take us to the middle of the 21st century still prioritizing the cars.”

The SANDAG Board of Directors discussed adjusting the sales tax allocations, but no decision was made. A change in the priority projects promised to voters would require voter approval, and any other changes require a two-thirds vote by the TransNet commission.

Theresa Quiroz, a transit user who is the vice president of the City Heights Community Development Corporation Board, said she is confident officials will reprioritize transit and alternative modes of transportation in the mid-city as the way to offset carbon emissions.

“I think we’re at a tipping point where something has to happen,” Quiroz said. “Transit has taken such a hit that I know of residents who are buying beaters and driving instead. That’s a step in the wrong direction.”

Daniels has her doubts, but said she hopes SB 375, the latest greenhouse gas law, is the turning point City Heights needs.

“Acknowledging the regulation in terms of climate change is certainly important, but it can’t be done as one more excuse for why we can’t develop transit that is fast and often enough to meet the needs of ever-increasing population in the urban core,” she said.

 
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