By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – The Downtown San Diego Partnership at its 30th anniversary celebration honored Laurie Black on March 14 with its Founders Award, citing her successful efforts to promote construction of a downtown library and the downtown baseball park, and her ongoing campaign for solutions to homelessness.
Black, who was president of the organization from 1997 through 2001, has continued to be active in a variety of civic roles including as a San Diego Unified Port Commissioner from 2007 through 2009 and as a board member of the Centre City Development Corporation, now called Civic San Diego, from 2010 to 2012. She is a congregant at Beth Israel and has been a supporter of the Hillel houses at UC San Diego and at San Diego State University.
All this civic work is in addition to her professional life as president of LJ Black Consulting and CEO of RS Lawrence Development.
In a March 29 interview, Black expressed the conviction that the 18 cities and the county government have the staff and the wherewithal to solve the homeless problem in the greater San Diego region, but lack the will, vision, and organization.
Black suggested the process should be similar to that of building a business: “You create a mission, and you get going. You say to the county, ‘we want services.’ You say to the cities, ‘We need housing, buildings and land.’ Everybody must do their share.”
“Somebody needs to step up and bring it all together,” Black said. “We need to make it a number one priority, region wide. We should build facilities with state and federal monies to house people who are unhoused and to provide services.”
Pulling everyone together in such a manner was how the Downtown San Diego Partnership created its “clean and safe” program in downtown San Diego, she said.
At one time, the City of San Diego had only two workers in charge of cleaning 275 blocks of downtown. “We took over the city job of cleaning downtown and we also put safety ambassadors on the street. We had 40 people on the streets cleaning. We enhanced city services. We paid for flowers in the boxes, and for cleaning up cigarette butts in the Gaslamp Quarter following the weekends. Property owners joined the effort, contributing $30 a year.”
Currently, she said, the governments of the 18 cities and the County of San Diego take an uneven, piecemeal approach to homelessness. Obstacles to a unified approach are political jealousies and territorialism.
Accomplishment comes “when we put our ego in the closet and just make things happen,” Black said. “Nobody should take credit, which doesn’t matter. What matters is that in our heart we know that we did right.”
“Somebody needs to have the will to stand up and get political entities to gather together,” she said. “It is the most important priority for our region. … Especially now that I have four grandchildren – Julia, Ramona, Parker and Hudson – I’m most concerned about the future.”
Black commended San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria for advocating the reinstatement of conservatorships for unhoused people with mental diseases. Black’s late brother, Brian Ross Black, had suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and benefitted from court-ordered medication and treatment. Following treatment he worked for the Mental Health Association of San Diego, and was honored by the Combined Health Agencies of San Diego with its 1996-97 Volunteer of the Year Award. He continued to serve the mental health community until an auto accident in 2008 ended his life at age 45.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com