Tag: community

K-pop dancing in the rain in Balboa Park!

An unexpected K-pop dance party in San Diego’s always surprising Balboa Park?

Take a look!

This afternoon the PRISM4TIC’S Pajama Party had dozens of K-pop fans dancing in the Plaza de Panama. Visitors to Balboa Park who watched or wandered nearby were invited to join!

The dancing brought a community of local K-pop lovers together. Many immediately recognized the randomly played songs and jumped onto the outdoor dance floor.

PRISM4TIC is a San Diego-based Kpop Dance Cover Group.

Every walk through Balboa Park brings new surprises. Even on a drizzly January afternoon!

…

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Art at Wellness Garden in Southeast San Diego.

A beautiful new Wellness Garden opened last year in Southeast San Diego!

The sunny, park-like space, filled with colorful art, is located outside the new Southeastern Live Well Center in Valencia Park. The garden can be freely accessed by anyone via a pathway on the south side of the large health and social services facility.

A plaque near the pathway indicates that the garden’s public art was created by Jean Cornwell Wheat. It’s titled Spirit of the Community featuring Bird Song. Additional information is provided:

Commissioned; painted and mosaic embellished totems; concrete, poured resin, lime stones.

Artist Statement: These totems represent the community cultures of African American, Mexican/Chicano, Latin American, Filipino, Polynesian, and Asian. The final meditation totem is the artist’s personal statement of peace, love and unity. The centerpiece, Bird Song, represents the Kumeyaay Nation’s symbol of the oak tree. Images on the four sides symbolize earth, air, fire, and water.

Across the Market Street from the Southeastern Live Well Center, at the Malcolm X Branch Library and Performing Arts Center, a beautiful mosaic was created by the same artist. You can see it by clicking here.

…

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Stepping Beyond at the Southeastern Live Well Center!

The Southeastern Live Well Center opened last year in Valencia Park, an urban community in Southeast San Diego. The impressive facility, which provides a wide range of health and social services, features diverse works of art, both inside and outside.

Take a look at the inspiring bronze sculpture that stands at the front entrance of the Southeastern Live Well Center. Stepping Beyond is dated 2023.

The artist Manuelita Brown’s statement is on a plaque at the base of the sculpture. Her words include: This sculpture signifies a human being pressing beyond current circumstances, leaving one space toward another while moving an obstacle out of the way… Eight medallions representing the flora of cultural identities in the community adorn the banner to represent our diversity and commonality.

You can see more very fine sculptures by local artist Manuelita Brown by clicking here and here and here and here!

(I walked around the perimeter of this large San Diego County facility last weekend and discovered a Wellness Garden filled with very colorful artwork. I’ll blog about that shortly!)

…

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

A little known, unmapped park in La Mesa.

There’s a small park in La Mesa that is little known and unmapped, even while hundreds of cars pass it by every day. This park doesn’t appear on Google Maps. There is no record of it on the internet. (Until now!)

According to a plaque near the center of the grassy park, embedded in a boulder among plants and flowers, this beautiful place is called George Felix Memorial Park.

It is located where La Mesa Boulevard meets University Avenue.

The old plaque reads:

THE GEORGE FELIX MEMORIAL PARK

DEDICATED IN MEMORY OF

GEORGE FELIX

1934 – 2002

IN RECOGNITION OF HIS COMMITMENT TO THE CITIZENS OF LA MESA THROUGH HIS TIRELESS EFFORTS FOR THE BETTERMENT OF THE COMMUNITY

DEDICATED JULY 17, 2002

Walk through the park and you’ll find this bench:

Plants donated by La Mesa Beautiful, Inc. 1987

A beautiful rose at George Felix Memorial Park in La Mesa.

…

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Photos of annual MLK Parade in San Diego!

Kindness. Smiles. Laughter. Compassion.

This morning I saw this and more as participants prepared for the 42nd Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade along San Diego’s beautiful Embarcadero.

Every year the MLK Day parade along the waterfront is a big deal. Thousands come out to watch community groups celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. and his enduring message of human dignity, equality and love.

Dancers, marching bands, students, veterans, beauty queens, activists, club members, law enforcement, politicians, businesses, car lovers, charitable organizations . . . all would move proudly down Harbor Drive.

I took photographs of everyone coming together before the start of the parade.

…

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Lemon Grove Women’s Club history remembered.

An inspiring exhibit at the Lemon Grove Parsonage Museum celebrates friendship and community service. It’s titled Marching Forward.

The history of the Forward Club of Lemon Grove (later known as the Lemon Grove Women’s Club) is detailed with photographs, newspaper clippings and assorted documents. Visitors to the museum can learn about the club’s beginning in early 1913 (when Lemon Grove was a small ranch community) to its “last meeting” in 1998 to its very recent rebirth.

The exhibit describes: The club began, like many of its time, as a place for women to study literature and discuss current events. They didn’t stay inside studying for long; they were soon outside planting trees. In 1922, when the club was just nine years old, they built their own clubhouse… By the 1950s, a time when Lemon Grove was one of the fastest growing communities in the state, the club had 150 members… In 2022 the clubhouse 100th anniversary celebration inspired a group of Lemon Grove women to resurrect the club. They voted to use the historic name, so once again the Forward Club is going about doing good.

Community service that club members have performed over the years include helping the needy, the encouragement of youth, and neighborhood beautification. In addition, cultural events in their old clubhouse brought joy to many.

If you’d like to enjoy a glimpse of Lemon Grove history, and see how a group of pioneering women made (and continue to make) their community a much better place, plan a fun visit to the Parsonage Museum in beautiful Treganza Heritage Park!

…

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Photos of La Mesa Holiday in the Village!

The La Mesa Holiday in the Village event is being held today. I swung by as it opened at noon. The free community festival goes until 9 pm.

I found singing groups, dancers, carolers, Christmas trees, holiday crafts, lots of food, elf hats, and many smiles!

Enjoy these photos…

Young members of Greene Tree Theatre sing together on stage during La Mesa Holiday in the Village.

Greene Tree Theatre youth wow the audience with an energetic dance routine!

Christmas trees and decorations can be found throughout La Mesa’s holiday festival.

Holiday smiles!

Plenty of popcorn!

The Salvation Army Kroc Center had a booth.

The King’s Carolers perform beloved Christmas carols during the holiday event.

Snowmen inside wreaths.

Beautiful winter scene at a vendor’s table.

Caroling on Mt. Helix will take place next Saturday, December 9, beginning at 4 pm.

Is that the Polar Express?

Sentimental Journey performs on a second stage.

Let’s get this party started!

The holiday season is about joy!

…

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Scandal at December Nights? Community tree ignored.

Do you know San Diego has a Community Christmas Tree in Balboa Park?

Few seem to know.

It appears our city’s Community Christmas Tree will be ignored for a second straight year at December Nights. I walked past the tree this evening, and it’s surrounded by vendor tents, all but forgotten.

Some would say this is a scandal.

The tree replaced an earlier Community Christmas Tree that was planted behind the same iron fence in 1981.

The original tree eventually became overgrown and unsuitable for decoration. The beautiful new tree is thriving and certainly large enough for lights and ornaments.

I’ve spoken to various people about this situation (including people who should care), but no one knows anything. Most people, it seems, have very short memories or simply don’t want to be bothered. How sad.

Read more about San Diego’s Community Christmas Tree by clicking here or here.

…

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Sculptures installed at new City Heights cultural center!

San Diego has a new cultural center in City Heights. Columbus Hall, located at 4425 Home Avenue, has recently become a destination where artists and lovers of art can gather.

A sculpture installation around the Columbus Club of San Diego‘s building opened last week. It’s titled Beyond the Anthropocene.

Beyond the Anthropocene is a three-dimensional, sculptural collection that asks each artist to project their idea about “what is next.” Three of the pieces are new. Others were previously located in the sculpture garden that used to be along University Avenue just east of Interstate 15. (You can see blog posts about that past sculpture garden here and here.)

Local artist Jim Bliesner is the curator of Beyond the Anthropocene. The other contributing artists are Karl Gindelberger, Tarrah Aroonsakool, Spenser Little, Marcus Montes, Lionel Delevingne, Dianne Brunner, Randy Lane and Iain Gunn.

Drive down Home Avenue just east of Fairmount and you’ll notice several of the pieces beside Columbus Hall. The extraordinary wire art hanging against the building will undoubtedly catch your eye!

During my visit yesterday, I noted that there was a food truck and picnic table nearby for hungry visitors.

If you’re ever in the area, you definitely want to stop on by!

…

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Jefferson students paint kindness in North Park!

Kindness is action, not just words.

Students from Jefferson Elementary School in North Park have painted several outdoor murals that concern human kindness. They decorate a boarded-up vacant building at the corner of University Avenue and 30th Street.

The colorful artwork was created by kids attending kindergarten through fifth grade.

I spied these murals yesterday as I returned from City Heights, where I visited a new cultural center, which I will blog about shortly.

The Jefferson Action Club loves North Park.

Beautiful mural painted by Jefferson kindergarten students.

Respect the World.

Everyone has a voice!

Hand prints and hearts.

…

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!