By Dianne Anderson

Every neighborhood knows what their community wants and needs. Some are more concerned about crime, some focus on beautification, while others just want their potholes fixed.

In Janette Mckaig’s Muscubiabe neighborhood, their association residents got very involved to oppose a structure they felt would change their neighborhood for the worse. Environmental concerns also bring their members to the city council podium.

“I don’t look at that as being political. It’s just we are representing the people that you’re [city council] supposed to be representing. We are just asking for services to protect the community that we pay for,” said McKaig, outgoing president of the Neighborhood Association Council.

Neighborhood Associations also come together for community cleanups regularly, such as the Del Rosa area, but mostly the members decide priorities. In the past, she said some association members seemed a bit timid in voicing their concerns.

“But I think moving forward that we feel like if something is affecting our neighborhood, we should have a voice,” she said.

Since coming on as president, she has grown the associations and is collaborating with Uplift San Bernardino, which she said is a great partner to help recruit more interest.

After attending a Leadership Academy program in Long Beach, she was inspired by their great example of what associations can accomplish with funding from the city. But, she was disappointed that they could not get funded from San Bernardino after COVID hit.

Some projects went unfinished. One of her projects was a four-way stop in her neighborhood that has had several accidents.

“I wanted to put flashing lights on the stop sign to maybe save somebody’s life someday. They said the lights were sitting waiting to be approved, but that person got let go. I don’t know why it didn’t go through,” she said.

For the year ahead, the associations are reaching out to get more community involvement, particularly for the Terrace West Neighborhood Association that was led by Charle Jacobs, who passed away last year.

“We were heartbroken to hear that. That was awful, she’s done so much. The only reason there probably is a grant going through is because of her persistence,” McKaig said. “We’re going to start rehab on Nicholson Park, there was some vandalism going on.”

California Gardens was also deactivated a while back, and she would like to see that association restart.

Over the past several years, she has been encouraged by police response times under Chief Darren Goodman. On the first Saturday of each month, police representatives come out to hear community concerns and problems.

“A lot of people I talk to are very impressed,” she said. “We hold those meetings at the Garcia Center, and association presidents come together. We usually have one police representative give an update. We also invite speakers and nonprofits if they have something to share.”

Whatever issue or differences, she said a lot of people work tirelessly to help their community.

“They’re out there volunteering their time, their only purpose is to pass it down to the kids and grandkids, but they want a better community for everybody,” she said.

Carlos Teran, who ran his Ward 6 association for the Mt. Vernon area for many years, held out as long as he could to keep meetings going. He would still be willing to help someone interested in taking over the responsibility of leading the association.

While at the helm, the association was active until COVID-19, and participation dwindled. He works full time in refuse, has a family and also takes care of his disabled ill father.

These days, he doesn’t see the level of local energy of even a decade ago, like what the late John Griffin brought to the community. He always walked the area, beating the bushes to get services to the Westside. Griffin, past president of the Delmann Heights Neighborhood Association, died in 2017.

“He was a very charismatic speaker, he was really good at it, he also was a motivator encouraging people to step up. He was more like a copilot,” he said.

Back in the day, he said the squeaky wheel got the oil. Community volunteers with the association would speak out to get issues addressed, like adequate lighting to prevent crime and blight, and also help with potholes.

He said there is still a lot of illegal trash dumping in the empty lots.

The other day, he passed by the “upper bench” area and Nicholson Park, and remembered the dedication that Charle Jacobs tried to bring to the bench area.

He said it looks bad, and all the resources seem to go to the north end of the city.

“A lot of the fruit trees that she planted have dried up, it just didn’t get any water. They actually cut off the water, there’s no grass. The homeless have occupied that piece of the city park for a while,” he said.

One reason he thinks there’s a damper on community involvement is just by watching the behavior of the city council.

“Everyone has ego problems on the dais, the community doesn’t want a part of it. You hear fireworks and the grand finale is everybody cutting each other’s throat,” he said.

Before his association was deactivated, he tried to get people to step up, but no takers. To this day, he hasn’t changed his phone number, and still gets complaints at all hours, which he forwards to councilmember Kim Calvin.

Callers usually want to stay anonymous to avoid retaliation from drug activity, too many unregistered cars or expired tags. He misses the days when the association got things done and made a difference.

“You love your community. You love where you live,” he said. “I think we got issues addressed that people would see everyday on the Westside. They felt accomplishment knowing that they complained about it, and the city said they were going to fix it, and they fixed it.”

For more information, see https://www.sbcity.org/about/neighborhood_associations