Shu grew up in Los Angeles, before heading north to attend college at Humboldt State University.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to go into something to do with natural resources and ended up with a degree in wildlife management,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
After graduation, he went to work for National Park Service and Forest Service and later California State Parks, eventually becoming a park superintendent at Cuyamaca and Palomar state parks in San Diego in the early \u201880s when his wife was pregnant with their first child.<\/p>\n
After heading the local state parks, Shu spearheaded a statewide program to link urban populations with state parks and the outdoors. He also worked with groups to save forests and grasslands and helped form the Cleveland National Forest Foundation 25 years ago.<\/p>\n
Shu said the Cleveland National Forest Foundation\u2019s \u201cclaim to fame\u201d was suing SANDAG and winning with the help of now vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris who intervened on the side of the foundation when she was Attorney General for California.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe essentially showed that SANDAG was faulty in their document. It was the first time that a major metropolitan planning agency had to decertify a CEQA document,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
When Shu decided to run, he stepped down as the foundation\u2019s president.<\/p>\n
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Climate Action Plan advocate<\/strong><\/p>\n With a background in wildlife and parks and wellness, Shu was a natural fit to advocate for a comprehensive climate action plan (CAP) in La Mesa, where he was a fierce critic of the city\u2019s early attempts at drafting one.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought the city initially started completely on the wrong foot,\u201d he said. \u201cI told Yvonne Garrett, this was when she was assistant city manager, that to accept money from SDG&E to help write the climate action plan was a complete conflict of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n That draft led to delays in the plan, then the city went in \u201ca poor direction with the wrong contractor\u201d on a second draft, according to Shu.<\/p>\n \u201cSo our initial climate action plans were not only weak, but they couldn\u2019t even copy a good climate action plan from the city of San Diego and at that time, that was one of the best ones.\u201d<\/p>\n After several drafts that Shu graded as \u201cFs\u201d or \u201cDs,\u201d the city eventually adopted a plan that is \u201cmuch better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n If he becomes a Council member, Shu would like to add to the city\u2019s CAP a drive through VMT (vehicle miles traveled) that would include measuring pollutants from cars traveling through the La Mesa segments of Interstate 8 and CA 125.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I knew what I know now with regards to what car emission causes for pregnant women, I would have second thoughts about living in La Mesa because the incidence of problems for the fetus caused by pollutions form cars is so great,\u201d he said, adding that all three of his children have asthma.<\/p>\n Drive through VMT was left out of city climate action plans because SANDAG wanted control over it, Shu said, but if added to La Mesa\u2019s plan, the City Council representative to SANDAG would have clear direction to influence \u201cbetter policy\u201d on car pollution from San Diego area freeways.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Police oversight<\/strong><\/p>\n Most recently, Shu has worked on developing a police oversight committee in La Mesa \u2014 a reform to policing he said is long overdue.<\/p>\n \u201cFive years ago, the Grand Jury recommended strongly to several cities including La Mesa to form citizens\u2019 review boards. The police chief came out against it, said we don\u2019t need one. City Council did nothing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Then the 2018 Helix High School incident happened, where a La Mesa police officer was filmed throwing a Black female student to the ground. The city conducted an independent investigation that took a year to complete and cost over $20,000 and \u201cessentially told us nothing\u201d because the investigation contract was written by the city attorney and city manager, Shu said.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir job is to protect the city. That\u2019s their job, I have no problems with that,\u201d he added. \u201cBut if that\u2019s their job, you can imagine what the contract is going to look like. It\u2019s going to ask questions as to if the city did anything wrong in a very narrow, specific way. It doesn\u2019t talk about what the police department should have done to prevent that incident, it only asks whether the policy was broken.\u201d<\/p>\n That was when Shu and several others began pressuring the city to adopt citizen oversight of police. The City Council agreed and tasked the police department to come up with a plan \u2014 one that when it was presented to City Council, Shu said was inadequate.<\/p>\n \u201cThe City Council realized it was a bad proposal because a number of us were quite upset, so they formed the task force,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Shu volunteered for the task force but recently stepped down to avoid any conflicts of interest while running for City Council. He said that the work the task force is finishing will be presented to the city soon and is written by the \u201cbest attorneys in the state who work on these ordinances.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo we\u2019ve come a long ways,\u201d he said. \u201cUnfortunately, in between, we\u2019ve had a riot and two banks burned. That should not be the way we do things.<\/p>\n \u201cSome might say, had we done some work five years ago, the event at the trolley station would not have happened,\u201d he continued. \u201cIf we had a better system in the city to address these issues, perhaps that officer either would have had to leave the department or would have gone through some other training or something would have helped to prevent that whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n With the announcement by Chief Walt Vasquez that he will be retiring at the end of the month, Shu said he hopes the city hires an interim police chief from outside the department so that candidates from all over the state or country will have equal footing with candidates from inside the department.<\/p>\n Shu said the new police chief should look at La Mesa arrest data to see if racial profiling is happening and have a plan to address it if it is, because \u201cpolicing depends on community.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the community that empowers the police to do their work. If the police do not have the support of they community they really are powerless and that\u2019s why I got into this in the first place,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m not trying to hurt law enforcement, I have 22 years experience being a supervising police officer, teaching community policing. I know our police officers need the trust of the community if they are going to get better and when that trust is being eroded, that\u2019s when police officers lose their authority and power.\u201d<\/p>\n A citizens\u2019 review board is one of the things that can help, he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n COVID recovery<\/strong><\/p>\n In addition to dealing with the fallout from police incidents and the protests and riots that followed, the next City Council will also be dealing with budget shortfalls and economic recovery from the cornavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know we\u2019re going to have a very hard time with our budget, so there\u2019s not a whole lot we can do, but I think we can be a lot smarter and make La Mesa different in some other respects,\u201d Shu said.<\/p>\n One thing to help the city would be to promote La Mesa as a friendly place to live and shop and dine in to \u201chelp our businesses attract customers as they recover.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Housing<\/strong><\/p>\n When it comes to the city\u2019s housing needs, Shu said he prefers infill developments near transit over high rise buildings. He said that through his work on wellness initiatives, he read studies that show that people who live in buildings over five stories high stop going out to walk around their cities.<\/p>\n \u201cI want people to be walking and when they walk, they start supporting businesses,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the ideal situation may be the first story is for commerce, for businesses, and then the next three or four stories up is for residential. If you look at other successful urban communities throughout the world, that works.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Shu\u2019s vision<\/strong><\/p>\n Whether it is housing, climate or policing, Shu said his overall goal for La Mesa is one of compassion and fairness.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a vision that La Mesa is a vibrant community from one end of the city to the other, that we leave no one behind, that we use our hearts as our jewel,\u201d he said. \u201cOur jewel is not a muscle or strength, our jewel is our heart and the heart of La Mesa is going to be big and its going to help build this vibrant community.\u201d<\/p>\n For more information about City Council candidate Jack Shu, visit www.jackshu.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Shu](\"https:\/\/lamesacourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/jack-jump.jpg\")
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