Teralta Neighborhood Park Praises ‘Unity in the Community’

By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO – Teralta Neighborhood Park is remarkable in several ways: 1) It is built right over the Interstate 15 freeway between Orange and Polk Avenues in the City Heights neighborhood.  2) It now boasts a 270-foot long, 7 ½-foot high mural titled “Unity in the Community,” which features faces, activities, and landmarks of the diverse City Heights neighborhood.  3) It serves a largely immigrant community in which over 30 languages are spoken, with the mural title in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Somali.

Dan Tomsky, 70, was the volunteer manager for the 8-year-long community mural project, which is located between the El Cajon Boulevard and University Avenue exits of the Interstate 15.  A member of Tifereth Israel Synagogue, Tomsky said he drew a great deal of personal satisfaction from this tikkun olam project.  It had been conceptualized during a previous 4-year California Endowment-funded Teralta Area Safety Initiative.

At the dedication of the large art work on Saturday, March 25, community members, volunteers, and representatives of numerous organizations that had input into the content of the mural were joined by past and present officeholders including two who are Jewish: former San Diego City Councilwoman Marti Emerald and the current Councilman from the 9^th District, Sean Elo-Rivera, who also serves as president of the San Diego City Council.

Given funding, permit and installation challenges along the way, Tomsky told San Diego Jewish World that bringing the mural to completion was a matter of “passion, persistence, and patience.” Frequent meetings were held with the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) which owns the wall on which the mural was painted and with the San Diego City Parks and Recreation Department, which grants permits for art and culture appearing in public places in the city.

“There was deep community engagement,” Tomsky said.  “We worked closely with the surrounding schools – Central Elementary, Wilson Middle School and Hoover High School—and with local businesses, the business association, neighborhood resident group and churches.”

Tomsky praised volunteers from such groups as San Diego Youth Empowerment, San Diego Cultural Arts Alliance, Reality Changers, Rotaract, the City Heights Town Council, City Heights Community Development Corporation, the Cesar Chavez Service Club, and his pre-retirement employer, the Institute for Public Strategies.

“All these folks were brought into a process that involved surveys and focus groups and then taking it all back to the different organizations,” he said. There was consensus that the mural should be uplifting and reflect the diversity, cultural harmony and progress within City Heights.

“We wanted to reflect the aspirations of the community, the range of cultures, ages and even abilities,” Tomsky said.  In the basketball scene in the middle of the mural, there is someone with a wheelchair.  We wanted to reinforce education, so we depict graduates from Hoover High School in their caps and gowns.  The Weingart Library [named for the late Jewish philanthropist Ben Weingart] is also portrayed.  There are kids of different colors playing sports.  There is alternative transportation, including an old streetcar and the 235-bus line.  There’s a colorful bird, a phoenix, the symbol of San Diego Youth Empowerment, whose youth adopted the park and were there Sundays doing table games, sports, and clean-ups.”  {See video taken by Tomsky above.}

Three people were the principal artists: Christopher Kinney, who is known as Sake; Melody de los Campos, and Kal (Gmonik). With most people volunteering, expenditures were for power washing, removal of ivy, plastering, primer, paint, incidental supplies, and artist stipends.  Tomsky estimated that over the 8-year-period, the mural cost $30,000.  If this were not a volunteer project, it would have cost much, much more.

Volunteers gave hundreds and hundreds of hours, he said.

Because the art reflect the diversity and aspirations of the community and so many people and organizations have participated in the process, Tomsky said he anticipates  vandalism and graffiti will be kept to a minimum.  The City Heights Town Council has volunteered to be responsible for the mural’s ongoing maintenance.

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Donald H. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com