A lifelong Point Loman and community activist, Robert Tripp Jackson, current president of Point Loma Association (PLA), is busy trying to build the organization, which promotes the Peninsula community.
Jackson comes by the calling naturally. His late mother, Ann, who succumbed to cancer in 1990, preceded him as the PLA’s first female president. She was also an early chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board (PCPB), which makes land-use recommendations to the city.
Ann Tripp Jackson is perhaps best remembered for having been in the Dana Coalition, a grassroots group that campaigned successfully to prevent the Dana Junior High School site from being condemned and turned into condos.
“She saved it (Dana) from being sold off to private development,” said her son.
Ann Jackson also played an instrumental role in working to create a community plan to bring design standards to the Peninsula.
These days, Robert Tripp Jackson is continuing his family’s legacy of public service. He pointed out Point Loma Village years ago was once “cluttered” and “not very attractive,” with lots of “tacky signage” and a surplus of gas stations, power poles and billboards.
Through the hard work of dedicated volunteers, the landscape has gradually changed for the better.
But times have changed as well, and so has the membership of the PLA.
“The founding generation is all gone now,” said Jackson adding, “They all left, and now it’s up to the second generation to put their time — and passion — behind it (public improvement).”
The PLA’s initial generation was largely made up of executives and retirees, said Jackson, pointing out many of them were “game changers” in the community. One of them, the late Hugh Story, who has a memorial named after him, is credited with leading the way in establishing numerous group practices including the high profile “mean green team.”
“It’s a group of about 30 people, all volunteers, who go out on Fridays and work in the community getting their hands dirty and cleaning up,” said Jackson.
With the PLA out front, Peninsula residents have become proactive rather than reactive in tackling community issues and problems.
An example of the group’s progressive bent is the long-term, large-scale median improvement project that the PLA has undertaken.
“We’re enhancing the whole stretch of Nimitz all the way from West Point Loma Boulevard to Harbor Drive,” Jackson said. “There’s lots to do, lots of pockets in there that are deteriorated.”
The PLA has been busy turning barren medians into handsome, well-landscaped surfaces with native plants and public art.
Under Jackson’s administration, the PLA has also been trying to extend its reach out into the community.
“We’re on Facebook, and we’re really trying to enhance our social media,” he said. “We also sent out a survey to all our members recently because we want to hear what the community wants (done). Maybe that will help us improve our quarterly newsletters and become more efficient, maybe help us tailor and fine-tune things.”
Another thing the Jackson administration is attempting to do is to forge stronger ties between Point Loma and Ocean Beach.
“I would like for Point Loma and OB to have a better working relationship,” Jackson said. “We’ve been holding mixers to get everyone together to share ideas. I would like for the two sides to work together. For some reason, that’s always been difficult, maybe because everybody has their own agenda or different types of priorities. But I would like to see that.”
Jackson said another of his goals is to “grow our memberships.” He said the PLA currently has about 965 individual memberships. That figure has declined from as many as 2,000 a decade or more ago. The 2010 census estimated there were nearly 48,000 people living in the Point Loma-Ocean Beach area.
Jackson said the goal now is to “find people who have a passion about wanting to do something,” adding, “If everyone just put a couple of (volunteer) hours in a month, we could move mountains — we could get so much done.”
Created in 1961, the PLA comprises residents and businesses committed to improving the quality of life of Point Loma through beautification, education, charitable activities and civic collaboration.
Today, in addition to beautifying the Peninsula, PLA represents the community through direct involvement with agencies of federal, state and local governments, the Port District, the San Diego Unified School District and the PCPB.
PLA annual membership dues range from $30 to $1,000. For more information, visit http://www.plaweb.org.