Lincoln Park turns out for SDPD block party

Dacia Russell takes any opportunity she can to meet the San Diego police chief, or her rank-and-file employees.

So it was she found herself outside Lincoln High School Saturday along with her 7-year-old granddaughter, Myah, who was working on a strawberry snow cone at the Better-a-Block party.

“This is the second one I’ve been to,” said Russell, an administrative assistant at UC San Diego. “They are trying to upbuild the community, which is very important. There’s so much division between the community and the police department and this makes for a more open dialogue.”

Hundreds of people attended the Better-a-Block party along South Willie James Jones Avenue, where police showed off some of their coolest equipment and worked to recruit community members to their department and volunteer patrols.

Grantham Rafeal of Spring Valley and Robin Dunn of Lincoln Park, both 18 and on the hunt for careers, hoisted SWAT gear over heads and onto their shoulders before affixing the helmet atop their heads.

“I want to be a cop and protect the community from people who do bad things,” Rafeal said after lifting off the protective vest and other equipment. “I want to be in SWAT when I grow up.”

The block party, the third to be hosted by the One San Diego nonprofit group, featured a variety of community groups handing out informational brochures and local leaders urging people to stay involved in their community.

Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman said events like the block party allow her and her staff to mingle with residents in casual settings, when people aren’t calling police to report a crime or resolve some dispute.

“This lets people look past the uniforms and see that we’re just people,” she said between greetings from new and familiar faces. “Public safety is a shared responsibility. This is about enhancing our current relationships and fostering new ones.”

Ashley Stevens of the Elementary Institute of Science was spreading the word about her nonprofit organization, which runs after-school programs and weeklong camps that promote science and technology to middle- and high-school students.

“What makes us different is it’s hands-on,” said Stevens, a program assistant who attended the institute as a teenager. “We have no textbooks.”

On the display table were owl “pellets,” dissected and encased in frames for easy view. “They’re able to see what’s in the ecosystem, what the owl eats and how they interact with everything around them,” Stevens said.

In the street where parents typically drop off students on school-day mornings, Celia Calleros Lirio and Lucero Garcia were among a dozen or so Lincoln High students painting a giant replica of a hornet on the asphalt.

Garcia prevailed in a school-wide contest to design the logo.

“When my art teacher told me about the competition I took it way too seriously, and here I am,” said Garcia, a junior. “I took it as an opportunity to make a mark on the community.”

The school mascot was surrounded by a baseball, football, soccer ball and, most important to Garcia, a bright yellow light bulb.

Asked about the significance of the light bulb alongside the other items, Garcia did not hesitate. “It represents new ideas and new thinking,” she said. “It’s very useful to learning how to be a good human.”