2016 June-July - Rolando Community Council

Volume 9, No. 4
June-July 2016
ALL-COMMUNITY ICE CREAM SOCIAL
By Rene Sheldon
The Rolando Community Council’s (RCC) June
Official Annual Meeting traditionally is an allcommunity celebration and ice cream social. Join us
on Tuesday, June 21 beginning at 6:00 p.m. We
will be gathering at the United Domestic Workers
Community Hall at 4855 Seminole Drive (previously
the United Methodist Church).
There will be heaps of ice cream and toppings to
assist you in creating a most delectable delight. You
won’t want to miss out on this chance to meet new
neighbors and see old friends.
RCC members will be voting
on new officers for the RCC
board.
Open seats are
president, second vice
president, treasurer, secretary
and director. Check the RCC
website www.RolandoCC.org
for information on the
candidates. To vote you must
be present at the meeting and a 2015-16 paid member.
PASCHA GERLINGER RECEIVES
COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD
By Jan Hintzman
It was a grand moment at the Rolando Street Fair
— time to announce this year’s recipient of the Doris
Perry Award for Community Service. Who would it
be? (Drum roll, please!) The awardee of 2016
is…..Pascha Gerlinger!
In her typically humble fashion, Pascha was
surprised, very surprised. Fellow Rolandians were
not. For many years, Pascha has been a real team
player, supporting the work of the Rolando
Community Council and promoting the Rolando wayof-life in so many ways.
For four years, she managed the vendors for the
street fair. You may not realize it, and maybe, at the
outset, she didn’t either. It’s a very big job, requiring
control of a staggering quantity and variety of details.
Pascha also manages the distribution of The Rolando
News by our many dedicated volunteers. Did you ever
wonder how the News reached your doorstep? Thank
you, Pascha.
The wider community also benefits because of
Pascha. She is a valued volunteer at the nearby San
Diego Center for the Blind on El Cajon Blvd. where
she assists in their store selling products to aid
visually impaired individuals.
Before settling in Rolando with her husband David
Clarke in 2002, Pascha was something of a globe
trotter. Her parents traveled extensively, following the
jobs of her engineer father. During a stint in
Continued on page 5
Rolando Community Council Events
RCC Community Meeting* | Tuesday, June 21 | RCC elections and Ice Cream Social | Community Room,
United Domestic Workers | 4833 Seminole | Begins at 6:00 p.m.
Rolando’s 90th Birthday Bash | Saturday, August 6 | Clay Park | 3:00 – 7:00 p.m.
*New location & time
Details soon www.RolandoCC.org and Rolando Community Council Facebook page
www.RolandoCC.org
Page 1
CLAY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL WORKS TO EXCITE STUDENTS
By Aimee Lee Cheek
It may seem impossible to match the energy level of
the kids at Clay Elementary School as they dash
around the playground. Impossible, that is, until you
are sent to the principal's office.
Dr. Tina Rasori, animated, enthusiastic, bubbling
with projects and ideas, and the Clay teachers work
toward a deceptively simple goal: "to get students
excited about coming to school each day."
Clay, with 330 students in kindergarten through
fifth grade, continues to be a sort of miniature United
Nations. They come from "all over the world," Dr.
Rasori points out, including Somalia, Cambodia,
Russia and Mexico. Succeeding retiring principal
Valerie Voss last fall, she found a skilled staff and well
-organized school. To surmount language barriers, not
only teachers but also pupils who have become
proficient in English help those students who are not.
Since the beginning of the school year, she reports, 75
students previously classified as English language
learners have been reclassified as English speakers.
Background, extensive experience and scholarship
prepared Tina Rasori for the exacting task she faces.
While growing up, she enjoyed working with children
as a baby sitter and volunteer. Her father was a
teacher for 36 years who retired the year she entered
the profession. She taught for 12 years at Jackson
School in City Heights, which became Fay School
when it was moved to 52nd Street. All the while, she
attended night classes that led to her doctorate from
University of California at San Diego's teacher
education program and an administrative credential.
For 18 months, she worked with a 750-pupil school in
Chula Vista before returning to San Diego Unified last
July. Her doctoral dissertation explored how to create
teacher-leaders as agents of change, research that
shapes her approach to her own leadership of Clay
School.
The personalized curriculum aims to "meet
students where they are," she says. Writing projects
set out to help students become writers exploring
what shapes their own identity; the mathematics
program not only poses a problem but asks how it can
be solved. The science standards currently emphasize
content, but next year will focus on the processes of
scientific and engineering thought in an inquiry-based
curriculum. Next year, too, in a special program for
the Crawford cluster, Clay will equip each student
with a computer to be used in school and at home, to
continue learning after school hours.
www.RolandoCC.org
Besides
the
excellent art program
under the direction of
teacher
Christina
Snell, who last year
designed, and had
students execute, the
sparkling mural at the
Clay school entrance,
current after-school
enrichment programs
offer six different
clubs,
wi th
15
students in each.
Programs
lasting
eight weeks explore,
r e s p e c t i v e l y , New Clay Principal Dr. Tina Rasori
engineering,
yoga,
coding, chess, gardening and Spanish. Another series
began after spring break. In addition, first graders
learn to swim while fourth and fifth graders take
physical education classes at the Kroc Center.
Mentors, tutors, student teachers and art assistants
complement the staff through partnerships with UC
San Diego, San Diego State University, the Kroc
Center, the Sunrise Optimist Club, and other
organizations.
Regular coffee chats with parents, costumed kids
on Wacky Wednesdays, 200 guests during Read
Across America week, a booth at the RCC Street Fair,
tours at the end of the year: it all takes a lot of energy.
Fortunately, Dr. Tina Rasori has a special energy
source — "getting each student excited about coming
to school each day."
June-July 2016, Page 2
MINIDORMS AGAIN IN THE NEWS
By Jan Hintzman
Once again, the College Area goes to City Council.
Once again, the issue is the negative impact of
minidorms. Previous Council actions have not been
effective in curtailing the disruption caused by
minidorms in the single family neighborhoods
surrounding San Diego State University.
It is increasingly obvious that minidorms have
become a commercial enterprise. The College Area
Community Council has determined that one in five
minidorms is owned by someone who possesses
multiple minidorms. Sixteen of these owners have 514 minidorms each, dominating some streets. All of
this takes place in an area zoned for single family
residences.
In actuality, the estimated number of minidorms
near SDSU is 806 — about 20% of the houses in the
College Area. An increasing number are super-sized,
with 5-10 bedrooms, converted from three and four
bedroom houses.
The objectives of the ordinance proposed by
Councilmember Marti Emerald are to assure that
minidorms are consistent with laws governing single
family residential zones and to reduce the
commercialization of housing in the College Area.
The request is to establish a Single Family Housing
Impact Overlay Zone. It would require a Conditional
Use Permit for the construction or modification of
any house that would result in five or more
bedrooms.
Additional regulations address
conversion of common living spaces into bedrooms
(a practice seen in minidorms), parking congestion,
and enhanced enforcement of city ordinances
relating to noise and nuisance behavior.
Is Rolando safe from the incursion of minidorms?
Not at the moment. But the proposed overlay zone
extends down to University Avenue, protecting
Rolando neighborhoods from becoming the next
area targeted for minidorm conversions.
On April 11 the overlay zone proposal was heard
by the Rules Committee of the City Council. The
Committee voted 4-1 to forward the proposed
ordinance to the City Attorney’s office for analysis
with direction to report back to the Rules
Committee in three months.
This is an issue that needs watching in Rolando.
www.RolandoCC.org
June-July 2016, Page 3
www.RolandoCC.org
June-July 2016, Page 4
Pascha, contined from cover
Venezuela, Pascha was born, one of twins. After
completing her studies, she became an associate
director of book production for publishers Harcourt
Brace. Her process-checking tasks took her to China
to resolve production issues for elaborate pop-up
books, like a heralded edition of Alice in
Wonderland.
We are so happy that Pascha found her way to
settle in Rolando. We celebrate this woman who
freely shares her many talents.
Flanked by Councilmember Marti Emerald and longtime
resident E.T. Perry, Pascha Gerlinger expresses surprise upon
receiving RCC’s Perry award for community service. (Photo
credit: Jolyne L. Harris, PhotOptions. www.facebook.com/
PhotOptions.)
www.RolandoCC.org
June-July 2016, Page 5
WE ARE ROLANDO BECAUSE WE GIVE
By Jordan Marks, 2015-16 RCC President
Thank you, Rolando, for the opportunity to serve our community on the Rolando Community Council
(RCC) for the last two years. As a new neighbor in 2014, I welcomed the chance to become part of our amazing
community in a more meaningful way. It gave me an opportunity to give, but in the end, I was the one that
received the most.
Together, we welcomed new neighbors, new roads, and new restaurants to Rolando. We hosted the 20th
Annual Rolando Street Fair, welcoming more than 10,000 attendees. Our monthly meetings give Rolando a
voice. We added to our online presence with a Facebook account.
Our community continues to thrive thanks to the countless neighbors who volunteer to serve on the RCC
Board every year, clean up our neighborhood with the Community Improvement Team (CIT), and host
outstanding events as part of our Community Events Team (CET). We have wonderful volunteers who unite
our community through an extraordinary neighbor-delivered newsletter, and others who lead independent
projects like efforts to protect our canopy trees and acorn lights, and to provide meet-ups for stay-at-home
moms. Invaluable support comes from our 9th District City Council office and San Diego’s police officers and
fire fighters.
I encourage you to continue to make those extra efforts that build a stronger Rolando. When we all give,
Rolando flourishes! Thanks to all who worked with me. This has been an unforgettable experience. It was an
honor to serve Rolando, a community I love.
www.RolandoCC.org
June-July 2016, Page 6
CIT CORNER
By Bob Scott, Team Leader of RCC’s Community Improvement Team
The Community Improvement Team (CIT)
continues to make our community shine. New
workers are always welcome.
Clean up: On April 23, we sponsored an event to
pick up trash and trim brush, trees and weeds in the
open area where an informal path leads from Clay
Park to Revillo Way. The vegetation served to hide
illicit activities in an area prone to occupancy by
vagrants. With the cleanup, the CIT and residents
hoped to deter occupancy and illicit activities.
Although the morning started with light showers, that
didn’t stop volunteers from coming out to lend a
hand. EDCO donated a 40-yard bin. Who would think
that the volunteers would succeed in nearly filling it?
A shout-out to Brenden Bandi who brought the area
to the attention of the CIT.
Others who pitched in
included Ken Seabrook (who also provided THE BIG CLEAN-UP. Pascha Gerlinger (foreground) and other
refreshments—thanks Ken!), April Bandi, Adam and CIT volunteers clear brush and trash from walkway near Clay
Kristin McLane and family, Pascha Gerlinger, Steve
School. (Photo credit: Bob Scott)
La Certe, Paul Beiley, Brett and Melanie Knight and
family, Jessyka Heredia and Theo, and me.
themes and names coming! I‘ve received a few ideas
Catwalk Naming Contest: Please keep the from interested residents. Ballots will be available to
select a theme and eight names at the June RCC
meeting. I’m envisioning that there will be about a
half dozen themes from which to choose.
Help plants thrive on Lerida-Marraco
Walkway: With the help of some lucky late season
showers, most of the native plants installed by the CIT
in early March as part of its catwalk beautification
project seem to be taking hold. We planted 20 1gallon containers along the foot of the retaining wall.
We’ve lost only three, which we plan to replace. If you
walk or live near the walkway, let’s help the plants get
established by giving them some water—at least until
the next rainy season, when they should no longer
need watering and will thrive on their own with what
nature provides.
Utility undergrounding around Seminole
Drive: We are awaiting details from the city on how
the historic acorn-style lamps could be expanded to
this section of Rolando when utilities are
undergrounded. But we do know there is a cost. A
heads-up to you who already have acorn-style lights:
when undergrounding comes to your area, retaining
the historic lighting will not be automatic. Acorns are
replaced with cobra lights unless the community pays
the added cost of the historic lighting.
www.RolandoCC.org
June-July 2016, Page 7
ROLANDO WILL MISS NINA’S BOOKS
By Aimee Lee Cheek
It's always a bit sad to close the cover for the last
time on a really good book. It's really sad to close
the door definitively on a really good bookstore.
The many friends of Nina's Books are saddened by
its closing after operating for a quarter century in
the mall at 6165 El Cajon Blvd.
Nina Weber tempted readers with shelves of new
and looks-like-new novels, children's literature,
how-to volumes, and scholarly and travel books
placed each morning on the sidewalk near the
entrance to her shop.
Once inside, it was almost
impossible not to find in the 5,000-book inventory
a mystery or a classic for oneself or a gift for a
young reader in the family circle. Sometimes a
student would wander in, fatigued from trying to
read an assigned novel online, and explode with
gratitude to find the hardback or paper version—at
half the cover price and the option of returning it
with half his money back—solid in his hands.
When Nina, 68, learned the mall management
was upping her rent at the expiration of her lease at
the end of April, she struggled with her decision.
Finally, she decided that staying on was
impractical. She will donate what remains of her
inventory to local libraries and our neighborhood
alternative school.
She tells long-time customers, as she told a San
Diego Union Tribune reporter, that she has no
regrets. "You know when you're ready, and I was
just ready," she said. "I'm okay."
"Never Judge a Book by Its Movie," Nina Weber advises. After
running a bookstore for 25 years, she should know.
Nina's Books enticed customers with colorful sidewalk display.
(Photos: Jolyne Harris, Photoptions. www.facebook.com/
PhotOptions)
www.RolandoCC.org
June-July 2016, Page 8
COMINGS & GOINGS
Bea Miller turns 99! While Bea Miller hasn’t lived all of her 99 years on Matero Drive in Rolando, she
did raise her three children here and still resides in her family home. Bea was a pioneer in building the
Rolando we enjoy today. She was a founder of the Rolando Woman’s Club, which was the precursor of our
Community Council, and one of the moving spirits launching Rolando’s commitment to community. Thank
you and congratulations, Bea!
The Rolando News. Planning for professional publication of The Rolando News continues. We
anticipate our last entirely home-made issue will be August-September. We look forward to the new
opportunities and urge you to submit ideas and articles you'd like to see in print in The News!
Our Rolando Community turns 90! And to mark the creation of our once-distant subdivision out in
undeveloped “rolling hills” 90 years ago, RCC is planning a party August 6 in Clay Park, 3:00-7:00 p.m. Mark
the date! Watch for details on our Rolando Community Council Facebook page and on our website
www.RolandoCC.org. Come celebrate!
Enhancing Clay Park. Since its formation in 2014, the Clay Park subcommittee has worked closely with
the Recreation Department to plan improvements to Clay Park. Our councilmember Marti Emerald continues
to actively seek additional funds to augment the $150,000 settlement monies for the impacts of BLVD63,
which cover only about a quarter of the estimated cost for the proposed improvements.
NEW BUSINESSES, NEW ADS
By Pascha Gerlinger
Let’s welcome these new businesses to Rolando. Check out their ads in this issue and stop by to say “hello!”
Duet Coffee is an elegant and serene espresso bar at 6526 El Cajon Blvd. For owners Esther Kim and
Simon Lee, opening up their own coffee shop is a dream come true. The name came from the idea of a duet in
marriage and because Esther plays the piano. The coffee comes from Temple Coffee Roasters in Sacramento
and is brewed by a 12-hour drip method. There are samples of various delectable teas, also from Temple
Coffee Roasters, on the front counter where you can sample their aroma before ordering. They offer organic
milk, almond milk, and soy milk at no extra charge. Duet also sells pastries. Almond croissants are the best
seller and they will soon be offering waffles.
2 Brothers Restaurant at 6548 El Cajon Blvd. is a Mediterranean restaurant owned by two brothers,
Ofer and Amir Grissaro. It is a family-style restaurant that offers a patio for outdoor dining. The best sellers
are falafel, shwarma, and the Israeli salad. Their pita is imported from Israel and they offer a variety of beers.
This is a family business; their mother trains the cooks to make sure the food tastes just right. The brothers
have created a restaurant that is so comfortable, that all can enjoy a home-cooked meal as though they were
eating in their own home.
www.RolandoCC.org
June-July 2016, Page 9
NEIGHBORS AT WORK
Many neighbors have small business operations based in Rolando, and they provide a variety of services.
Take a look below at the skilled neighbors who offer services you might need. Consider them when you are
looking for help. RCC members are welcome to submit their information free of charge by emailing copy to
[email protected].
Aleah Cohen — Teen Babysitter. Energetic, responsible and fun. CPR and First Aid certified. Available to
babysit for your children. (619) 246-7993
Aron Oakes – Acorn Garage Doors. Installation, repair and service of garage doors and garage door
openers. License #897261. Neighborhood references. (619) 218-1581.
Brenda King-Kapalla — Integrative Fitness Nursing. Licensed RN fitness expert. Maximize fitness
goals, reduce your waistline, and restore health. New: Gentle Fitness Classes, B12 shots, Lawn Yoga.
www.IntegrativeFitnessNursing.com (619) 200-1911
David Clarke Design — Custom residential landscape and garden design (specializing in droughttolerant and native CA plants). Member, Association of Professional Landscape Designers
[email protected]. (619) 787-0686. www.davidclarkedesign.com
Jeff Wilson — Wilson Woodscape. Full service landscape construction company specializing in decks,
fences and patio covers. License #945974. (619) 838-1398. Check us out on Google+.
Jolyne Harris — Jolyne L. Harris Photography — PhotOptions. At your location within San Diego
and portable studio available. www.facebook.com/PhotOptions [email protected] or call (619) 204-2323
M. Meador — Credentialed Art Teacher. Summer Schedule available for Alcohol Ink Classes. No
drawing ability or experience necessary. Create fabulous, brilliantly colored artwork. Adults only. Other
classes by arrangement. (619) 286-0198
Tim Heasman — Interior/Exterior Painting. Twenty-three years in Rolando. Lic #718508. Many
references. (619) 886-9369 [email protected] or www.createcolornow.com
www.RolandoCC.org
June-July 2016, Page 10