Through the Community Connectors Program, advocates from National City/Southeast San Diego (SESD) took the lead in convening a robust community conversation to advance reconnecting their community.
Across the US in the past few years, there has been growing conversation about the impacts and implications of highways that were / are being built and dividing our communities. A new wave of advocates have been taking up the mantle from past advocates who fought back highway construction projects in the 1960s and 1970s. One of those communities taking steps forward is National City / Southeastern San Diego.
In our previous post on their story, this community has been making strides to retake their destiny and heal past harms after a history of expansive highways and auto-dominant policy decisions. Led by Mundo Gardens and the Urban Collaborative Project, in partnership with various community based organizations, the cities of National City and San Diego, San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), there is a movement growing, focused on better understanding how the community historically was divided, reimagining a future without those divisions, and taking steps that heal and embrace the community.
After several months and conversations amongst the National City/SESD Community Connectors core team, a community convening was conceptualized and developed for September 18-19, 2024. This convening looked to build from the conversations the core team had with peer communities in November 2023. This convening also will look to grow the core team by involving other regional community partners in the conversation and convening programming, including but not limited to artists, neighborhood community associations, health and environmental groups, educational institutions, and tribal communities. Bringing together over 100 attendees from across the community, including elected officials at the local and state level, youth, and representatives from the area’s US Congressional delegation, the convening aimed to craft a shared vision for the community movement. Read local coverage in San Diego Voice & Viewpoint and the San Diego Union-Tribune. Key takeaways from the convening included:
1. Finding a shared vision among diverse perspectives
Attendees at the convening ranged from community youth and elders, to media, government, concerned citizens, artists, and community-based organizations. Each of them brought their different perspectives and experiences to this gathering. The convening venue itself, the Educational Cultural Complex, is a testament to the cultural legacy of the community, hosting pivotal speakers and performers as well as serving as a cultural and historical repository for the community. Elders such as the Rev. Alyce Smith-Cooper and Vernon Sukumu shared their experiences and persistence for community and social justice. A cadre of artists including but not limited to Khalil Bleux, Ree Obaña, Jhelen Ramirez, Ryan Johnson, Victor Ochoa, Mario Torero, Chris Carson, Semilla Luna, Dentlok, and Dr. Lawana Richmond shared their art and inspirations from and for the community movement.
Students from a local high school joined in the event, not only volunteering with logistical support, but lending their voice and thoughts for the future they will inherit and lead. Diverse community based, tribal, and environmental organizations within the community and region came together to share their perspectives and engage in peer learning to support the movement. Municipal and state leaders and practitioners gathered to listen in to the community conversation, share how they can be community tools to support the project/movement, and lended themselves and their resources to help support this convening. The convening created a necessary space for a spectrum of community and regional stakeholders to come together towards charting a common vision of community healing and mitigating past harms.
2. Information as a tool, narrative as power
Attendees at the convening had diverse opportunities for peer and presentation learning from the diverse speakers and presenters that looked to dissect various issues/lenses of the project (such as environmental, cultural, economic, process, social justice, and community land trusts). Common across the conversations held at the convening was weaving narrative to information in order to build power and support. Smart Growth America’s Michael Rodriguez provided an economic analysis around the community project, incorporating context from experiences shared at the convening. Stephanie Montes of Casa Familiar and Dr. Josh Newton of UC San Diego talked about the mechanics of community land trusts and how community members (such as the examples from San Ysidro) have the power to shape, cultivate, and sustain their community for the future.
3. An appetite for deeper partnerships
Bringing diverse stakeholders together created a space for dialogue and peer learning about the community project and movement. Top of mind for attendees was understanding and contextualizing past decision making by various levels of government and decision makers that led to the divisive highway infrastructure and associated harms. A panel focused on the role of government and community partnership had open and frank conversations about how the community can work together. Government representatives highlighted evolving efforts to better contextualize and understand equity in the community. Community-based organizations extended their support and peer learning to government partners to help contextualize equity in this community. Furthermore, community organizations also raised to the panel and attendees an opening for a community learning journey (more learning to go around); acknowledging there is much more to learn about the process, context, and how it can be used to advance goals.
4. Moving at the speed of trust
Various attendees at this convening had a spectrum of emotions as the community conversation evolved over the two days. Some attendees shared some raw emotions of historical experiences and harms. Others flagged the need to make space to explore those discussions and create empathetic understanding before proceeding with the larger community conversation. One attendee on the second day of the convening shared how the event has been a cathartic experience and a community blessing. The community and the convening attendees are quite diverse, and the conversation created a space for those diverse voices to be able to share their thoughts openly with accepting listeners. In parallel, the event team and volunteers worked collaboratively together while showing love, support, appreciation, and grace, to produce such an event where attendees can openly collaborate and build trust amongst each other to strengthen the project and movement.
Illuminating the path to success
Two substantive goals were achieved with the convening that was put on by the National City / SE San Diego team. First, a community dialogue that has been moving in a fragmented way, was unified and amplified. Community members, other community based organizations, and government partners who have been talking about the project via their own respective lens, vocabulary, and experience, had a chance to be united and merge their dialogues on this project into a larger community/regional movement.
Secondly, the team was able to get additional, meaningful feedback from attendees regarding the project. The core team had considerations on capacity building and how to advance the project from conversations in November 2023. The convening and breakout charette ensured those previous conversations were inclusive of and engaged the community. This is crucial, considering incoming state and federal resources to advance this movement towards a realized, tangible vision.
The National City / SE San Diego team have made leaps and bounds to build, cultivate, and grow a movement and partnerships to advance their project of redressing past harms and taking down a divisive highway. On the horizon, the team plans to continue outreach to the community and expand its partnership to other government entities, especially with events such as its recent Freeway Fun Day on October 12, 2024. Additionally, the core team traveled to Washington, DC from October 16-19, 2024, to reconvene with their peers for some peer learning, in addition to engaging with Congressional offices to not only socialize the project and movement, but also nudge federal action and support for the project. In the months and years ahead, the community will continue to work with government partners and other stakeholders to realize resources, finalize and execute an action plan to realize the vision of the community that takes down the divisive highway, develop a community space for the community and its culture to thrive, and expand their movement to support peer communities across the San Diego region and beyond.