A City Heights planning group meeting ended loudly and abruptly Wednesday night (September 7) when the group chairman substitute could not control an angry crowd and shut down the meeting.
A member of the mayor's staff and of city councilmember Marti Emerald's staff stood quietly aside shaking hands and greeting friends while people left the meeting. A San Diego police officer who was there to speak as a community liaison was among the first to leave.
"Can you believe this? We came here to be heard and they aren't listening," longtime City Heights activist Maria Cortez said. "They screwed us up because they did not want to listen to the community."
Up to 100 residents attended the meeting — moms with children and shopkeepers alongside community activists and the principal of Cherokee Point Elementary School — to advocate against letting the developer of a new 7-Eleven at 39th and University sell beer and wine. The item was presented for information; no vote was planned.
"We do not want another liquor store in our community," said Ahmed Malinomar. He held in his hand a map that showed there are 20 liquor stores per square mile in City Heights, compared with the citywide average of 7.6 liquor stores per square mile.
But Godwin Higa, the principal of Cherokee Point Elementary School, made the deepest cut. Cherokee Point is a "trauma-informed" school, where teachers and staff work under the premise that some of their students have been traumatized by some aspect of life's ugliness. That view of students results in more support and far less punishment. His kids, he said, don't need to see any more bad stuff.
"My 500 students do not need to be affected by this," Higa said. "We are already subjected to crime. We have children coming to school walking by dead bodies. My 500 children need your voices [to support them] as well."
To read more of Marty Graham's article, please click here.
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