Self-Improvement Project Launched in Southeast S.D.

Organizers of the Save Our Children and Community Campaign in Southeast San Diego called the group’s door-to-door informational drive Sunday a success.

Parishioners from more than 50 churches fanned out into their communities after morning services to deliver pamphlets about job training, housing assistance, health care and drug counseling.

The effort was led by the Rev. Willie E. Manley, president of the Metropolitan Fellowship Foundation in San Diego. It marked the beginning of what the nonprofit group hopes will be a communitywide campaign to improve the quality of life in Southeast San Diego, said Manley, who is pastor of the Greater Life Baptist Church on Derby Street.

About 15 members of his church spent early Sunday afternoon talking with residents of about 25 homes in the surrounding neighborhood, Manley said.

“No one seemed in a hurry to finish,” he said, adding that the personal effort generated strong interest in the community.

Residents seemed very receptive, Manley said, but “only time will tell how successful our going out today was.”

The foundation plans to spend today surveying church members to see how many participated, he said.

The ultimate measure of the day’s success, however, will be in the number of residents who call the churches and referral agencies for help.

Affordable housing and the drug problem in Southeast San Diego are at the top of the foundation’s priority list, Manley said.

The community has the city’s highest crime rate and the largest number of police officers patrolling its streets, according to police. In January, police stepped up law-enforcement activities in response to an increase in drive-by shootings. In the last two weeks, seven suspected gang members were arrested on suspicion of shooting four people in Logan Heights.

Putting more uniformed officers on patrol and countering the drug problem, particularly through youth education programs, are two of the department’s top goals, Police Chief Bob Burgreen has told residents.

The foundation, which includes members of the clergy, and business and professional people, hopes to bring about change by working with the community, said Frank Jordan, spokesman for the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People in San Diego.

Replacing dim street lights with brighter bulbs in high-crime areas of Southeast San Diego would go a long way toward making the streets safer, he said.

The yellow lights are intended to help astronomers on Mt. Palomar see stars light-years away, Jordan said, but people are afraid to walk the streets because they can’t see well, Jordan said, adding:

“There’s got to be some common sense here.”