NEWS FROM PAGE 3 ALBA


Council. “But my feeling is that people haven’t had any issues with the students here.” According to Principal Vernon


Moore, ALBA’s middle school stu- dents will be moving to the North Park location in December, and he said he is confident that despite the increased number of students, neighbors will continue to wel- come the alternative school. “I think ALBA enjoys the sup-


port that it does in this commu- nity because we’ve basically been an open book and if there are any problems or community members see our students out causing prob- lems we try to take care of it, be- cause we absolutely want to be a good member of the community,”


Moore said. Moore said that full use of the


former elementary school has been delayed while the facilities, including the classes and rest- rooms, are brought up to high school and middle school stan- dards. A portion of Proposition S mon-


ey, though not from the $630,000, will be used for the internal school improvements beginning on July 13, said Cynthia Reed-Porter, com- munications supervisor for the school district. Although Moore said he ex-


pects the $630,000 to be available at the end of the design phase of the joint-use project – as early as January 2011 – Reed-Porter said that money wouldn’t be available for a couple years. “[Project coordinators] antici- pate getting the board award in


November 2012, which is when they expect to go to the [school district board] to award the con- tract,” Reed-Porter said. “They’re in the very early stages of develop- ing the scope.” Gloria, along with North Park Community Association Board President Omar Passons, have been working on obtaining an ad- ditional $100,000-$150,000 of San Diego Redevelopment Agency funds for improvements to the North Park Community Park. The money would go to en-


hance security and improve vis- ibility at the park by removing utility boxes that block sight lines, installing cameras and relocating the Senior Citizens’ Center to 30th Street, Gloria said. “That proposal is moving for-


ward and I hope to get the support, not just from our North Park Proj-


San Diego Uptown News | June 25-July 8, 2010


ect Area Committee, but of my col- leagues on the City Council, so we can combine it with the $630,000 from the school district and bring real change to this park,” Gloria said. “When we clean up the lines of sight, when we remove the graf- fiti and when we install the cam- eras, I think we’ll have a new day here at North Park Community Park.”


Despite the promise of money


from multiple sources, Passons said he would continue to seek ad- ditional funding for the North Park Community Park improvements. “Until the project is done, I’m


always going to be at least a little concerned, even if they said we have the funds and we’re going to break ground next week,” Passons said. “Until the ground is actually broken … we want to make sure our neighborhood doesn’t get lost


5


in the budget shuffle.” Despite the lack of immediate


funding, students, neighbors and Gloria are working to bring more improvements to the community park, notorious for vagrancy, pros- titution, drugs and vandalism. “There are serious challenges


at the North Park Community Park, and what we know here in this community is that we are a park deficient community,” Gloria said. “We do not have enough park acreage for the number of people who live in this community, so we cannot sacrifice one acre, one square inch, to prostitutes, drug dealers or gang-bangers.”u


More than $600,000 in improvements are slated for the joint-use park next to the ALBA school in North Park. Although Prop. S funds have been designated for the site, the money has not been released. (Christy Scannell/SDUN)


Action Team works with ALBA students to record and evaluate park’s problems The ALBA high school ended its first


year in North Park on June 11 with a joint presentation from students and the North Park Action Team. The presentation highlighted possible


improvements to the North Park Community Park and several issues the students and neighborhood want to see the city address. The students worked with the North Park Action Team from December to April to assess problem areas in the park. “When we heard that ALBA was coming to


North Park last year, we thought it was a great opportunity for the Action Team to team up with a group of young people that could really give something positive back to this neighborhood,” said Dan Tomsky, senior project manager for Vitality San Diego, which oversees the North Park Action Team. The Action Team conducted environmental scans – documenting park usage – with students several times during the school year, giving the students notepads and cameras. The students documented broken lighting, drug and liquor paraphernalia, general litter and blind-spots. “The bathroom part is not really safe, there


are many corners and you don’t know who could be behind them,” said student Carlos Hernandez. “There are many things that need to be fixed in the park.” The students were also trained in


environmental crime prevention – a technique police departments use to deter vagrancy- related crime – and came up with solutions to improve the park’s atmosphere. “[Because] there are so many eyes on the school and everyone really wants the school


to do well, … I think there is more momentum now [to improve the park],” said Alexandra Jacobo-Mares, operations coordinator for the Institute for Public Strategies and a North Park Action Team member. According to Jacobo-Mares, the Walk San Diego invited some ALBA students to act as environmental scan experts for an event at Colina Del Sol Park on June 26.


“It’s been so cool with [the ALBA students] being able to present the project to the community,” Jacobo-Mares said. “It shows them that people actually care.” ALBA Principal Vernon Moore said most


of the concern from residents when the school moved to North Park from bungalows behind Crawford High School in El Cerrito last year wasn’t about the school itself.


“A lot of people seemed to be saying if


we were bringing in students who have had problems interacting at other schools, who’s to say they won’t have problems interacting with the park,” Moore said. “And I think that is where a lot of our efforts tried to focus, assisting community agencies with making some improvements here.” During the presentation, a class of


kindergartners held sack races and climbed over the play area, while neighbors and North Park community leaders thanked the students for their hard work. “When I walk through the park today, I


see a lot more people having barbeques and playing,” Moore said. “It’s hard to quantify it, but the park is improving.”u


–David Harvey


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