By Jason Frye, HTC Chair
The need for community is the most valuable lesson of the last several years.
Through our epidemiological isolation, and through the contrivances of incentivized polarization and division, we find ourselves not only realizing the need for community, but most importantly witnessing its power.
For years the Hillcrest Town Council (HTC) came together to provide a voice for the residents of much of the 92103 zip code. We have held community forums, performed acts of service, and been the locus for which we can communicate directly with our elected officials.
Unfortunately, the HTC was not unphased during the pandemic. We found ourselves losing the attention of the neighborhood and not serving the needs of the community as well as we had done at our peak.
If you have not heard of us, then this speaks to the deficits that the new and current Board of Directors are working on.
We are even bringing in some old faces from when we were at our best. Community organizer and LGBTQ San Diego County News Community Editor Benny Cartwright has filled a vacancy and brings with him a dynamic energy and well-established connections that can help us remedy our evaporation.
Currently, we are in talks on how to revitalize and re-establish ourselves. These talks have ranged from the extensive to the more expedient (dissolving and reforming under a different name).
While the level of activity the HTC has demonstrated recently has been a bit of a decrescendo, the needs for the HTC have ballooned.
We have a crisis involving the unhoused on our streets, feelings that our elected officials are not responsive to our needs, apprehension at the way the neighborhood is changing (from a variety of trajectories), powerful desires to feel connected to our neighbors, and of course, knowing that you are an integral and influential part of the best neighborhood in San Diego.
If you care about Hillcrest, regardless of your postal address; if you find yourself feeling a deep-seeded need to do something; if you have always wanted to get involved with something that matters, we need you.
Our monthly community meetings are the second Tuesday of every month at 6:30 pm. We currently meet at AXIS Studios (the building that is home to AWOL bar) at 1475 University Avenue.
Please contact us at hillcresttc@outlook.com to get involved or be added to our email list to learn about more.
