Building the Community
City Heights is a vibrant community, but like many low-income neighborhoods, it is burdened with startling health disparities. For example,
City Heights has the highest hospitalization rate for asthma in the county, more than double the rate of North County. Many children suffer from acute symptoms because their houses are infested with cockroaches and mold and because City Heights is the densest neighborhood in the city, with the lowest amount of green space per resident.
Despite a much younger demographic, City Heights has the same hospitalization rate for coronary heart disease as the rest of San Diego County. These disparities can be linked to the lack of opportunities to exercise and the built environment. City Heights has the highest park deficiency rate in San Diego County. The City of San Diego recommends a parks-to-population ratio of 20 acres per 1,000 residents; there are 78,000 residents in this neighborhood and only three small parks, requiring an additional 1,200 acres to address this 200% deficiency. And although more individuals walk as a primary form of transportation, City Heights remains extremely dangerous for pedestrians and has the highest injury and death rate for pedestrians in the County.
Informal surveys of the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) refugee clients found that approximately 2/3 of those surveyed depend on food stamps to cover their entire food budget, even though the Food Stamp Program is designed to be a supplemental food program, not the sole source of a family’s nutrition. For a family of six, that’s approximately $380 per month, or roughly $2 per person per day. City Heights households often utilize all of their income to cover high rent, utilities, transportation and health care costs and are left with little or no cash to purchase food. This seriously limits a family’s ability to put fresh, nutritious food on the table.
City Heights has the highest rate of diabetes-related emergency room discharges in San Diego County, almost triple the number reported in more affluent areas. The high rate of emergency room visits illustrates a serious lack of diagnosis and preventative care.
While City Heights struggles with these issues, it is also a hub of education, entrepreneurship and community-based organizing—strengthened by the diversity of hard working immigrant families who have revitalized storefronts, schools and homes. In fact, City Heights is the only neighborhood in the city (maybe in all of Southern California) with the capacity to serve the multitude of ethnicities that thrive here. From language appropriate health clinics to specialty grocery stores, from churches, mosques and temples to after school sports for Muslim girls, this neighborhood has evolved to meet the needs of low-income people who would have a much harder time getting by elsewhere. Although the hardships of poverty continue to encumber the families that live in City Heights, the community has demonstrated a commitment to developing a healthier, more economically viable neighborhood.