Tag: success

Reclaiming a city park from gangs, drugs, crime.

For many years, Teralta Park in San Diego’s City Heights neighborhood was a place you might want to avoid. Drugs, gang activity and fights were too common.

Yesterday, when I visited Teralta Park to watch the Fern Street Circus, I saw lots of kids at play in the sunshine. I observed families at picnic tables, friendly games at basketball courts and a happy, active playground. What happened?

I learned from community leader Edwin Lohr that what happened is many people became passionately engaged. Community meetings and concerns turned to action.

New lighting has been installed. New benches now invite a stroll through the park. The playground is newly painted with bright colors. An incredibly positive community mural has been painted along one long wall.

Workers in the San Diego’s Parks and Recreation Department saw how the community had a new passion for their neighborhood park, and became passionate, too. During my visit I saw no weeds, no trash, just green grass, flowers and smiles all around.

It was great to see how this spacious public park–the only such park built over a major freeway–is now a welcoming retreat where people want to relax and recreate. I guess the not-so-secret formula for Teralta Park’s reclamation is people caring, and doing.

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The world’s No. 1 tennis player from Balboa Park!

Did you know one of the best players in the history of tennis made Balboa Park her home?

Maureen Connolly grew up in San Diego and played at the Balboa Tennis Club. (Which recently celebrated its centennial.)

“Little Mo” would go on to win nine major singles titles in the early 1950s, and would be the first woman to win the Grand Slam. She was the number one ranked female tennis player from 1952 through 1954, and was also voted female athlete of the year from 1951 to 1953!

Should you visit the Balboa Tennis Club, you’ll see a special tribute to Maureen Connolly outside their Pro Shop. I took these photos during a walk through the Morley Field Sports Complex a few weeks ago.

Incidentally, did you know tennis phenom Michael Chang, the youngest man in history to win a singles major, also made the courts in Balboa Park his home?

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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!

Exhibit celebrates San Diego aviation pioneer.

Did you know the world’s first ever controlled glider flight took place in Otay Mesa? This important late 19th century breakthrough, which preceded the invention of motorized airplanes, was the achievement of John J. Montgomery.

There’s an exhibit at the San Diego Air and Space Museum that explores the life of Montgomery and his important contributions to aviation history. Photographs, ephemera, rare documents and a video tell his story. I noticed the display today when I visited the museum in Balboa Park.

I immediately took interest because I have visited the impressive monument to Montgomery’s first controlled heavier-than-air flight. It stands upon a hilltop south of Chula Vista in West Otay Mesa. A couple years ago I blogged about the Montgomery Memorial and posted information and photographs here.

One thing I was surprised to learn while watching the exhibit’s video is that a movie was made in 1946 about John J. Montgomery’s history-making flight. It’s titled Gallant Journey and stars Glenn Ford!

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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!

Joe Musgrove “It’s Our Time” mural!

The 2022 San Diego Padres are on a roll!

First our team eliminated the New York Mets from Major League Baseball’s playoffs, and last night the Pads did the same to the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers!

A new mural has popped up in San Diego, at the intersection of 7th Avenue and Island Avenue, depicting ace pitcher Joe Musgrove, who started the deciding games in the two postseason series so far. His red ears are a bad omen for would-be opponents. The street art states: “It’s Our Time!”

San Diego baseball fans are feeling it!

The cool spray paint art was created by Ground Floor Murals, who’ve produced great Padres murals all over the place! This particular mural was sponsored by the Downtown San Diego Partnership Clean & Safe program, and WestBrew, a brewery lurking behind that wall.

Next conquest . . . the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Championship Series!

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Padres playoffs: Hungry For More!

Excitement is running high in San Diego! The playoffs begin this evening!

The San Diego Padres are going up against the New York Mets. The pitching match-up for this first Wild Card game: Yu Darvish vs. Max Scherzer. Two of Major League Baseball’s best.

Will the Pads handle the Mets, as they did during the regular season?

Our team has the talent. The arms. The bats. (And we have baseball’s best fans.)

We’re hungry for more!

Here are a few photos that I’ve taken while walking around San Diego, to get the juices flowing…

Time to Shine!

Sky’s the Limit!

Let’s Go Padres!

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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 legacy honored at Mission Bay.

A plaque by the Mission Bay boardwalk honors the legacy of a man who was an inspiration to many.

Ken “SAWMAN” Sawyer III is remembered as one who lived life to the fullest and left us a legacy of laughter, love and compassion…

I noticed this memorial plaque last weekend while walking near the boat rental dock of the San Diego Mission Bay Resort.

May we all be remembered for having such a positive influence.

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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!

An ordinary guy in San Diego thanks Peter Seidler.

All of San Diego is buzzing with excitement. Something truly extraordinary is now happening in our city. Millions of ordinary people–like me–are feeling the electricity.

San Diego Padres owner Peter Seidler is someone I’ll probably never meet. He’s someone millions who live in San Diego will never personally meet.

Thank you Peter Seidler for making the Padres instant World Series contenders.

Thank you for millions of sudden cheers, smiles, high fives, great days. Thank you for all the precious lifelong memories that are surely coming. Thank you for fresh feelings of hope–a sustained anticipation for tomorrow . . . the next game . . . the next series . . . the next October.

Thank you for strengthening a diverse city’s sense of unity. Thank you for reinforcing a feeling of pride enjoyed by millions who live in San Diego.

Thank you for all the lives that will be enriched and brightened.

Parents, their children, their grandchildren and countless generations will remember. And celebrate.

Lastly, thank you from a blogger who loves the Padres. Yesterday, as I listened to the game, I experienced goosebumps.

I’ll probably have more goosebumps this afternoon.

Time to shine!

GO PADS!

Many hands raised at Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon!

Hundreds of hands rose skyward in triumph at the San Diego Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon this morning!

At the downtown finish line, a huge crowd of spectators and supporters encouraged the runners as they approached the end of their successful race!

Arms waved, hands shot up victoriously, fists were raised, feet danced. Friends and family shouted, took photos, celebrated, hugged.

Watching the spectacle, one felt a rush of joy and elation. Before your very eyes, you could see limitless human possibility.

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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!

Inspirational street art at Allied Gardens school!

Look at all the inspirational street art painted in Allied Gardens, just outside Stephen C. Foster Elementary School!

The artwork on several electrical boxes was painted by Mindful Murals, whose positive messages inspire and motivate students at a variety of schools around San Diego.

Colorfully written outside Foster Elementary are the words Creativity Is Contagious…Pass It On. To encourage learning, there are also images of a pencil, a palette, a book and a computer, a question mark inside a light bulb, and the mathematical symbol for pi.

As I walked through Allied Gardens this past weekend, I was excited and pleased to happen upon this great Mindful Murals art!

Three years ago I was given a cool tour of their motivational art at Edison Elementary School in City Heights. See those photos here!

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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!

Lawyers Club of San Diego at the History Center.

A new exhibit opens in March at the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park. It’s titled To Advance the Status of Women in Law and Society: Lawyers Club of San Diego at 50 Years.

Yesterday, during a visit to the History Center, I enjoyed a preview of the exhibit, which then was almost complete.

Displays filled with photographs and detailed descriptions explain how over the years women have fought for equal rights and opportunity in California, and San Diego in particular.

I learned how Clara Shortridge Foltz, the first woman to pass the California bar in 1883, helped lead the fight for the women’s right to vote in California.

I learned how gender bias in the San Diego legal community, right up into the 1970s, made it hard for women attorneys to gain employment.

I also learned how one woman achieved unique success. Madge Bradley, who was appointed to the San Diego Municipal Court bench in 1953, was the first woman to serve on a judicial bench in San Diego County.

When Madge Bradley retired, there again were no women on the bench, and only 24 women practicing law in all of San Diego County. So six female lawyers, who sought to challenge gender bias in their profession and elevate the status of women, started the Lawyers Club in 1972.

Over the decades, the Lawyers Club of San Diego has helped to greatly advance the cause of women, and equal rights, not only in the legal profession, but throughout society.

But there is still work to do. For several decades women have graduated from law school at the same rate as men, but they still make up a minority of judges.

One display explains how to make change happen: by voting, advocacy, speaking out, raising awareness, leadership, finding allies, and giving back.

In 2022, the Lawyers Club is celebrating their 50th Anniversary!

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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!