Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Neighbors hire Aguirre to fight Jacobs Center

Don't want parolees nearby

Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation
Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation

In a deal that helps the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation at Euclid and Market, San Diego County is buying some of the center’s excess acreage to the east, with plans to tear down the Harriet Tubman-Cesar Chavez Community Center and build a $74 million Live Well Center on that site and four adjacent parcels.

On Tuesday, the county board of supervisors voted 5-0 that their project would have no net impact on the neighborhood, which would wrap up the environmental effects study but for one complication: some of the neighbors have retained attorney Michael Aguirre to challenge the environmental impact report in what may be the start of a fight.

Though Aguirre’s letter has a technical, environmental perspective, arguing car trips and green house gases, Aguirre sounds a different battle cry in a phone interview.

Sponsored
Sponsored

“To tear down a symbol of two people who were instruments of unity in this community is thoughtless and insensitive,” Aguirre says. “To use taxpayer dollars to bail out a nonprofit set up by an affluent foundation is really questionable.”

The county also committed Tuesday to paying $1.7 million for the five parcels held by a limited liability corporation, West Side Creek. The limited liability corporation’s head is Reginald Jones, who also heads the Jacobs center. When the Jacobs family set up the foundation that was recognized by the IRS in 1989, they bought 60 acres of land near the intersection of Market and Euclid streets. The foundation promised to turn the land over to the community. About 40 acres of that land remain with the foundation.

The Jacobs foundation planned to fund the establishment of well-functioning community groups and the things neighborhood centers bring. But the foundation always had an exit planned. Meanwhile, the Market Street center is deeply in debt and has had internal shake-ups as a result.

The county is buying four of those acres for its Live Well Center, which will house the county’s health and human services offices for behavioral health, the family resource center, public health nurses and the county’s probation services.

County officials say that the new center will include a large community space — larger than the Tubman-Chavez center — in the building they plan to put in. They will consolidate other probation offices including one from Bay Boulevard in Chula Vista, a juvenile office and some personnel from the downtown office into the four-story, 80,000 square-foot building. The probation department supervises people with misdemeanor and felony convictions.

Of the 80,000 clients nearby, most receive at least one of the services that will be offered there, county officials say. Many of the probation department clients live within two miles of the proposed offices, officials say. It’s close to a trolley stop. They are predicting that around 600 people will come to the building each day, and of those, 50 will be people coming to the probation offices.

But people in the neighborhood worry that moving services for parolees and probationers will simply anchor the community to poverty and crime.

“It’s not the kind of place that attracts development and other employers, and the jobs that do come with it are not for people from the neighborhood,” Aguirre says.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

City Lights: Journey Through Light & Sound, Hotel Holiday Tea Service

Events December 7-December 11, 2024
Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation
Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation

In a deal that helps the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation at Euclid and Market, San Diego County is buying some of the center’s excess acreage to the east, with plans to tear down the Harriet Tubman-Cesar Chavez Community Center and build a $74 million Live Well Center on that site and four adjacent parcels.

On Tuesday, the county board of supervisors voted 5-0 that their project would have no net impact on the neighborhood, which would wrap up the environmental effects study but for one complication: some of the neighbors have retained attorney Michael Aguirre to challenge the environmental impact report in what may be the start of a fight.

Though Aguirre’s letter has a technical, environmental perspective, arguing car trips and green house gases, Aguirre sounds a different battle cry in a phone interview.

Sponsored
Sponsored

“To tear down a symbol of two people who were instruments of unity in this community is thoughtless and insensitive,” Aguirre says. “To use taxpayer dollars to bail out a nonprofit set up by an affluent foundation is really questionable.”

The county also committed Tuesday to paying $1.7 million for the five parcels held by a limited liability corporation, West Side Creek. The limited liability corporation’s head is Reginald Jones, who also heads the Jacobs center. When the Jacobs family set up the foundation that was recognized by the IRS in 1989, they bought 60 acres of land near the intersection of Market and Euclid streets. The foundation promised to turn the land over to the community. About 40 acres of that land remain with the foundation.

The Jacobs foundation planned to fund the establishment of well-functioning community groups and the things neighborhood centers bring. But the foundation always had an exit planned. Meanwhile, the Market Street center is deeply in debt and has had internal shake-ups as a result.

The county is buying four of those acres for its Live Well Center, which will house the county’s health and human services offices for behavioral health, the family resource center, public health nurses and the county’s probation services.

County officials say that the new center will include a large community space — larger than the Tubman-Chavez center — in the building they plan to put in. They will consolidate other probation offices including one from Bay Boulevard in Chula Vista, a juvenile office and some personnel from the downtown office into the four-story, 80,000 square-foot building. The probation department supervises people with misdemeanor and felony convictions.

Of the 80,000 clients nearby, most receive at least one of the services that will be offered there, county officials say. Many of the probation department clients live within two miles of the proposed offices, officials say. It’s close to a trolley stop. They are predicting that around 600 people will come to the building each day, and of those, 50 will be people coming to the probation offices.

But people in the neighborhood worry that moving services for parolees and probationers will simply anchor the community to poverty and crime.

“It’s not the kind of place that attracts development and other employers, and the jobs that do come with it are not for people from the neighborhood,” Aguirre says.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Barrio Logan’s very good Dogg

Chicano comfort food proves plenty spicy
Next Article

Tuna within 3-day range Back in the Counts

Mind the rockfish regulations
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader