Every week Speak City Heights has been quizzing City Council District 9 candidates on the issues. Here’s last week’s question: How would candidates work to improve the choices that City Heights residents have for public transportation?
Businessman/activist Mateo Camarillo discussed looking at what’s working in L.A. and advocating for transit options to job hubs further north. Councilwoman Marti Emerald talked about working to get a pledged transit center and looking at how to get taxis involved in transit plans. You can read their answers in both English and Spanish.
We’ve examined at the plans for the long-promised transit center extensively:
The bus line will connect City Heights residents to job centers downtown and in northern parts of the city and county. The so-called “Centerline” route has been envisioned since the 1980s when the final stretch of Interstate 15 was proposed through City Heights, requiring the eventual demolition of homes and businesses.
Catch up on some history about public transit in City Heights with a Media Arts Center video.
Two weeks ago, Camarillo and Emerald stressed that they would listen to those in the community regarding the future of El Cajon Boulevard’s development.
Last year, we took a look at the factors in play:
With each redevelopment opportunity, a central question looms: Will El Cajon Boulevard attract mainstream supermarkets and boutiques that Kensington-Talmadge residents have long wanted? Or will it continue reflecting the multiculturalism, social service needs and more modest buying power of City Heights?
During much of the 20th century, El Cajon Boulevard was San Diego’s main cross-city thoroughfare, until the completion of Interstate 8 in the 1960s. In recent years the boulevard has been trying to emerge from a decades-long economic decline that started with the freeway’s completion and was nudged along by the exodus of middle class families to newer northern neighborhoods.
For more on the District 9 race, including previous questions asked of these candidates, check out Speak City Heights’ archive.
You’re reading our roundup of news from Speak City Heights, a collaboration between KPBS, The AjA Project, Media Arts Center San Diego and us.
Here are the rest of the stories from the last two weeks:
• KPBS looked at how prison realignment is working in the six months since the state began moving some prison inmates and money to county jails.
• KPBS spoke with a photojournalist about her book on juvenile crime.
• Members of San Diego State University fraternities and sororities recently spent time with kids from a school that draws from the Somali community, encouraging them to go on to higher education, reported KPBS.
• Last week’s Twitter news roundup includes links related to the two-year anniversary of the federal health care law, proposed cuts to food stamps and how Hmong patients can be treated better.
• Two weeks ago, the roundup compiled coverage about our curfew sweeps analysis.
• Check out our graphic that compares the number of children arrested for violating curfew laws in San Diego to the number from across the state from 2007 to 2010.
• Speak City Heights featured a City Heights Life piece about work sponsored by Mid-City CAN to help students of an ethnic minority from Burma acclimate to school here.
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Dagny Salas is the web editor at voiceofsandiego.org. You can contact her directly at dagny.salas@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5669.
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