{"id":317812,"date":"2022-12-13T07:08:28","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T15:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/?p=317812"},"modified":"2023-03-31T08:33:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-31T15:33:00","slug":"does-the-city-really-care-about-its-older-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/does-the-city-really-care-about-its-older-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the City really care about its older communities?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201c<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Our community is dispensable.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">That\u2019s the message handed down to the community in November at the Planning Commission Workshop to discuss the Update to the College Area Community Plan. Maybe we shouldn\u2019t have been surprised. But library patrons were. We naively thought we were special.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">The College-Rolando Library was one of the first new branch libraries out of the gate identified in the 2002 Library Building Plan. We were important. Hooray!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">And look at how glowingly our library is described by the city today. It\u2019s \u201c\u2026one of the busiest\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><b>Colegio-Biblioteca Rolando<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Serving the communities of College Area, Rolando Village, Rolando Park, Darnall and Redwood Village.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">When the College-Rolando Branch Library opened in September 2005, it replaced the outdated College Heights Library which was built in 1955 and located on College Avenue. Today, the College-Rolando Library is one of the busiest in San Diego with modern amenities to serve a diverse population and patrons of all ages. The astronomy-themed library building offers visitors a sense of privacy with separate reading areas and a computer lab, a multi-purpose community room with a kitchen and an outdoor patio.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">The November Commission Workshop was a rude awakening. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Our library\u2019s future was disregarded, while libraries in other communities are highly regarded by the city. The new Mission Hills Library has expensive underground parking. The city is spending upwards of $4 million to double the amount of parking at the Scripps Ranch Library. What is at play here?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Many seasoned community advocates aren\u2019t surprised that the city is abandoning our library parking. Failure to solve problems is \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d in the older city. The College Area community has made do without parks for its entire existence. And we have no fire station. No community center.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">And then came the bigger blow. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">The city needs to solve its challenge of where to put growth; and how to address the demands of climate action. Where do they turn \u2013 concentrate it right here in the College Area, big time, creating more than four times the buildout capacity for housing than the 2020 baseline. What?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">It doesn\u2019t matter if our library has no parking. It doesn\u2019t matter if we don\u2019t have a fire station. It doesn\u2019t matter if we are sorely lacking in public spaces and parks. It doesn\u2019t matter that the city can\u2019t provide the infrastructure for that unbelievable increase in density. We, somehow, are dispensable, while other communities get supported!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Well, it does matter to our library patrons. And the sustainability of our community does matter to all those who have invested time, energy and love here. We do not intend to be quietly thrown under the bus.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Let\u2019s remind the mayor and our councilmember of their commitment to equity and stand up for our community. Contact MayorToddGloria@sandiego.gov and <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span lang=\"zxx\"><u><a href=\"mailto:seanelorivera@sandiego.gov\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">seanelorivera@sandiego.gov<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/u><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">&#8211; <em>This opinion piece was written by Jan Hintzman, president of the Friends of the College-Rolando Library<\/em>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\">","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cOur community is dispensable.\u201d That\u2019s the message handed down to the community in November at the Planning Commission Workshop to discuss the Update to the College Area Community Plan. Maybe we shouldn\u2019t have been surprised. But library patrons were. We naively thought we were special. The College-Rolando Library was one of the first new branch [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":938,"featured_media":317815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11562","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"\u201cOur community is dispensable.\u201dThat\u2019s the message handed down to the community in November at the Planning Commission Workshop to discuss the Update to the College Area Community Plan. Maybe we shouldn\u2019t have been surprised. But library patrons were. We naively thought we were special.","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"3","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11562,11552],"tags":[13137,13100,12375],"class_list":["post-317812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-times-courier","category-opinion","tag-college-rolando-library","tag-community","tag-san-diego"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317812","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\/938"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322204,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317812\/revisions\/322204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}