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Photos: Barrio Logan at the center of high-profile politics

Barrio Logan residents walk past columns covered with murals through Chicano Park under the Coronado Freeway bridge near Newton Avenue. The park was created after the bridge cut the community in half and residents pressured the government to give them some green space.

Barrio Logan residents walk past columns covered with murals through Chicano Park under the Coronado Freeway bridge near Newton Avenue. The park was created after the bridge cut the community in half and residents pressured the government to give them some green space.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Tucked away, Barrio Logan is not frequently part of the land-use disputes that roil San Diego City Hall. But now the neighborhood is at the center of a fight that pits the City Council and environmental health activists against the business establishment and the city’s mayor.

Robert Martinez

Barrio Logan resident Robert Martinez, 18, spent much of his childhood living inside his Newton Avenue house on a breathing machine instead of playing outside because of pollution coming from “Master Plating” which was next door.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Cuicani Villegas

Barrio Logan resident Cuicani Villegas, 4, gets a hand with her inhaler from her mother, Eva, in front of her Barrio Logan home, next door to Carlson & Beauloye, an industrial hard chrome plating company.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Georgette Gomez

Environmental Health Coalition community activist Georgette Gomez walks along Newton Street in Barrio Logan past the PraxAir factory. The group is supporting two measures on San Diego’s June ballot that would require a separation between businesses and homes in the area’s neighborhoods.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Barrio Logan

The City Council majority and environmental activists say measures are needed to safeguard the health of residents. But the Chamber of Commerce and mayor say the measures would chase businesses out of San Diego.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Barrio Logan

“This is a fight to right the wrongs that have been done to Barrio Logan for years,” Councilman David Alvarez says. “This is a working-class neighborhood whose voice in the past has been drowned out by people who have lobbyists and consultants.”  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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