![\"31922_339694266134924_1943989389_n\"](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/31922_339694266134924_1943989389_n.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe reconstituted NHCA elected board members at its May 14 monthly meeting, including Nancy and Mike Palmer. The Palmers are relatively new Normal Heights residents, and two core members of the NHCA. They said a \u201ccritical mass\u201d of community interest and involvement led to the group reforming.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want a place where neighbors can get together with neighbors and find their niche, whether it be working on cleaning up, safety, socializing or helping one another,\u201d Nancy Palmer said. \u201cA driving force for me is creating a place where my girls can walk or bike to their friend’s houses, and I can walk to their school and take them to all their events and be in the car as little as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mike Palmer, who oversees their Communication & Social Media committee, said he would like the new NHCA to improve neighborhood communication, and cited the NHCA\u2019s community calendar on their redesigned website, normalheights.ca<\/a>, as a good start.<\/p>\n In addition to the Palmers, current board members are board President Ron Ferrero, Vice President Christopher Blubaugh, Secretary Vanessa Drake, Treasurer Wayne Crawford, Leo Liffrig and Earlene Thom.<\/p>\n Nancy Palmer said former San Diego Councilmember John Hartley suggested she reform the neighborhood community association, and organized a public meeting in January to begin the process. Ferrero and Drake were converted to the cause at that January organizational meeting.<\/p>\n Ferrero said now is the right time for the civic group to form.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of San Diego is built on neighborhoods. A lot of new people have moved into the community in the last six to eight years and they want to feel like they’re a part of something,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to be a catalyst for advocacy to improve the neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n Drake agreed with Ferrero\u2019s sentiment, saying it was time for the community to be a part of the changes in the neighborhood. \u201cIt was the perfect time to start the Association again, not because there was any severe issue in the neighborhood, just that it was time for residents to come together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The new NHCA has the support of other community organizations, including the Normal Heights Community Planning Group \u2013 a separate entity and officially recognized part of San Diego\u2019s neighborhood planning groups \u2013 and the Adams Avenue Business Association.<\/p>\n Jim Baross chairs the neighborhood\u2019s planning group and endorsed the NHCA saying there are many things outside his organization\u2019s purview that a community association can do.<\/p>\n \u201cPlanning groups can only deal with land-use issues, and a community association can do anything they darn well please that’s legal,\u201d Baross said. \u201cOver the last couple of years the planning group has run into many issues and interests for the community that we couldn’t really deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n Business Association Executive Director Scott Kessler said while his organization is focused primarily on business development along Adams Avenue, they will try to help the newly formed NHCA in any way they can.<\/p>\n \u201cThe business association has always partnered with the community association [and] done a lot of joint projects together,\u201d he said, adding that the two groups have \u201ca lot more in common\u201d than not.<\/p>\n Now that the NHCA board has been elected and hit the ground running, Ferrero said he would like to see the group address community needs like expanding Ward Canyon Neighborhood Park and possibly adding a new off-leash dog area.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a really busy month,\u201d Ferrero said at the May 14 meeting, noting that they would continue to seek feedback on the dog area and Ward Canyon Park expansion.<\/p>\n Additionally, the group discussed a recent graffiti cleanup project that Crawford called \u201chugely successful,\u201d with over 100 graffiti tags removed. They discussed another cleanup in June, and look forward to a future of community involvement.<\/p>\n \u201cI want Normal Heights as a whole to be a united community,\u201d Nancy Palmer said, adding the NHCA\u2019s primary goal is to create a community \u201cwhere everybody is working together.\u201d<\/p>\n The NHCA is a membership-driven organization and meets the second Tuesday of each month at the Normal Heights Community Center, located at 4649 Hawley Blvd. The next meeting is June 11 from 6:30 \u2013 8 p.m. To become a member and for more information, visit normalheights.ca<\/a> or call 619-798-6116.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Residents re-form neighborhood group as a catalyst for advocacy and involvement By Dave Schwab | SDUN Reporter After a several-year hiatus, the Normal Heights Community Association (NHCA) has returned, in part due to a push by an enthusiastic group of supporters and new vitality for the neighborhood. Formed initially as a reaction to the devastating […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":246168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Normal Heights Community Association","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}