Por José Ciolino

After sifting through an old reusable grocery bag to find a medical wristband with a name on it, Alan Bennett had a better idea about who lived in the homeless encampment he had just discovered hidden behind a road partition along Florida Drive in Balboa Park.

The camp’s inhabitant — a man who had been recently discharged from the hospital, according to the wristband — wasn’t there at the time. Garbage was thrown around the nearby drainage system, which poses a threat to the community and the native plants in that part of Balboa Park, Bennett said.

Finding and investigating homeless encampments is only part of what the now retired Bennett does on a weekly basis, and more specifically during his three-hour tours as part of the Citizens’ Patrol for North Park (CPNP). San Diego Uptown News rode along on one of those patrols on a Friday afternoon.

Bennett, 71, also reports graffiti that should be removed as part of the San Diego Police Department’s “broken window” program, which looks for vandalism, other crimes and abandoned vehicles. More on that later.

Born in Kansas and raised in Seattle, Bennett received his master’s degree in public administration at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington. He worked under former Seattle Mayor James d’Orma Braman in setting up a model city program.

“That’s what really got me into community development,” Bennett said. “I’ve always been involved with grant writing and development of community projects from sewer systems to transit systems to weatherization programs.”

Bennett helped weatherize the homes of 6,000 low-income families in Seattle during a period of about five years. From there, Bennett moved on to set up the Commute Trip Reduction program for Seattle.

“I’ve changed jobs about every five years,” Bennett said. “Once it gets going good, I get bored.”

But the dream job that Bennett landed sent him to Snohomish County, Washington, to take care of native plants.

“My life was complete,” he said. “I could help people convert their land into habitat for native plants and native animals, and I really enjoyed that program.”

Bennett loves working with native plants and he likes to see things grow the way they should grow, he said. He is also passionate with mentoring and teaching anyone who wants to learn about plants.

The protection of native plants is crucial to him, he said, and San Diego is home to about 2,600 different taxa of plants that are native to the county.

“From that [variety of plants] we can paint a palette to please anyone’s cultural and visual delight,” he said.

In order to plant these native plants, Bennett has received permission from the San Diego Park and Recreation Department.

Just west of the Balboa Tennis Club, the California native plant demonstration garden is an area where Bennett and his colleagues have been actively planting and preserving native plants.

When not safeguarding native plants, Bennett in his role with the CPNP likes being “the eyes and ears of the Police Department.” This includes reporting to police any activities that are deemed detrimental to the community.

More specifically, looking at graffiti helps the CPNP and police to identify where gangs are trying to establish turf in North Park, Bennett said. Recently, a gang defaced the blocked-off entrance to 28th Street at Upas Street with boldly colored graffiti and also tagged the back wall of the Mission Restaurant, located at 28th Street and University Avenue. The tags were removed the same day, because nearby residents had alerted police before CPNP knew about it.

Bennett is a pro when it comes to identifying graffiti. He can differentiate, mimic and recognize the tags of particular gangs. One area on a wall can be reported up to four times because it has been repeatedly tagged and painted over.

He also looks for abandoned vehicles and broken windows to report to authorities, so criminals know that people are looking out for each other.

“We want to keep North Park’s reputation as the most walkable neighborhood in San Diego,” Bennett said. “That’s really the mission for CPNP.”

But the plants are what Bennett holds dear to his heart. So much so that he kicked out a rollerblader who was encroaching on a nature reserve near the tennis courts.

“All this land in here is designated and set aside by the City Council as a reserve wilderness area,” Bennett said to the disgruntled rollerblader.

After yelling some obscenities that a 30-year-old could do what he wanted, the rollerblader continued to ride up and down the area. Bennett pulled out his cell phone and start calling a park ranger. After that, the man angrily climbed over the fence and skated away.

“I’ve never seen anyone more tenacious,” said Sue Zinda, a CPNP volunteer, said of her colleague. “He really cares deeply about all of this.”

But when not dealing with disgruntled people encroaching on protected native plant areas or homeless encampments and graffiti, Bennett volunteers with plants and students.

Bennett is working with the international baccalaureate program at Roosevelt Middle School in replacing eucalyptus and planting native plants so the students can learn more about botany in an outdoor laboratory.

“I want them to understand how to talk about plants,” he said. “I want them to have the opportunity to be excited about science and how to really observe things.”

—Joseph Ciolino is an intern with SDCNN and a senior majoring in journalism at San Diego State University.