Por JEFF CLEMETSON | Mensajero de La Mesa<\/p>\n
La Mesa City Council candidate Allan Durden is \u201ca big proponent\u201d of the U.S. flag and as such he wants people of all races and political affiliations to fly it proudly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI call it a new flag \u2013 not because of the way it looks, but the meaning and what it represents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have told me that Black Americans want to break the flag. That\u2019s nonsense. We are the flag. You\u2019re the flag no matter how you honor it \u2014 be it a salute, hand over your heart or taking a knee. The flag has got to stand for all of us. No one tells me how to honor my God, no one should tell me how to honor my flag \u2014 but honor it. I believe that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen one side uses the flag against another side, I think that\u2019s absolutely terrible because you have one side that\u2019s telling us you\u2019re not a patriot and another side telling us you\u2019re a racist that\u2019s crazy,\u201d he continued. \u201cI think in La Mesa if we can just agree on that that may bring us a little closer together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Durden\u2019s unity message for his campaign for a City Council seat \u2014 his first run for public office \u2014 is directly tied to his experience growing up Black in La Mesa.<\/p>\n
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Local roots<\/strong><\/p>\n Durden\u2019s family moved from Houston to La Mesa in 1976. His father \u2014 a coach for the Houston Oilers \u2014 took a position with the San Diego Chargers.<\/p>\n The family chose moving to La Mesa over Kearney Mesa because Durden\u2019s brother was a basketball player and wanted to go to Helix High where Bill Walton went. The family experience racism immediately.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know it at that time, I was 5 or 6 years old, they had a petition to get us out of Mt. Nebo,\u201d Durden said. \u201cWe learned this 10 years after we moved here because we had a friend that lived next door.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to the racism by some of his neighbors, the Durden family also went through the tragedy of losing Durden\u2019s older brother who was murdered by teenager trying to steal his phone.<\/p>\n \u201cEven with all those things, we decided to stay [in La Mesa]. We wanted to stay,\u201d he said. \u201cI still live in the neighborhood today where I grew up.\u201d<\/p>\n Durden attended Dale Elementary, La Mesa Junior High and then Helix High where he followed in his father\u2019s footsteps and played football, eventually getting a scholarship to the University of Arizona, before bing drafted to play for the Detroit Lions in 1985.<\/p>\n At the University of Arizona, Durden\u2019s football accolades included being named All Pac-10, All American, and was also inducted into the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame. Off the field, he earned a BA and a Charter Leadership Fellow Designation in financial services, which is the field of work he has been in since leaving pro football.<\/p>\n \u201cMy expertise includes team leadership, operations management, strategic management and I\u2019ve partnered with a lot of corporate leaders and business owners helping them achieve their goals as well,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve represented La Mesa as a student-athlete, a business leader and I look forward to representing [the city] as a City Council member.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Racism and a run for office<\/strong><\/p>\n Durden is a political newcomer who said \u201cone particular incident\u201d spurred him o run for City Council.<\/p>\n \u201cI was down at the Vons shopping center the day after the riots and I was watching people clean up and kind of assisting here and there and a lady came up to me \u2026 and she asks me \u2018Why are so many minorities moving into La Mesa?\u2019\u201d Durden shared. \u201cI said, \u2018Wow, OK. How long have you been a resident of La Mesa?\u2019 She said, \u2018I\u2019ve been a proud resident for 25 years.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Wow, that\u2019s great. Well I\u2019ve been a resident of La Mesa for 45 years, does that mean you moved into my neighborhood?\u2019 And she was appalled and kind of stomped off. That kind of made me think I got to do something about this.\u201d<\/p>\n Other incidents followed. Durden and his wife \u2014 who is white \u2014 were recently profiled by people taking their pictures and writing down their license plate while driving home by \u201cguys in yellow vests,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAny one of these issues could have validated my family leaving, but we decided to stay. I keep on emphasizing that because I want people to know,\u201d he said. \u201cI grew up in La Mesa. My friends are here, I raised my family here and all I know is we got to get better together. This is ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n Durden blames the profiling on outside agitators coming into the city he doesn\u2019t see racism in La Mesa getting any worse from when he was young and his neighbors tried to petition for his family to move.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere I live it\u2019s becoming more diverse,\u201d he said. \u201cI just think we need to turn that corner and have a council that is representative of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n Durden describes himself as \u201ctotally liberal\u201d but points out that he has many conservative friends.<\/p>\n \u201cI love my friends. We can have an argument, have a discussion, but we can also have a beer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Policing in La Mesa<\/strong><\/p>\n Durden does not harbor a lot of criticism for La Mesa Police and pointed out that the city has an excellent safety record \u2014 ranked 66th in the state for safety.<\/p>\n \u201cSo police in La Mesa have not done a bad job. I think our crime rate is really low and our violent crime rate is even lower,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In looking for a new chief to replace outgoing Chief Walt Vasquez, Durden said the city should look for experience.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I don\u2019t think we want a big city police chief,\u201d he added. \u201cI think we need a police chief who will listen to the people, listen to the recommendations of the oversight commission, that will work with the people.\u201d<\/p>\n Durden said he is not an ardent proponent of defunding police outright, but he did suggest that the new chief should \u201cmaybe\u201d look at directing some of the department\u2019s budget funds to other agencies to relieve officers from some of their duties.<\/p>\n \u201cThey wear hats for psychology. They wear homeless hats. They got mental health hats. They\u2019re just not trained for that,\u201d he said. \u201cSo if we can just allocate some of that money to get them some help, I think we\u2019ll be just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n COVID response<\/strong><\/p>\n Durden said he supports the city\u2019s move to open sidewalks to help businesses to help them stay operating during the pandemic. He is also in favor of mask mandates.<\/p>\n When it comes to where the city should spend money to deal with economic fallout from the coronavirus, Durden favors increased funds for social services like providing meals to children while they are not in school.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be difficult. The business owners definitely need their money because we need business owners to thrive, but we have some community people that need money to live. So that balance is going to very difficult,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Housing<\/strong><\/p>\n Helping La Mesa\u2019s most vulnerable is also a priority for Durden when it comes to housing policy.<\/p>\n \u201cI am a person that believes in affordable housing,\u201d he said. \u201cI believe we have spaces in La Mesa where we can build affordable housing \u2014 whether it be close to the trolley on Amaya, or close to the trolley on Spring Street. I don\u2019t know how affordable it would be to build Downtown. That is not affordable. I don\u2019t want a huge Downtown. I want the Village vintage, keep it the way it is. I want it to grow but I don\u2019t want it to grow up.\u201d<\/p>\n Durden\u2019s idea of growing the Village is to build up all the commerce areas in La Mesa and consider them all part of the \u201cVillage\u201d \u2014 not just the area around La Mesa Boulevard and Spring Street.<\/p>\n \u201cOther than that, I have no agendas other than to keep the city safe,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n