North Park Community Association serves as voice to educate, inform and empower

By Dave Schwab | SDUN Reporter

Removing graffiti, promoting summer concerts, providing eyes and ears for police, keeping residents informed, and working with other local groups to eradicate neighborhood blight are just a few of the things the North Park Community Association (NPCA) does for North Park on a regular basis.

First and foremost, however, the group is for residents.

“We’re an organization that started back in 1984 to give residents a voice,” said Nikki Berdy, NPCA board president. “The businesses have always fallen under a certain umbrella with the [Business Improvement Districts], but there really was nothing for the residents. That’s how it got started.”

The nonprofit is a member-based organization, with annual memberships beginning at $15. They are overseen by a volunteer board, and Berdy said they have only begun to tap the potential in North Park with about one percent of the community’s population being NPCA members.

Other community groups – most notably North Park’s community advisory council to the city and the North Park Historical Society – started out as NCPA committees and branched off to take on a life of their own.

“It [NPCA] was the basis of a lot of what goes on in North Park,” Berdy said.

Berdy, other NCPA members and local residents met recently at one of the group’s regularly scheduled social mixers. The November event was held at Queen Bee’s Art & Cultural Center, located at 3925 Ohio St.

NPCA board member Edwin Lohr, who attended the mixer, talked about the group’s significance, saying they complimented what North Park Main Street does for businesses.

“We’re an organization that’s for the people of the North Park area,” Lohr said. “We do mixers. We do community clean ups. We do graffiti abatement. We now have our own neighborhood patrol. We’re a great source of community information and a valuable resource for the people.”

Lohr said one of the most important aspects about the group was that they are working to make a difference in the community. “We listen,” he said. “We’re a good sounding board.”

NPCA’s mission is to create a voice to educate, inform and empower North Park residents. The group works with local businesses and other area organizations to address community concerns, such as safety and land use. It also promotes cultural activities and strives to polish the community’s image, while working for commercial revitalization and to improve public facilities and services.

Berdy said she has seen tremendous change in the eight years she has lived in North Park, with a business and cultural renaissance that has transformed the community.

“It’s a destination spot,” she said, adding that residents and businesses have adapted in order to coexist. “With night life growth, a lot of the businesses smack right up into residential areas. If you go down 30th Street, there are bars right next to houses.”

To help neighbors and businesses coexist, the NPCA is working to encourage diversity in North Park as the business district grows.

“We’d like to see more shops, … boutiques and little family friendly stores, not just bars and restaurants, although we benefit from that too,” Berdy said.

To help curb noise, graffiti and crime, the community group is organizing a neighborhood patrol organization, stemming from the Stonewall Citizen’s Patrol in Hillcrest. Lohr has been intricately involved with the Hillcrest group, and has been instrumental in establishing similar patrols in North Park.

“I started a North Park Citizen’s Patrol as a division of Stonewall,” he said. “We really want to kick it into high gear. We’re getting going signing up block captains in charge of the North Park division of Stonewall. We now have our neighborhood patrol.”

Berdy said the Citizen’s Patrol is one way the NPCA is more “hands on” in the community, serving as additional “eyes and ears” for local San Diego police, and is just one of many projects for the NPCA.

“We do graffiti removal, the Citizen’s Patrol [and] a biweekly newsletter to keep everyone informed,” Berdy said. “We have a very active website. We work with businesses. … We’re all working hard together to make it work.”

Lohr said perhaps the most visible public service NPCA provides is the Bird Park summer concert series it has hosted for the past decade.

“One of our biggest projects is the concerts,” he said. “That’s the biggest financial burden for us, but that’s what puts us on the map.”

Spanning several months in the summer, the concerts, which Lohr said many people believe are paid for by the city, are funded by the NPCA. “It’s our biggest asset to the community. The concerts affect the most people,” Lohr said.

Moving forward, the nonprofit’s goal is to promote community awareness and participation in their ongoing neighborhood improvement projects.

“We need support [and] we need members,” Berdy said. “Physically, we can’t do the projects without people joining in.”

The NPCA meets the fourth Wednesday of each month at the Lafayette Hotel, 2223 El Cajon Blvd., from 6 to 8 p.m. For membership information, visit northparksd.org or email Berdy at [email protected].