The summer season in College Area began with several great events and there’s more to come.

On June 24, community members had the chance to help paint a mural on the long, outside wall of The Little Flower at 5547 El Cajon Blvd. Community members shared their time and their talent to help make the new public art piece so striking. The colorful mural was the result of a collaboration with ArtReach, a visual arts education program focusing on social-emotional learning and community connections through in-class programs and the ArtReach Mural Program. This project was funded by the College Area Community Council and the College Area Business District. Regan Russell, an artist who happens to live in the El Cerrito neighborhood of College Area, created the mural concept with inspiration from a core business value of this wonderful local florist. Maria Elena Grimm established the shop in 2014 and says their business slogan is, “designs are created especially for you from the heart.” The Little Flower is also a recipient of the City of San Diego’s Storefront Improvement Program. This additional opportunity provides small business owners with a no-cost design consultation and reimbursement of half of the cost to revamp their front facade, up to $8,000. Please visit our College Area Business District to see the beautiful new mural and storefront improvements at The Little Flower.

While some community members helped paint the mural, other community members were painting and planting pots at the College-Rolando Library‘s Gardenpalooza, including a succulent swap and other environmentally-friendly fun. Read more about this great event in the Mesa Colony report.

Mark your calendars on Aug. 5 for College Area Cleanup Day from 8 to 11 a.m. This event is sponsored by the CACC and will be a great opportunity to meet other local residents while sprucing up our neighborhoods. More information will follow the July 11 meeting of the CACC (Information compiled by Karen Austin).

Fincas Alvarado

Por KAREN AUSTIN

To kick off the summer season, the AE Social Committee planned a fun late afternoon mini-golf tournament and taco night on June 17. There were divisions for children, women and men. The event was a big success with many residents attending with their children, grandchildren or neighborhood friends. Congratulations to the winners and many thanks to our super Social Committee.

Last year about this time, we formed the Alvarado Estates Fire Safe Council as part of the County’s FSC program. This professionally supported process will provide a manageable first step to increase wildfire resilience in Alvarado Estates and the College Area corridor along Fairmount Avenue and Montezuma Road. This June, we finalized a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) for these areas which has been approved by San Diego Fire-Rescue, CAL FIRE and others. These two accomplishments enabled us to apply for and receive support from the San Diego Regional Fire Foundation to prepare educational workshops about fire preparedness, creating defensible space, implementing home hardening strategies and addressing fire insurance issues. Wildfire is a very real threat, especially as summer weather dries the brush on our properties and canyon hillsides. We’ll share more information as we build our capacity to implement our CWPP goals to help protect our College Area wildlands and homes against wildfire.

College View Estates

By JEAN HOEGER

College View Estates held their annual summer block party in June. The weather was cool and spirits were high as adults and kids alike enjoyed the bounce house and slide, the BBQ ed burgers and dogs, the dessert contest and the fellowship with neighbors both new and old. It was a great turn out, with over 150 people, some for the first time and some old hands at it. This event is something that everyone in the community looks forward to each and every year.

El Cerrito

By LAURA RIEBAU

El Cerrito residents have a lot to consider when voting for the best person to be our new County Supervisor in the upcoming special primary election on Aug. 15.

Many in El Cerrito are very unhappy with decisions by elected officials they voted for in the last election and want to use their vote well in future elections. To help facilitate this, the El Cerrito Community Council held a candidates forum at its June meeting. Residents had a chance to meet District 4 candidates Amy Reichert and Janessa Goldbeck. Unfortunately, our invitation was too late for Monica Montgomery-Steppe to be able to attend.

Both candidates, who are moms, were impressive, telling us about their lives and experiences, as well as what they consider to be important for the County’s Fourth District.

Though our area, being in the City, is not as heavily impacted by County decisions when compared to unincorporated areas of San Diego, there is some overlap when the two agencies work together. Lately that overlap has been in regards to solutions for the San Diego region’s homeless population.

Homelessness, housing regulations and transit are some of the important topics for the El Cerrito community, so most of the audience’s questions were about these subjects. The responses from both candidates were more general than specific and there were few warning bells, if any.

We encourage all voters for the special primary election of the Fourth Supervisorial District to review candidate websites, read articles expressing views and look at who is endorsing each of the candidates before casting their vote.

Mesa Colony

By SUSAN GRANT

It was a true Gardenpalooza at the College-Rolando Branch Library. Mesa Colony and Rolando residents were there in full force for the morning events on Saturday, June 24. There were lots of things going on inside and out, including a live music show and photos with Odi the Coyote from City of San Diego Environmental Services. While the children were entertained, parents enjoyed the plant swap, the City’s (green bin) food waste recycling education booth with free compost, and a booth from Earthwell Refill located at 4114 Adams Avenue. Located in nearby Kensington, it features 100% earth-friendly cleaning products, from laundry detergent to toothbrushes. Their motto is “refill, re-use, create.” You can bring in the same jug to refill your liquid laundry detergent or just use the detergent sheets, saving on plastic waste. Friends of the College-Rolando Library even set up a booth to encourage donations and recruit new members. It was a fun, earth-friendly, and popular event.

The following Monday, June 26, Mesa Colony had a visit from Sean Elo-Rivera, City Council President and District 9 Representative, at our monthly Mesa Colony meeting. Our Council President graciously gave us well over one hour of his time answering questions about the city council strategies to increase affordable housing in San Diego, about the successes/failures of SB9 and the future of our single-family neighborhoods amid the building of ADU’s on nearly every street in the College Area. We also covered the homeless crisis, condition of our roads, lack of parking spaces and trash from overflowing cans on our overcrowded streets. Sean shared about the complexity of these issues, and how they keep him up at night. It seems there are no perfect answers, just approximations of good solutions, especially in a city as spread out and diverse as ours. He listened carefully and thoughtfully. We came away feeling like we got to know one another a little better. Good communication always manages to do that.

Photo: College Area residents Shera and her daughter Lincoln (far left) had fun attending Gardenpalooza, an event held on June 24 at the College-Rolando Library. With a focus on the environment, it was a chance to paint and plant garden pots, as well as learn about the City’s organics recycling program and composting tips, available services at Earthwell Refill, and learn about volunteer opportunities with Friends of the College-Rolando Library. On-hand to help with the event (continuing left to right) Susan Grant co-chair of the Mesa Colony Community Group, Jan Hintzman the president of Friends of the College-Rolando Library and seated right, Maria Reid, one of our wonderful library staff members. (Photo by Karen Austin)