Tag: community

Smiles at City Heights Multi-Cultural Festival of Love!

Today the City Heights Multi-Cultural Festival of Love was held in Officer Jeremy Henwood Memorial Park. The annual event roughly coincides with Valentine’s Day.

City Heights is one of San Diego’s most culturally diverse neighborhoods, and the heart-filled festival celebrates all the many people who make this community so vibrant!

Not only was there a diversity of entertainment on the main stage, but one could see in the crowd so many unique lives, backgrounds and stories.

During the festival everyone came together, making new friends, enjoying the unity that is found in community.

The parade through City Heights that preceded the festival ended with the Hoover High School marching band taking the stage. Then, at eleven o’clock, the festival officially began with opening comments by those who’ve made this wonderful event possible.

I stayed for a good while, looking at cool cars, exploring the booths of local organizations, and enjoying performances by Majesty in Motion, the Vietnamese Youth Dance Group and the Fern Street Circus.

Drummers Without Borders then invited kids in the crowd up onto the stage to learn how to drum and play tambourine! Then, with the help of the San Diego Guild of Puppetry, many participated in a small parade through the festival!

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Festival of Love Parade through City Heights!

Before the start of today’s City Heights Multi-Cultural Festival of Love, there was a parade!

Smiling faces headed west down University Avenue, starting from The Neighborhood Cafe and Youth Print Shop. They arrived at Officer Jeremy Henwood Memorial Park near the City Heights Library just in time for the Festival of Love to begin!

The parade was a celebration of the City Heights community’s rich cultural diversity. And, of course, a celebration of love!

Surprised onlookers, standing on the sidewalk and in front yards, were urged to follow the parade to the fun Valentine’s Day themed Festival of Love!

I first spied the parade as it headed along University Avenue. I saw the Hoover High School marching band, lowriders and classic cars, the Fern Street Circus, and other local organizations from around the neighborhood.

My camera captured the excitement!

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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 Twitter!

San Diego photos honor Black History Month.

An exhibit is now being readied at the San Diego History Center for Black History Month. Two museum walls will feature photographs selected from the History Center’s archives.

When I asked about this installation today, I learned that the centerpiece will be Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s visit to San Diego back in 1964. Many additional photographs concern citizens in our community who dared to advocate for equal rights.

About a third of the photos were up this afternoon. The exhibit should be completed sometime this week!

Protesting racial segregation in front of Woolworth’s storefront in downtown San Diego in 1960.

Racial equality sit-in at SDG&E in 1963.

Board of Education racial integration proponents disrupt meeting in 1968. A group of parents fought against inequalities for students of all ethnic backgrounds.

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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 Twitter!

Use Your Voice murals in North Park!

A wall in San Diego’s North Park neighborhood encourages creative people to Use Your Voice. Four small murals dedicated to artivism can be viewed on the west side of Nomad Donuts. Look north up Illinois Street from University Avenue and you’ll spot these artworks.

Use Your Voice is a project of Sounding Boards. Learn more about their past projects and mission by clicking here.

This special wall will host rotating murals. The first artists, whose work you see above, are Josue Baltezar, Kenda Francis, Mary Jhun, and Jon Pucci.

Previously, a very different mural decorated this space! See it here!

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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 Twitter!

A colorful Lunar New Year in City Heights!

City Heights is possibly San Diego’s most diverse neighborhood. So it isn’t surprising that people from many walks of life have converged in City Heights for the 2023 SD Lunar New Year Festival!

Today I headed to east San Diego to experience the weekend event. This celebration of Tết is presented by Little Saigon San Diego. It’s free to the public at Officer Jeremy Henwood Memorial Park.

I wandered about looking at traditional displays. I sat down to watch several excellent cultural performances on the big stage. The audience applauded energetically and often.

I read that this popular event is helping to raise funds for the creation of a Boat People Garden mini park, to be built somewhere near the festival site. I attempted to gather information about the coming mini park, but all I could ascertain is a groundbreaking ceremony will take place this Wednesday.

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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 Twitter!

Filipinos of South Bay Exhibit in Chula Vista.

The current exhibition at the Chula Vista Heritage Museum celebrates the life and history of Filipinos in the South Bay.

Display cases are positively overflowing with photographs and ephemera. Moments large and small are collectively remembered. You see the hopes, struggles, victories, family life. There are memories of community gatherings and festivals.

Words and images tell what it was like as a Filipino to go to school or church, run a business, serve in the military, or work to improve the life of the community. Perhaps you share these experiences.

I peered into the display cases and found so much life.

You can see that life, too, throughout 2023. Visit the Chula Vista Heritage Museum, which is located inside the Chula Vista Public Library Civic Center Branch.

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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 Twitter!

Flowers along Secret Stairs in Valencia Park!

Did you know there are Secret Stairs in Valencia Park, a community in southeast San Diego?

The neighborhood stairs span two blocks, from Churchward Street to Las Alturas Terrace. (Google the stairs and you’ll see their location on Google Maps.)

A year ago four artists came together to beautify the somewhat neglected stairs. They embellished them with colorfully painted flowers and insects, plus a mural!

This article explains all about the Secret Stairs of Valencia Park and their new artwork. Herbert Delong, Shannon White, Isabel Garcia and Shirish Villaseñor were the artists. You’ve seen the work of Isabel and Shirish elsewhere on my blog. Together they call themselves Arte Atolondrada.

In the upcoming photos, I walked the Secret Stairs from south to north. If the steps seem a bit dirty and leafy, keep in mind San Diego has been experiencing winter storms.

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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 Twitter!

All People Touch the Earth in Normal Heights!

Thirty-year-old public art in Normal Heights still shines with wisdom and love.

All People Touch the Earth is a 310-foot-long entryway and seating wall north of the Adams Elementary joint-use park, at the corner of School Street and Mansfield Street. It was created in 1992 with the help of over 900 community members, including school children, parents, and staff from John Adams Elementary School.

Hand prints and bits of tile and other objects that were placed in wet concrete accompany wise quotes. All float among the planets of our solar system!

A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.

People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

Love your neighbor as thyself.

He who travels slowly to his destiny arrives whole.

Good Fortune

The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil.

Locks and keys are not made for honest fingers.

All the sounds of earth are like music.

Music is the universal language of mankind.

Colors speak all languages.

Hitch your wagon to a star.

It is there that our hearts are set. In the expanse of the heavens.

He who seeks to understand the universe understands nothing.

For every person who has ever lived there shines a star.

One can see the universe in a grain of sand.

Live long and prosper.

It takes a whole village to educate a child.

Talk does not cook the rice.

It is good to warm one’s self by another’s fire.

Three years old habit lasts till eighty years old.

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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 Twitter!

Gratitude for the Padres blood drive.

Many in San Diego will benefit from today’s Padres Winter Blood Drive at Petco Park.

A fleet of bloodmobiles was parked in Gallagher Square, and those generous people who came out to donate blood were keeping everyone busy.

A gentleman at the sign-in table said the San Diego Blood Bank was having a pretty good turnout, even with today’s rain and wind.

I know that many in our community are grateful for this initiative of the San Diego Padres!

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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 Twitter!

Remains of ostrich farm in University Heights.

In 2022, the University Heights Historical Society placed a historical marker at the intersection of Park Boulevard and Adams Avenue. The sign stands near the remains of the entrance to the long-vanished Harvey Bentley’s Ostrich Farm!

The City of San Diego describes Historical Landmark No. 346 as: Mission Cliff Gardens Cobblestone Wall and Related Features.

One can see similar stone posts a couple blocks to the east at Trolley Barn Park. Cobblestones structures (and images of ostriches) are frequently seen throughout University Heights!

The sign explains:

This was once the entrance to Harvey Bentley’s Ostrich Farm, established in 1904. Nearby are the remains of a waiting station and drinking fountain for the #11 streetcar that brought scores of visitors from downtown to University Heights to see the ostriches as well as Mission Cliff Gardens and William Hilton’s Silk Mill. The streetcar was part of the 165-mile San Diego Electric Railway network, established in 1892 by visionary entrepreneur John D. Spreckels.

Here are two public domain images of the ostrich farm…

Just for fun, I photographed an ostrich painted at Yipao Coffee, a short distance south on Park Boulevard…

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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 Twitter!